January 2024

The Hope Center at Temple University is pleased to announce that it has received a grant from Lumina Foundation to create and advance federal policy solutions that support students’ basic needs in higher education. Through spring 2025, The Hope Center will provide educational outreach and technical assistance to policymakers to craft interventions that help students access the financial and non-tuition resources they need to obtain a college degree or credential.

Students need food, housing, child care, health care, transportation, technology, and other essentials to succeed. Yet federal data reveal that 4.3 million students in higher education experience food insecurity, and 1.5 million experience homelessness, which reduces attainment, negatively impacts our workforce, and impedes racial and economic justice. Data from The Hope Center also show that there are significant racial disparities in student basic needs security and that parenting students struggle at exceptionally high rates.

Federal financial aid and competitive grant programs that support basic needs are crucial tools to help students and families afford the cost of college and meet their non-tuition expenses. This grant will facilitate potential enhancements and reforms to these policy levers.

“We are in the middle of momentous change in federal policy, stemming from the most significant overhaul of financial aid since the Reagan era and growing interest among lawmakers to help students with their basic needs,” said The Hope Center’s Senior Director of Policy & Advocacy, Bryce McKibben. “That’s why we are very excited to continue our partnership with Lumina Foundation to explore how federal and national policy can advance systemic and equitable solutions—not just temporary fixes—to the crisis of student basic needs insecurity.”

With the support of Lumina Foundation, The Hope Center will examine the intersections of federal policy and student basic needs within the FAFSA Simplification Act, competitive grant programs like the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) and Basic Needs for Postsecondary Students (“Basic Needs Grant”) programs, Satisfactory Academic Progress policies, and supports for pregnant and parenting students. The Hope Center will routinely engage coalition and policy partners during this project—including co-leading the Federal Student Basic Needs Strategy Group, a coalition of more than 150 national, state, and regional advocates, researchers, and practitioners working to secure student basic needs in higher education across the country.

“This grant will allow Hope to seize this national moment to make higher education more affordable and equitable,” said Dr. Anne Lundquist, Director of The Hope Center. “Students deserve nothing less.”

From the left: Bryce McKibben, Senior Director of Policy & Advocacy for The Hope Center; Jamie Merisotis, President and CEO of Lumina Foundation; Katie Berger, Strategy Director for Federal Policy for Lumina Foundation; Ernest Ezeugo, Strategy Officer for Federal Policy for Lumina Foundation; and Mark Huelsman, Director of Policy & Advocacy for The Hope Center. Taken December 2023 in Washington, DC.

The Hope Center is immensely grateful to Lumina Foundation for its vision and commitment to improving student outcomes and equity.