Emergency Aid for Basic Needs is an opportunity for institutional teams to investigate trends associated with offering emergency aid to students. This academy is specifically structured to increase the internal capacity of institutions to build sustainable emergency aid programs, leverage best practices for strategic resource allocation, and maximize educational experiences for traditionally marginalized and under-resourced students.
Teams will participate in five sessions supporting the development of emergency aid plans that prioritize advancing equitable student success for students facing unexpected financial hardships that may serve as barriers to continuing in their educational journeys.
Using a scaffolded approach, each workshop builds on the knowledge and practices of the previous. As a final product, institutions will create and share a living document outlining the action plan of their emergency aid program and collect student-level data for reporting results following a pilot of the program.
Participants will:
Teams of at least 3 key stakeholders from:
Our workshop series consists of five sessions that will guide your institution through the development of a sustainable and effective emergency aid plan.
Our workshops will help you identify best practices for allocating emergency aid funds in a way that promotes equitable student success.
With our sustainability toolkit, you will be able to collect student-level data and measure the impact of your emergency aid program, ensuring it is meeting its intended purpose.
Gardner Institute facilitators will analyze the return on investment of emergency aid for students, focusing on retention rates from fall to spring and comparing the impact of students receiving emergency aid against Pell-eligible students and the entire student body.
Fees are based on undergraduate enrollment as determined by College Navigator. Fees are assessed per institution, not per individual
Undergraduate Enrollment:
The Gardner Institute worked with rpkGroup to design and deploy five workshops supporting the development of emergency aid plans that prioritize advancing equitable student success for African American, Latinx, and Native American students and those experiencing financial hardship. Aiming to connect short-term benefits to students to lasting strategy changes for institutions, the design of this cohort leverages the ground-level knowledge of peers with expert support from the Gardner Institute and rpkGroup. Each participating institution created a team of at least three key stakeholders to attend five workshops and technical assistance sessions. Three of the four institutions that were able to develop and deploy an emergency aid program reported outcome measures back to the Gardner Institute. Their results show the following:
Applications are open for Spring 2025 cohort. You can apply at this link.
Applicants are accepted on a rolling basis; subject to approval. Early registration is recommended. Applications for the next Cohort are to be announced.
Your Institution has the option to create a team or utilize an existing team or committee.
The synchronous meetings last 90 minutes.
Spring 2025 Cohort will be from 2-3 pm ET. Beginning the week of February 12.
Synchronous Meetings: All times are Eastern.
February 12, 2-3 p.m.
February 26, 2-3 p.m.
March 12, 2-3 p.m.
March 26, 2-3 p.m.
April 9, 2-3 p.m.
Depending on the size of your team and how the work is divided we estimate approximately 3 -5 hours per person per week for the 5-week Academy.
You will receive an application confirmation email within 1 week of applying. A link to pay for the academy will be sent to the person indicated on the application. Once the payment has been made you will receive further information from the Academy facilitators. Please contact info@gardnerinstitute.org
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