CUNY CARES (Comprehensive Access to Resources for Essential Services) is a new model for helping CUNY students find the campus and community-based essential services they need for health care, mental health, food, and housing. By ensuring that students can meet these needs, CUNY CARES promotes the academic success of its students and supports their lifetime well-being and success. It also seeks to repair the profound and ongoing damage that the COVID pandemic has imposed on CUNY students and their families.
In Fall 2023, following more than a year of pilot testing and a comprehensive needs assessment, Bronx Community College, Hostos Community College, and Lehman College in partnership with the CUNY Chancellor’s Office of Transformation launched the CUNY CARES Demonstration Project. After the impact of this three-year demonstration in the Bronx has been evaluated, successful elements will be extended to all 25 CUNY campuses, helping to fulfill the vision of CUNY Lifting New York, the University’s 2023-2030 Strategic Roadmap.
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For more information about CUNY CARES, please email CARES@cuny.edu.
I had a great experience with CUNY CARES. As an international student that just came from abroad, the session I had was very helpful to understand better CUNY and NYC services that I could use. The experience was great, very clear, warm and welcoming.
—Iris L., CUNY student, to CARES navigator
[Lo] assisted me with applying for SNAP benefits, Fair Fares, and obtaining a mailing address through a community organization called P.O.T.S after helping me to find a room. She is a very patient and compassionate person, and she’s knowledgeable about what she’s doing. I would highly recommend [Lo] to anyone at Lehman College who needs assistance with just about anything. She is Heaven sent.
—Shanea, Lehman College Student
Lo (CUNY CARES) and Baraka (Lehman Basic Needs Center) were the first glimmers of hope I felt moving forward with completing my education. ALL my concerns outside of school which could have inhibited me from completing my education were addressed and taken care of. Lo spent the time with me, advocated for me and checked on me. Words cannot express how thankful I forever will be.
–Lehman College student
I was contacted by the SNAP office of Westchester, and I was able to submit the documents and last night I received a letter saying that I got approved for SNAP. I want to thank you for your time and effort and thank you for helping me fill out the application that Saturday morning.
—BCC student to CARES supervisor
CUNY CARES Model
CUNY CARES has six key elements:
#1.
Students Supporting Students
CUNY CARES hires, trains, and pays students to connect their peers with campus and community services. Using the power of peers, these students expand the capacity of existing CUNY services to reach unconnected students and assist them to overcome the institutional barriers to getting help. Read More
#2.
Capacity Building and
New Resources
CUNY CARES supports new staff and helps to build an integrated infrastructure that enables campuses to better serve the many students whose essential needs now often go unmet, including weekend and evening students, student parents, and students with disabilities. Read More
#3.
Community
Partnerships
CUNY CARES works with community organizations to expand resources available to CUNY students. Partnerships with the New York City Health + Hospitals Corporation, Hunger Free America, BronxWorks, and other community providers allow campuses to connect students to specialized assistance and expertise to help students meet their essential needs.
#4.
Faculty
Engagement
CUNY CARES offers training and materials to help CUNY faculty and staff link their students to information, resources, and campus and community services that assist students to meet their essential needs. Read More
#5.
Career Success and Workforce Development
Bronx CUNY students receive training and ongoing support to serve as advocates or navigators. Students gain professional experience that can be applied to their academic field experience, internships, and future employment while they assist their peers and expand the capacity of campus resource centers. Read More
#6.
Evaluation and
Research
Using CUNY data and CARES student surveys, interviews, and ongoing program evaluation, the CARES evaluation team and its campus partners monitor the implementation and impact of the program. The findings from the evaluation will inform the expansion of CUNY CARES to other CUNY campuses. Check out the recently released CUNY CARES baseline report along with its executive summary, which reinforces the importance and urgency of the CUNY CARES demonstration project.
CUNY CARES Gallery
CUNY CARES is Different
CUNY invests considerable resources in serving its students. Most campuses have food pantries, health or wellness centers, mental health counseling programs, financial assistance, and resource centers. Their dedicated staff help many students find the support they need.
But surveys and interviews with students show that many students do not know about these services, report that programs are not coordinated across the problems they face, and that they have trouble getting help when they need it—in the evening or on weekends, for example, or when they are depressed, hungry, or about to be evicted.
By integrating existing CUNY services and those provided by the new CUNY CARES staff, CUNY can begin to meet the reservoir of unmet needs more effectively and efficiently than either campus-based, central office managed, or community care could do on its own.
Resources
If you are a student at Bronx Community College, Hostos Community College, or Lehman College – the three CUNY campuses participating in the CUNY CARES demonstration project launched in Fall 2023 – and you need help finding campus and community-based essential services for health care, mental health, food, and housing, please use the CUNY CARES Navigator Portal.
Any and all CUNY students who need help finding essential services for health care, mental health, food, and housing can take a look at the following resources. We are testing CUNY CARES in the Bronx and hope to bring the model to all CUNY campuses over time.
CUNY CARES and the Strategic Roadmap
In June 2023, CUNY released CUNY Lifting New York, a strategic plan to “transform CUNY into the nation’s foremost student-centered University system by 2030 and intensify its role as an indispensable New York City institution that improves the lives of New Yorkers through public-benefit research, workforce partnerships, economic development, and affordable, top-quality education.” CUNY CARES contributes to this plan and its vision by:
- Strengthening CUNY’s capacity to enroll, retain and graduate New Yorkers facing unmet health care, mental health, housing and food needs, problems that often undermine academic success
- Initiating activities to create cultures of caring on CUNY campuses
- Integrating credit-based courses and certificates on young adult well-being across programs and campuses to support career pathways and link graduates to lifetime employment in the city’s health care and social services sectors
- Forging partnerships with government, health care, social services and others that amplify the public impact of services, research and scholarship and leverage CUNY’s distinctive scale, diversity, and location in NYC
- Engaging academic program faculty and campus leadership to increase faculty satisfaction and confidence in their ability to help their students succeed in school and life
- Creating research partnerships across CUNY and with other academic and scientific institutions to create evidence other universities can use to better meet the essential needs of their students
CUNY CARES News
- CUNY Chancellor Matos Rodríguez Introduces CUNY CARES, an Integrated Program to Connect Students With Essential Benefits and Community Resources
- New CUNY initiative connecting students to social service benefits going unspent (News 12 Bronx)
- Read also at the Longview News Journal
- CUNY prueba en El Bronx un plan para conectar a sus estudiantes con programas de cupones SNAP, vivienda y seguro médico (El Diario NY)
- CUNY Pilots Multipronged Student Support Program (Inside Higher Ed)
- Presentan ayuda para estudiantes tener acceso a servicios básicos (Telemundo 47 Nueva York)
- Cuny lanza programa de ayuda económica para miles de estudiantes (NY1 Noticias)
- CUNY launches new student service (The Riverdale Press)
- Beyond Basic Needs: Exploring the Landscape of Public Benefits Navigators on College Campuses (The Young Invincibles)
- Equity for the next generation at home and around the world (Making Public Health Personal)