All students deserve to feel supported and have their basic needs met while striving to complete their education. For example, students shouldn’t have to worry about food insecurity, financial restraints, and housing challenges during their higher education journey. In The Hope Center Basic Needs Survey from 2023-2024, it was found that 59% of students experience basic needs hardships related to food or housing, and nearly 2 in 3 students are unsure of how to receive support. This is where Advocate comes in and allows your team to reach students before they’re in crisis.
As colleges and universities increasingly recognize the importance of addressing students' basic needs, Advocate offers robust features to help your institution provide comprehensive support. Beyond traditional case management, Advocate serves as a powerful platform for coordinating and tracking essential services for students facing barriers to academic success.
This story features quotes from Mariah Lyons, Assistant Dean of Students for Student Support Programs at the University of California Santa Cruz. Mariah and her team have been using Symplicity Advocate for over ten years.
Coordinated Care for Basic Needs
With Advocate's case management capabilities, your team can create a seamless support network for students in need. Staff across departments—residential life and wellness centers—can collaborate on a single platform to address interconnected challenges. This holistic approach ensures that a student facing housing insecurity, for example, can also receive support for related food access or financial concerns.
“There's just so many things that a student might be navigating. Over the years, we have used the picklist--the action items in advocate--to continue to add to that list of different things that we help students with, so we can better track and show how many students are utilizing our services.”
Streamlined Resource Connection
The latest Custom Forms feature makes it easier than ever to gather crucial information about students' basic needs through targeted assessments. Your team can create customized intake forms to identify specific challenges, track interventions, and measure outcomes. Whether it's a food security screening or a housing stability assessment, these tools help identify the right resources at the right time.
Tracking Success and Measuring Impact
Advocate's reporting capabilities allow your institution to track the effectiveness of basic needs initiatives and supportive measures.
"We track how many students secured permanent housing after we worked with them or because of some action that we took... Around 90% of the students that we support with housing-related insecurity issues... have secured housing after we've worked with them."
This data proves invaluable for demonstrating program impact, securing additional funding, and continuously improving services. Your team can identify trends, anticipate seasonal needs, and allocate resources proactively.
Building Community Partners
External referrals become seamless with Advocate. Your campus can build a network of community partners—food banks, housing assistance programs, healthcare providers—and track these connections within the system. This creates a comprehensive support web that extends beyond campus resources.
By implementing Symplicity Advocate for basic needs support, your institution demonstrates its commitment to student success by addressing the fundamental challenges that can derail academic progress. More than just a case management system, Advocate becomes a powerful tool in creating an equitable educational environment where all students can thrive.
"I think one nice thing about Advocate is, it feels like there's a lot of flexibility--the Advocate team has worked with us to make the platform work for what our program is needing as it has grown and changed over time." - Mariah Lyons
