In today’s Community Colleges newsletter, Steve Kolowich interviews Hattie Elmore, who works with impoverished college students. The article, titled “’Sometimes I Cry’: A Ground-Level View of Student Poverty,” opens with the following overview of the problem:

“Student hunger and homelessness can be hard to notice, but Hattie Elmore sees them up close, all the time.

“Ms. Elmore is director of Single Stop, a program dedicated to helping students navigate money and housing problems, at the City University of New York’s Kingsborough campus, a community college in Brooklyn. She and her team counsel students on how to make ends meet, often by walking them through the process of applying for public aid or directing them to resources that might help them feed their families or keep a roof over their heads.

“A study published in 2011 found that 24 percent of students on 17 CUNY campuses (including Kingsborough) had experienced both food and housing insecurity in the previous year. Other surveys, including a large study released last week, have suggested that such problems may be more prevalent than previously thought. This is especially true at community colleges, where students tend to be older and saddled with additional debts and responsibilities.”

The entire interview is available at: http://chronicle.com/article/Sometimes-I-Cry-a/234509?cid=cc&utm.

Coincidentally, the Department of Education recently distributed the following item in its Prevention ED newsletter:

Register for NCHE webinars in December, January, and February

The National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE) NCHE is pleased to offer the following webinars free of charge during the months of December, January, and February. We hope you’ll join us for one or more of these sessions and share this information with interested colleagues.

Paving the Way to College for Students Experiencing Homelessness
Wednesday, December 9, 2015 | 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM EST (please adjust for your time zone)

Supporting the Education of Unaccompanied Homeless Students
Friday, December 11, 2015 | 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM ET (please adjust for your time zone)

Trauma in the Classroom: Minimizing Disruptions to Learning
Monday, January 11, 2016 | 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM EST (please adjust for your time zone)

Paving the Way to College for Students Experiencing Homelessness
Tuesday, January 19, 2016 | 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM EST (please adjust for your time zone)

McKinney-Vento 101: School Access and Stability under the McKinney-Vento Act
Friday, January 22, 2016 | 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET (please adjust for your time zone)

Paving the Way to College for Students Experiencing Homelessness
Friday, February 5, 2016 | 2:00 PM – 3:15 PM EST (please adjust for your time zone)

McKinney-Vento 101: School Access and Stability under the McKinney-Vento Act
Thursday, February 11, 2016 | 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET (please adjust for your time zone)

McKinney-Vento 102: Support for School Success and Special Populations
Wednesday, February 17, 2016 | 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM EDT (please adjust for your time zone)

Visit http://center.serve.org/nche/web/group.php for complete webinar descriptions or to register for any of the above sessions.