Introduction
Jobs For the Future developed this paper to help colleges improve their ability to provide comprehensive supports. This paper seeks to clarify what it means to offer such supports, share research findings about effective practice, and offer examples of colleges’ cost-effective strategies.
Recommendations
To effectively implement comprehensive support services, colleges must coordinate and collaborate across multiple departments and agencies and must adapt to students’ unique needs. But if they invest time and resources, colleges can ensure that students get off to a strong start, make steady progress, complete their programs, and enter the labor market.
Provide a comprehensive set of supports for underprepared and nontraditional students.
Consider the full range of potential student needs—academic, personal, financial, and other— and offer a mix of services to address them.
Make supports an integral part of the program model.
Just making supports available isn’t enough; the students who most need help tend to be those least likely to seek it out. The range of supportive services should be embedded into the program model.
Develop partnerships to complement college support resources.
Establish partnerships with community-based organizations to provide personal, career-related, and other types of student support.
Coordinate the provision of support services among entities.
Ensure that services are coordinated so that the staff and entities involved are aware of other support opportunities beyond their own.
Communicate the availability of support services to students and faculty.
Communicate with students through a variety of avenues, including orientation, in-class presentations, individual and group advising sessions and electronic messaging.
Reduce barriers to student access to services.
Bring information and nonacademic supports directly to students through classes, orientation, and other activities.
Keep in mind the value of relationships in supporting students.
Help students establish relationships with success coaches, advisors, staff, faculty, and other students. These relationships build connection to the institution and show students that others are invested in their success.
Work to ensure adequate resources to provide support services.
Balance students’ need for individualized attention with group activities, which can reduce costs and foster connections among students.