Collaboration on Campus

Ascend has chronicled what it takes to properly support student parents for years, and childcare access is an all-too-common barrier for academic success. A 2020 report showed that more than a third of all student parents who considered stopping taking classes cited childcare as their primary reason why. 

In Los Angeles County, where Ascend is gathering this week for the fourth Forward With Families convening, community colleges are recognizing the unique needs of student parents and taking creative measures to make sure student parents have access to the childcare they deserve as they pursue further education. 

Take El Camino College, which recently announced a partnership with Connections for Children. That partnership offers free on-campus assistance to students who need help finding and paying for childcare, bringing resources directly to parents.

Or Rio Hondo College, which put in years of work that ultimately led to a bond measure passing in 2024 that allowed the college to expand its campus child development center.

Prior to those innovative solutions for student parents, though, there was a partnership paying dividends at the southernmost part of the county.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Long Beach City College wanted to understand how they could best support their student parents. So in 2021, the school surveyed their nearly 40,000 students – a quarter of whom are student parents – and asked what kind of support they needed to thrive on campus. For the student parents, the answer echoed what is true across so many campuses: childcare. 

“I struggle to balance my job and school with my childcare responsibilities,” said one student parent in response to the survey. “I can’t attend any late classes because I don’t have childcare and when I do enroll in late classes I end up missing class and receiving bad grades because of my lack of consistent childcare.”

Support for student parents with children aged 2 to 5 was available through the campus’s Child Development Center. But for those with children who aged out of the CDC, options were limited.

The LBCC administration was determined to change that. 

“We asked, How could we bring additional support on campus?” said Dr. Nohel C. Corral, Executive Vice President of Student Services at Long Beach City College.

They found an answer in a longstanding partnership with Long Beach Unified School District and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Long Beach. There was an existing partnership between the organizations for after school programming, but there was an opportunity to expand and grow that partnership to better serve the LBCC student and, ultimately, the entire Long Beach community.

“We felt like it was our duty to provide a unique opportunity for our community and for these young people,” said Phillip Redd, Regional Director at Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach

Building on the trust and partnership between the organizations, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Long Beach and LBCC teamed up to create the Viking Clubhouse, a free afterschool program for children ages 5 to 18. The program offered extended hours too, accommodating student parents who needed time and space for evening classes or studying after traditional hours.

While both organizations were excited for the launch, they also knew that it would take time and a sustained commitment from all parties to take hold.

“You’ve got to be patient because the numbers were not there that first year, and other organizations might have pulled out,” said Redd. “Partnership is making sure again you’re being consistent, you’re being steadfast, and you’re in it for the right reasons.”

The student parents did come though, and since its launch, the Viking Clubhouse has also expanded its reach, prioritizing both student parents and LBCC staff. When spots filled up, LBCC was ready to make sure that the new offering was helping. The school is committed to collecting data on the experience of student parents – and the results so far have been impressive.

Two years after the launch in 2022, student parents participating in the Viking Clubhouse saw a significant spike in GPA, rising from a 2.86 in 2022 to 3.04.

It’s the experiences of the student parents though that speak even louder to the success of the program. 

“I have been attending LBCC for more than five years and I always dreamed of something like this,” said one LBCC student parent. “I am so grateful for my son to be able to participate in this program.”

The collaboration evident in the LBCC story and the work of campuses across the country speaks to the power of community-private-public partnerships to create innovative, sustainable solutions. Across the country, there are education and employment solutions thriving because of this kind of dynamic partnership.  You can learn more about the latest innovative solutions by checking out these Forward With Families solutions.