Community Colleges will play a key role in addressing California’s sustained demand for healthcare workers and preparing students to become the state’s next generation nurses, medical assistants and physical therapy aides.
But in the Los Angeles Community College district, where more than half of all students report income near or below the poverty line, many people struggle to earn their degrees, buy rent, groceries and keep their jobs down to cover childcare costs.
The pilot program in the state’s largest LA district, with nine universities and 194,000 students, aims to address these seemingly unruly challenges with eligible relief packages.
Late last year, the district launched an initiative to provide 12 months of cash payments to 251 students who demonstrated the financial needs of pursuing a medical career. The funds are unlimited, allowing participants to spend their money.
The goal of the effort, called the creation of outstanding opportunities for students to thrive or boost, is to allow students to focus on achieving academic goals and enable the university system to provide diverse, multilingual healthcare professionals and provide services along the way.
Following one student throughout the first months of the new initiative, the Times learned how guaranteed basic income affects the lives and choices of students at LA Community College.
“I want to give him the opportunity, and to do so, I have to move on,” single mother Adriana Olea said of her decision to pursue a career as a registered nurse.
Adriana Olea, 32, has known for many years that she wants to pursue a career in nursing. She worked as a licensed professional nurse for a while, and the experience was rewarding. However, after giving birth to her son two years ago, she set her sights on a well-paid position as a registered nurse.
“I want to give him the opportunity, and to do so, we have to move on,” said Olea, a single mother. “I can’t offer it to him so I don’t want him to feel like he’s missing something.”
She recently returned to school, enrolled at LA City College, and enrolled in a prerequisite course that requires her to be accepted into nursing schools when she was selected for boost. She received her first cash payment at Thanksgiving.
“I feel very blessed to be chosen,” she told The Times a few days later. “At the same time, I feel like I want to be very responsible for this because it’s not something that’s lightly filmed.”
Olea lives with her parents and two-year-old curly haired Kevin in a rent-controlled building near MacArthur Park. In early December, she took three classes and worked eight hours a week at the front desk in the university counselling department.
Adriana Olea says that the parents of Mexican immigrants who work as night shifts are key partners in helping raise their son Kevin.
She expresses gratitude to her parents, who are key partners in helping her son develop. Her parents, Mexican immigrants, who work as night shifts with both Mexican immigrants, are watching Kevin while Olea is on campus. She benefits from Calfresh for most of her family’s food expenses, spending between $500 and $600 a month on groceries and also selling rent.
“It’s just living on a budget. This is definitely viable, because I have so much support,” she said.
Of her initial $1,000 payments, she spent about $600 on unpaid bills for a medical checkup for Kevin’s newborn arising from her health insurance revocation. She also used some of the money to buy Christmas presents for her family and bought holiday clothes for herself. She received her second payment in mid-December and decided not to soak it in it.
“I’m just treating it like I haven’t received it,” she said.
By January, she already feels more financially safe, squirts $1,000 and knows more is coming.
“I might actually have something in my back pocket,” she said. “It’s not just about pay to pay.”
Adriana Olea says $1,000 a month overcoming the boost made a world difference to her stress levels. “I can literally focus on my class studies.”
Over 150 guaranteed income pilot programs have launched nationwide in recent years, but Boost is one of the first to focus on community college students.
Advocates advertise unconditional cash as a way to provide greater stability to vulnerable community members. However, this concept has also increased the amount of steam, which has also spurred rebound. Several Republican-led state legislatures are trying to ban or preempt cities and counties from launching direct cash initiatives.
The boost program is personally funded for more than $3.1 million from ELI and the Edythe Broad Foundation and for more than $867,500 from the California Community Foundation’s Young Adult Forward Fund. This represents an unusual philanthropic investment in 2.1 million California Community College students across the state. Usually, more than half of California high school graduates start at community colleges.
“We’ve been working hard to get into the world,” said Kelly King, executive director of the Los Angeles Community College Foundation. “Unfortunately, this level of investment in community college students is very rare, but very necessary.”
To qualify for boost, students must select major health-related major key interests and show interest in pursuing a health career. Pilot participants were selected for the lottery, with 251 people receiving monthly payments and an additional 370 people enrolled in the Control Group.
Data provided by the Community College District shows that of participants, 72% are women, 65% are Hispanic or Latino, and 29% report that the household’s primary language is Spanish. The average annual household income is $31,853, with 47% reporting having children in their homes.
Like other pilots, Boost is designed as a research study. In this case, the University of Pennsylvania’s Guaranteed Income Research Center analyzes how unlimited payments affect students’ well-being and what role they play in getting back on track when completing their healthcare degree.
“The lack of basic needs, food insecurity and unexpected financial shocks create barriers for students who are often kicked out of education,” said Amy Castro, co-founder and faculty director of the center. “Dreaming your future should be a trait of young adults open to everyone, not just those who are wealthy or fortunate, but those with access to higher education.”
Among other benefits, Adriana Olea says she allowed her to start emergency funds in case her son gets sick and can’t do her job.
By mid-February, the guaranteed payments had made a huge difference in Olea’s life.
Deciding to take advantage of financial support, she enrolled in four classes for the spring semester. She felt like the momentum was snowballing and realized that better time management would allow her to take another few more hours at work and earn a little more money.
Despite having more on her plate, Olea seemed less stressed. It was a huge relief in itself to know that she didn’t need to hold back on full-time jobs or second part-time gigs to support her son.
“I literally can focus on my class studies,” she said.
She had begun raising emergency funds in case she and Kevin got sick and she couldn’t work.
She also felt more comfortable with the money. She bought Valentine’s Day lunch for her family at Sizzler, treating her mom to her buffet and dad with her favorite steak and shrimp dishes. She took Kevin to Big Bear to see the snow. And if she didn’t have enough time to pack lunch from her home, she didn’t emphasize grabbing a sandwich at a donut shop near campus.
“I see my bank accounts go up. I feel like I’m saving,” she said. So she can tell herself: “This is not a big splurge. I can treat myself.”
By early April, Olea had received $5,000 in boost.
She opened a high-yield savings account with the goal of making money with her money. She bought a Disneyland ticket to celebrate her mother’s 60th birthday. She recently received two parking tickets and said she was disappointed in losing money, but that wasn’t a crisis that would have been on her budget.
She said receiving cash and knowing it was temporary made her goal “laser-focused.” This summer I will be working part-time as a licensed vocational nurse while studying for the nursing school entrance exam. He will then apply to school in the fall and start a nursing program next spring.
“If I had the opportunity, I looked at myself harshly and said, ‘This is what you want. How do you get there? Take advantage of what you have this,” she said.
At the same time, her vision expanded. Receiving a guaranteed income freed her from the choking feeling of constantly worrying about money.
“If you feel one less stressful, you just feel this relief,” she said. “It just cleanses your mind a little bit more and you don’t feel stressed about everything else.”
Olea said he hopes the money he saves through boost will smoothen the transition to nursing school. She hopes to receive financial assistance to attend nursing programs at LA City College or California State University, but she said she will get a loan to attend more expensive private schools if necessary. She plans to live at home while she is in school and pick up a few shifts each week as a licensed vocational nurse, but said her savings starting this year will help ensure she hasn’t faded during the two-year programme.
She would remain in LA County after nursing school, she said. She previously worked in a geriatric clinic and is interested in exploring childbirth and newborn jobs. No matter where she works, she uses Spanish ency to communicate with patients and their families.
This article is part of the Times Equity Report initiative funded by the James Irvine Foundation, which examines the challenges faced by low-income workers and efforts to address economic disparities in California.
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