Lake Michigan College receives grants to strengthen student support

Lake Michigan College has received three grants that total $525,000 to fund initiatives that support the college’s students through mental health support and basic needs support. The grants come from the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential (MiLEAP) and from the Ohio-Michigan (OH-MI) Basic Needs Initiative. Among the initiatives these grants will fund are an expanded campus food pantry, a centralized Community Resource Center, establishing a support infrastructure, and boosting mental health initiatives.

According to an article on Lake Michigan College’s website, Dr. Beverly Walker-Griffea, who serves as the MiLEAP Director, was quoted as saying of the grant funding, “For many students, the biggest threat to graduation isn’t academics — it’s life circumstances. This funding helps colleges like Lake Michigan College put stronger systems in place so students can stay focused on their education and complete their degrees.”

The MiLEAP Barrier Removal Grant: Mental Health, Resource Navigation, and Student Services, which awarded the college with $400,000, will help the college establish a support infrastructure that will allow it to transition from offering students reactive assistance to offering proactive assistance. These initiatives will include the implementation of a new digital platform that will help connect students with available mental health resources before their needs escalate, a new Community Resource Center in a centralized location at the college’s Benton Harbor campus, and the expansion of capacity for the Red Hawk Refuel Pantry.

The college received $75,000 via the MiLEAP Hunger-Free Campus Grants: Expanding Food Access Across All Three Campuses. This grant will provide the college with the means to help students access food. The initiatives it will fund include the installation of food pickup lockers that can be accessed by students outside of traditional business hours; a refrigerated meal pickup system; a Red Hawk Snack Shack at the Bertrand Innovation Center satellite campus location; meal kits developed via partnership between Southwest Michigan Nutrition Exchange, Corewell Center for Wellness nutritionists, and LMC culinary students; the addition of microwaves and mobile carts to existing Snack Shack locations; and targeted outreach and marketing to help reduce the stigma of receiving assistance.

The OH-MI Pathways Together Initiative: Student Needs Assessment and Strategic Capacity Building grant will provide the college with $50,000 to help identify the needs of students. The initiatives supported by this grant include the conducting of a formal assessment of student basic needs; a strengthened infrastructure to help track student needs; partnerships with Southwest Michigan Nutrition Exchange, Harris Family Farms, Feeding America West Michigan, Berrien County Health Department, Riverwood Center, and Michigan Rehabilitation Services; and the integration of the findings of this research into the college’s Strategic Plan.

College president Dr. Ken Flowers said, "When students are struggling to meet basic needs, finishing a degree becomes much harder. These grants allow us to build the kind of proactive, connected support systems that help students stay enrolled and succeed."

For more information about Lake Michigan College, visit the school’s website.