The Center for Economic Justice and Action’s UC Essential Needs Consortium has awarded Matthew Landry, PhD, RDN, assistant professor of population health and disease prevention, from the UC Irvine Program in Public Health and Laura Enriquez, PhD, associate professor in Chicano and Latino Studies from the UCI School of Social Sciences a grant to identify and advance promising practices to meet the essential needs of the immigration-impacted UC student population.
The study, titled, “Fulfilling the UCPromISE: Strengthening Access to Essential Needs Services for Undocumented and Immigration-Impacted Latinx UC Student,” will leverage data collected through the UC Collaborative to Promote Immigrant and Student Equity (UC PromISE), a multicampus effort led by Dr. Enriquez.
The student profile among the 10 University of California campuses is immensely diverse, boasting students from various racial backgrounds and socio-economic standings, including first-generation, immigrant, or undocumented students. “However, undocumented and immigration-impacted students face significant economic and legal vulnerabilities that puts them at high risk for unmet essential needs,” says Enriquez. For example, undocumented students are unable to access government nutrition assistance programs and U.S. citizens with undocumented parents might feel hesitancy to access these services due to their parents’ insecure economic position and deportability status, contributing to aggravating their experiences with food insecurity and other crucial unmet needs.
The UCs have implemented a wide range of initiatives, programs, and centers to provide resources to help students meet their essential needs. Yet, there is a limited understanding of the potential unmet essential needs of students who may face unique structural barriers to accessing these campus-based resources.”
– Matthew Landry, PhD, RDN, FAND
This grant will use UCPromISE’s data on undocumented and immigration-impacted Latinx students to work towards two main objectives: first, to examine key factors that affect the utilization of campus essential needs services and second, to collect qualitative data for a case study of UC Irvine’s approach to improve utilization of essential needs services.
The researchers will employ a health equity framework, based on a scientific model to target factors that impact the availability and access to programming and individual agencies to utilize resources. Additional team members include Andrea Mora, Director of the UCI Basic Needs Center and co-investigator, Denise Payán, PhD, associate professor of health, society, and behavior, from the UCI Program in Public Health.
Previous research done on the barriers and facilitators to accessing essential needs resources has been conducted on a macro level but has left out marginalized sub-groups. UC campuses vary in their programs targeting food insecurity for their students. This fact coupled with the potential lack of awareness of these programs, or the social stigma involved in participating in these programs impedes students from reaching out for the help they need.
“The UCs have implemented a wide range of initiatives, programs, and centers to provide resources to help students meet their essential needs,” Landry said. “Yet, there is a limited understanding of the potential unmet essential needs of students who may face unique structural barriers to accessing these campus-based resources.”
