About The Hope Center for Student Basic Needs

Three in five college students do not have enough to eat or a stable place to live; millions of students experience basic needs insecurity, including a lack of access to adequate housing, food, health care and mental health services, child care, internet connectivity, and transportation. Basic needs security is a social determinant of health and the lack of it hampers postsecondary student success, inhibits social mobility, and deepens inequities. We are changing the unjust status quo.  

Our Mission

The Hope Center for Student Basic Needs at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University is an action-oriented research, policy, and capacity-building center, removing barriers to college student success and well-being through:  

• Research: investigating students’ lived experiences with basic needs insecurity and evaluating interventions  

• Policy: informing and advocating for systemic policy change to make college more affordable and secure college students' basic needs

• Practice: collaborative coaching with colleges, universities, and states on meeting students’ basic needs through systems transformation 

Our Vision

We are researchers, scholars, advocates, conveners, and storytellers who envision a world where basic needs insecurity is no longer a barrier to pursuing and completing college. We take a systems-change approach to creating a higher education landscape where educational opportunity is universal and equitable. 

Our Context

We collaborate, convene, investigate, and advocate within systems shaped by historical and ongoing inequities. These disparities are the result of intentional choices that have concentrated power and resources in ways that disadvantage many students and their families. Our work is rooted in recognizing, challenging, and reimagining these structures to create a more just and inclusive future. 

We work to improve the lives of students in higher education by increasing college affordability and accessibility and transforming educational systems as part of a broader effort to improve our collective well-being. Advancing equity, health, and opportunity in higher education requires repairing harm in community. We are proud to stand alongside those working to make this vision a reality. 

A Note on our Visual Mark

Our visual mark is inspired by Abraham Maslow’s now widely known 1943 Hierarchy of Needs, which is often depicted through the model of a pyramid. The pyramid conjoining the two pillars in our visual mark to form an "H" (for Hope) can also be viewed as an upward arrow, reflecting the continuous striving to meet the needs of all students in helping them achieve their goals.  

"Basic needs security" is a concept that aligns closely with the foundational levels of Maslow's model. The theory suggests that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy, starting from the most basic physical needs to more complex psychological needs. When basic needs are secure, individuals can progress to higher levels of Maslow's hierarchy, such as forming relationships, building self-esteem, and ultimately pursuing self-actualization. Conversely, if basic needs are not secure, individuals are likely to focus primarily on these needs, often at the expense of higher-level pursuits. 

What’s often overlooked is that Maslow drew inspiration from various sources, most notably the worldview and practices of Indigenous cultures, specifically those of the Blackfoot (Siksika) people. In Blackfoot culture, the idea of self-actualization is not just an individual pursuit but is deeply tied to community and collective well-being. The Blackfoot belief system includes a three-tiered pyramid-like structure where community actualization and cultural perpetuity are at the top, above personal self-actualization. This reflects a more communal and interconnected approach to growth and fulfillment. It’s within this worldview that we position our work.