Signs of Growth

I've been a little neglectful in my writing in recent weeks. My side hustle as Women's Basketball coach at my college led to a pretty historic season, and I wasn't able to keep up as well as I'd hoped. But many wonderful things are happening at Western, and as I get back to weekly writing, I'd like to start by sharing a few. It was just last summer we audaciously declared our "movement" (our declaration), and a remarkable transformation has happened since then. We have miles to go, but our explicit mission to combat poverty and to the idea that every barrier that can be removed, should be removed has generated energy and interest. We have presented at conferences (with more upcoming), responded to inquiries from other schools, generated newspaper coverage, we have a TV segment filming tomorrow, and last week our district board wanted to know more about our efforts and how to grow them. I don't know for sure what constitutes a movement, but this seems close...

One of the most rewarding things about the growth in our work has been the connections with other institutions fighting for the same cause. Regular readers are well aware of my admiration for Amarillo College and their Culture of Caring work. We have modeled so much of what we are doing on their work, so I will admit to being a little thrilled when they borrowed an idea from us. The very talented Jordan Herrera credited us as the inspiration for their new "Grab and Go" table for students. My partner Mandy said they named theirs better than we did ( The Bowl), but we all agree food for students is a good thing. The Bowl has been so symbolic of what we are trying to do, so it's wonderful to see it catching on. In fact, I have another college joining me for a conference call this week to talk about doing something similar on their campus. If you are looking for a place to start becoming poverty informed, building community with food seems like an excellent place to start. We are currently doing it with donations only, and it serves as a daily reminder of our mission to meet basic needs so students can change their economic reality.

As I mentioned earlier, I also had an opportunity last week to share with our district board. The words "poverty-informed" aren't in our strategic plan (yet), but the work within our division has drawn attention as part of our focus on equity. If you get time with your board, you must take advantage, and I certainly tried to. As we evolve, I'm trying to learn how to talk about this work in concise ways. I'm very leery it will be perceived as a program or a project, when in reality it is philosophical. So, I shared the following four statements to help them understand our point of view. I told them poverty-informed practice is:

• A mindset that allows us to stand in awe of our students who face the impacts of poverty daily and choose college anyway.
• A form of first choice service that acknowledges the audacious courage it takes to pursue education when even your basic needs are tenuous.
• A commitment to reduce barriers for students, so they may use their education to change their economic reality.
• An intentional choice to love the students we have.

It seemed to land home, and we all had fun laughing at my discomfort with talking about love due to my rather repressed Midwestern upbringing. But I have come to believe love is exactly the right word (More on that), as love implies a level of commitment to students other words simply do not convey. The board was supportive and interested and the questions were good ones. The most unique comment I received was from a long-time board member who told me "I've been listening to you for years, but I think I'm starting to get you." I'll take it! At some point in a movement you need influential folks to buy in, and that day helped. It was also helpful to be able to share with them some clear evidence we aren't just being nice, we are making progress. Our enrollment in courses in my area increased 30% last summer, and 40% this fall. We believe that is directly related to the increased sense of belonging we are creating for students as well as our intense focus on accelerating their progress toward stability. This acceleration shows up in many ways and is a fundamental premise of our work, but the clearest indicator is the growth in Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) among our pre-college students. Last year, students earning a high school credential also earned 111 college credits through contextualized curriculum and activities that focus on CPL. We have already exceeded that number this year and have spring and summer terms to complete. CPL is a key to our poverty-informed approach, because it not only saves money and accelerates progress, it creates belief and increases self-efficacy. Anytime we can do more than one thing at once, we do.

As interest in our work grows and the evidence of success begins to mount, we keep reminding people we aren't just doing the right thing, we are doing the smart thing. A poverty-informed approach isn't just a feel-good tactic, it's a workforce solution in a tight labor market. A poverty-informed approach doesn't benefit some at the expense of others, it allows our students with the greatest barriers to teach us how we need to improve for ALL students. I'm looking forward to sharing what our local news puts together with our student Andrea tomorrow (remember Andrea), and I'm looking forward to continuing to give voice to these people who can teach us so much. Our poverty-informed division (and more of the college every day) exists to move people as quickly as possible to meaningful post-secondary training, so they can change their economic reality. When we achieve that goal, students benefit. But our community also benefits, our employers benefit, and frankly the college benefits. When I think about the success or failure of our movement, the universal benefit is what gives me hope. No matter your point of view or frame of reference, this work matters. Let's get to it!