Spotlighting Data-Driven Action Through the Hope Impact Partnerships (HIP): An Interview with City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Juan Salgado

December 2025

When City Colleges of Chicago fielded the Hope Center’s Student Basic Needs Survey last year, the results were stark: nearly 70% of responding students faced at least one form of basic needs insecurity. For many institutions, insights like these reveal a problem; for CCC, they became a mandate. The college system doubled down on its commitment to making student stability a core part of the educational experience.

This fall, that commitment materialized in Food Security for Life, an unprecedented partnership with city, state, and community leaders designed to bring food access, public benefits navigation, wellness supports, and more directly to campus. Their efforts show what’s possible when data doesn’t sit on a shelf but becomes a catalyst for dignity-centered, structural solutions.

We spoke with CCC Chancellor Juan Salgado about how they moved from data to strategy to implementation—and what other institutions can learn from their model.

What initially motivated City Colleges of Chicago to participate in the Hope Impact Partnerships (HIP) program and field the Hope Center Student Basic Needs Survey in 2024? 

When we first administered the Hope Survey in 2018, the results confirmed what we had observed – that our students experience significant basic need insecurities. Backed by the survey results, we bolstered our comprehensive set of student supports, increasing on-campus free support services such as food pantries and doubling the number of mental health staff, among other efforts. We repeated the survey, and our 2024 results found that 69% of our student respondents reported facing at least one form of basic need insecurity, likely exacerbated by the pandemic. The results reinforced our commitment to providing our students with unparalleled levels of student support and helped to inform our strategic priorities going forward.

How did the survey findings shift or sharpen your understanding of student basic needs at City Colleges of Chicago? 

The survey gave us a better sense of the scale of student need, the specific areas where need was the greatest and validated the sense of urgency we had in this work.  

The data helped to inform our Thrive Strategy, a system wide plan to meet students’ basic needs as a core part of the City Colleges of Chicago student experience. By focusing on five key interventions — food, mental health, technology, housing, and emergency funds — we believe our students will thrive personally and academically, and upon graduation will hold credentials that lead to financial security.  

There was good news in the survey, too. City Colleges students experience anxiety at rates below the national average, which affirmed our investments in expanded wellness services.

Many institutions gather data, but far fewer move quickly from insight to implementation. What helped CCC translate the findings into concrete action? And did you approach partnering with the Greater Chicago Food Depository?

Data should never sit on a shelf – we use data to inform our strategy and to provide feedback on what works and where we should invest our resources.  The survey made clear that our students have significant needs right now and they need us to act quickly. We also believe in the power of transformational partnerships. We built upon a strong existing relationship with the Greater Chicago Food Depository and support from generous funders.  We were able to do that because of the success that we’ve had scaling resources, relationships and supports in the past.     

Both our Thrive Strategy and Food Security for Life initiative come with a robust evaluation plan to better understand and communicate the impact of the work and to continuously improve how we deliver these supports to our students. That in turn will help us make the case for financial support for our student basic needs strategy and for community college students around the country. 

What are you already seeing on the ground since launching Food Security for Life in September?  

Early results are promising. Students in our pilot group are staying enrolled at higher rates than similar students who didn’t receive free meals. Many have shared that having food on campus has eased financial and time pressures, helped them feel more connected to their college, and allowed them to spend more time focusing on school—factors we know support persistence and success. 

The City Colleges of Chicago Foundation, which originally funded the Hope survey, has also focused on fundraising efforts for our Thrive strategy focused on addressing student basic needs. That includes casting a wide net with a public-facing end of year giving campaign underway now, as well as targeted support from larger funders. 

Has this initiative changed the way CCC thinks about basic needs work more broadly? 

Yes. It has supported us in taking a more systems-level approach to basic needs. Instead of isolated programs, we’re building holistic, wraparound support, so students experience City Colleges of Chicago as a place that supports their whole well-being. Through the Food Security for Life initiative and our broader Thrive Strategy, basic needs are becoming a core part of the student experience—not an add-on—and we’re grounding this work in the understanding that stability drives persistence, completion, and long-term economic mobility. 

What advice would you give to other colleges and systems who want to move from basic needs data to actionable, structural solutions? 

It’s important to start using data to make the issue visible—internally and externally. This is where the Hope Survey was instrumental. When people understand the scale of the challenge, it builds urgency and shared ownership. At City Colleges, we have found value in moving into a testing mindset: finding opportunities to embed basic needs supports into our existing systems, piloting new ideas, and paying close attention to how students and our broader community are responding. The data we are collecting now is helping us better understand what works, adjust what doesn’t, and be ready to scale the approaches that show real impact.