The Higher Education Access for Parenting Students Research Initiative works with nonprofits, grassroots organizations, community college and university campuses and systems, and others on projects related to college students who are raising children. The initiative offers technical assistance, evaluation, and consulting services focused on program development, classroom and curriculum strategies, data collection, scaling, and other advising and implementation services.
Dr. Green and her team bring years of experience and expertise in program development, replication and scaling, program evaluation, coaching, and technical assistance to partnerships with campuses and community programs and advocates. This work has included overseeing replication efforts that brought the Keys to Degrees single-parent program model to five university campuses, helping launch the Jeremiah Program in Boston, conducting needs assessment and resource mapping studies and program evaluation research, curriculum development and faculty training and support, and offering expert advising and coaching pertaining to specific approaches, parenting student populations, and program and advocacy goals.
Previous Work:
Dr. Green and her team created the Campus Family Housing Database, a research-based tool that comprehensively identifies colleges and universities in the United States offering students the opportunity to live in college-affiliated housing with children. This tool is intended for use by researchers, higher education administrators, policymakers, and prospective students with children (and their advocates) who are looking for a college or university with family-friendly housing options.
They also created the Find Your Way: Resource Guide for Prospective College Students with Kids, a guidebook series that will offer the first nationally comprehensive study of U.S. programs and support services for parenting students on college and university campuses, when complete. It expands upon the Campus Family Housing Database to include campuses that offer other parenting student support services or programs, but do not offer family housing.
In addition, Dr. Green and her team have turned their research into action by contributing to advocacy efforts in Oregon that led to the state passing a bill to collect and report data on college students who are parents. The bill allows students to identify whether they are parents or legal guardians on forms used annually to collect demographic information at public post-secondary education institutions, including community colleges and public universities. With this data in hand, institutions will have the information they need to provide services like childcare, family housing, or student parent resource centers.
Dr. Green and her team are engaged in multiple policy research and action projects, through which they are identifying multi-level approaches, solutions, and recommendations through student-centered perspectives and family-centered design. In 2020, Dr. Green began a project in partnership with the Urban Institute that holistically identifies policy systems that parenting students encounter and navigate as part of their college experiences. Through this work, they are developing a road map and recommendations for policy reform and cross-systems alignment to address and remediate challenges to navigating these systems. They also work closely with statewide and campus task forces and coalitions pushing for change both on individual campuses and at the systems and state level.
Services:
The research team is well prepared to partner with campus and community partners to provide expert advising, coaching, technical assistance, and consulting services in a number of areas pertaining to parenting student success, including:
- Two-Generation Approaches to Postsecondary Success for Parents
- Family-Friendly Campus Approaches & Initiatives
- Student Parent Programs (Initiation, Development, Evaluation, & Replication)
- Student Records, Data Collection, & Tracking Systems
- Recruitment, Outreach, & Pathways to College for Parenting Students
- Contextualized Approaches for Urban, Suburban, & Rural Campuses & Communities
- Student Leadership, Career Development, & College-to-Career Transitions
- Title IX Training & Advocacy
- Basic Needs Security & Solutions
- Campus Family Housing
- Campus Child Care Solutions & Funding (including CCAMPIS)
- Faculty Training, Curriculum Development, & Classroom Approaches & Strategies
- Informing & Advising Advocacy Groups, Higher Education Leadership, & Policy Makers
- Intersections Between College Access & Success & Safety Net Systems
- Framing Support for Pregnant and Parenting Students in Historical Context
- Elevating Student Voices, Leadership, & Advocacy
They are also able to offer specialized expertise pertaining to specific issues and student populations, including:
- Black & Indigenous Parenting Students, Tribal Colleges & HBCUs & Racial Justice
- Mental Health Issues, Challenges, & Solutions
- TANF, SNAP, & Other Safety Net Program Participation
- Teen Parents/Young Parents
- Single Parent Students
- Parenting Students Who Identify as LGBTQ+
- Justice System-Involved Families
- Engaging Parenting Students in Workforce Development, Community College, Baccalaureate & Graduate Programs
If you’re interested in engaging the services of the Higher Education for Parenting Students Research Initiative, please email wcw@wellesley.edu.
