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Rebels, tune in to 'Let's Talk UNLV' with Dr. Sammie Scales. Your express pass to everything UNLV — campus highlights, programs, and the latest buzz. Join us weekly as we chat with student leaders, administrators, and faculty, diving into the core of what makes us Rebels.
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Speaker 1 0:00
This is a Kun V studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Speaker 1 0:20
Hello and welcome to another episode of Let's Talk K, U N, V, 91.5, hello to the students on the campus of UNLV. I'm excited this morning to have a special guest. Our special guest is ash Quinn from basic needs.
Unknown Speaker 0:33
Hello, good to be here. Hello.
Speaker 1 0:35
And thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate it. Really appreciate it. So you're the coordinator for basic needs. Take what you want. Program. Could you tell us, first we'll start the show. How we normally started? Tell us your origin story. How did you end up here at UNLV, of all places?
Speaker 2 0:51
Yeah, so I am born and raised here in Vegas. I began UNLV with my undergrad. Got my undergrad in psychology, and during that time, I was very involved in campus. My first job was with campus housing, so I worked their front desk for a bit, and then I became a resident assistant, and I did that the rest of my undergrad. That is a great way to get involved with the campus, working in housing, and I was just always at events. I worked closely with CSUN for a bit, and then, partway through my undergraduate program, I got involved with student diversity programs, and I worked as a program assistant. I worked on LGBTQ plus initiative for a while. I took a break after I graduated, and then I came right back about a year later for my master's program, which I got in social work. And again, I got involved with student diversity for a bit, and then with service learning and leadership, I worked with the hope Scholars Program, which is a scholarship that supports students who are actively experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity. And I was a graduate assistant for that program for a bit, up until I graduated from my master's and I just stayed at UNLV. A great opportunity opened up with the basic needs program. So I kind of just fun fact, the basic need program and its origin of take what you need began under the hope Scholars Program. It used to be called Hope resources, so we kind of just segued out and then branched out. What my position is now, wow,
Speaker 1 2:21
that's interesting. Well, two things that stood out to me there from that one, I didn't know you were born and raised in in Las Vegas. I thought you were from somewhere else. Nope, born and raised here. Born and raised here. Okay. And the second thing, you work for housing. I didn't know you worked for housing. I've recently started doing doing like, double duty with housing, and you learn so much so fast over in housing. So how long were you in housing? About
Speaker 2 2:43
four years. So basically the entirety of my undergraduate. So I started with their front desk. So I was in the mail room. I was interacting with students at all times of day. And then when I became a resident assistant, I just got the span of it all. Wow,
Speaker 1 2:57
wow. And I'm over there, like I said, and I'm still learning, and it's interesting, every day is different than the last day, so I'm definitely excited to be over in housing. So can you walk us through what it's like a typical day? And I think today actually is one of those, take what you need days. So can you walk us through what's your typical day like when having one of those days will take what you need when you're doing it at St PE Hall
Speaker 2 3:19
lounge, yeah. So with our take what you need program, for those who don't know that, is a essentially a basic need distribution program that we do every single month where we take our entire inventory. This month, I think our inventory was close to about 18,000 individual items, and we put it all in one room, usually in the student union, because that's the easiest, and students can literally just come through and take items. So I have been here since 7am I got there and kind of just started with setup. And really a lot of the a lot of the work for take what you need, really happened behind the scenes. So the past few weeks, I've been ordering items for inventory. So we use kind of a mix of grant funding. We have some community partners, we work with for some of the item, and then we get direct donation. So spent the past few weeks kind of just organizing everything and getting everything prepared for today. And that spans from doing the inventory, we track everything that goes in and goes out for grant purposes. And yeah, just started set up really early, and we've had over 200 students come through so far. So I've just been answering questions and kind of working with them, one on one, managing our amazing volunteers who have come through to help make it happen. So there's not really a typical day in my role, because it varies so much. Sometimes I'll be doing a take what you need event. Sometimes I'll be helping a student one on one in my office if they have an emergency eviction or something that came up. So walking them through that. Sometimes it's just preparing the inventory or working on some other programming. Wow.
Speaker 1 4:59
Okay, three questions came up from what you just said. One, can you tell us what those items are? When you said, you know, students can come through and just get items, what are some of the items that they can get? And then two, what's the procedure? So do students line up? Do they have to do go through a check in desk? Or how does that part work? Then I asked the third question afterwards.
Speaker 2 5:18
So students started lining up. Since I got in at seven. As soon as the building opened, a line started forming. So I'll answer that part of the question first, when they line up, we tried to do it that once our volunteers get here around eight or 9am we'll pass out, take it to about the first 100 or so in line, because we've had more than 100 line up beforehand. That new to us. So we're trying to mitigate some of the problems that came up with that people cutting in line or things of that nature. But to get into the event, they just need to have their student ID card, or if they don't have it on them, we can look them up by their email or their ng ID, and they're the check in desk, so they'll come through that way. And as for our items, we have food, so non perishable food items, hiding products, school supplies, clothing, miscellaneous household goods, cleaning supplies. Sometimes we'll have child care items. Sometimes we'll just have really miscellaneous stuff. So it really depends.
Speaker 1 6:16
Wow. Okay, okay, so my my third question, you said earlier, you'll be helping a student one on one in your office with an eviction. So how does that part work? How does students do they just come to you and say, hey with a letter from the landlord saying, I'm being evicted. I need help. How does that portion work? Number one, and how do students know that they can come to your office for something like that? Yeah,
Speaker 2 6:37
there's a few ways. The biggest way that students come through my office is typically through referrals. So the UNLV support team, or they're working with another area of campus that knows about our basic needs program, we really try to just connect with as much of campus as we can. It is not a newer program, but it newer in how much support we're offering now with our grant funding and with our increased capacity. So we're really trying to just get that out there on our website, on social media, connecting with different areas, tabling all of that. So when they come through, if they are in distress and it has something to do with the basic needs insecurity, then I'll work with them one on one on, you know, finding resources that they're eligible for. So I'll usually sit down with them and narrow down that eligibility, because I think that typically the hardest part for students, there's a lot of resources on campus or in the community, but some of them are very specific to specific situations, and then point them in the direction and really give them the power to choose what they want to do next. With that, I never tell them, Go and do this, it's always here are your options. And kind of come up with a plan for that situation, because all the situations are going to vary. Wow, excellent,
Speaker 1 7:48
excellent. That's good that that service is there for students. And I think it's important and critical that students know that this service is there, and this is something you know that they pay for also with their tuition. So you mentioned earlier that usually you know, there could be 100 students in line, and you said you try to get out tickets, because that's new for you, having that many students. So clearly, there's an increase in amount of students that's needing these services. How do you measure that increase? And then how do you measure what items you're going to actually be highlighting for that particular event, for that take what you need. Event, how do you how does that portion work? Yeah,
Speaker 2 8:23
so we've seen a pretty dramatic increase since we got our recent bit of grant funding from Department of Education. That is what funds my position. So that's where that capacity piece came in. So the program, when it was under hope resources, began around, I want to say 2019, and it was really responding, even pre pandemic, to a lot of the concerns that have been coming up on campus about basic needs and security. But it started off very small, and we were serving at first 50 students, and then an event had 100 students and so on. The first event we had this semester had 500 students come through, wow. So we're just seeing that increase. That number is rising with each event. I really think a big piece of that is the message being out there, and also really breaking down a lot of the stigmatization around asking for help and support. That the biggest thing that students before would often say like, oh, I don't know if that for me, I don't really want to go into there, because somebody needs it more than I do, right? And we're trying to really break down those stigmas and make it feel a lot more comfortable. So we're really trying to get an increase in numbers with that, and that also shows what the needed, and if anything, that helps us with our grant funding, because we have numbers we can report saying, hey, when we first wrote the Department of Education grant, we wrote it in hopes of supporting 900 students over an academic year. Because the year prior to that, in ay 22 that the number we saw during that year, about 900 students. We supported that first year of grant funding. We supported over 3002 Students. So it just kind of went beyond what we were even anticipating. So we're starting to track trends, and that kind of comes with the question about, what do we typically have? I tried to base it off of what a need is during a specific season. So at the beginning of the semester, we tried to have kind of a little bit of everything, but we especially have a lot more school supplies, because we know the semester just started up and students might not be able to afford those on their own. Right now, for November, since there's a lot of holidays coming up around food and whatnot, we try to have more kitchenware. So we'll kind of just gage it off of the time of year, when it's like flu season, we'll have more, you know, tissue than hand sanitizer and stuff. So we're trying to track the trends. Wow,
Speaker 1 10:45
that's excellent. So, so when you're getting numbers like, because you said, you wrote, wrote the grant expectancy to provide for 900 students for that academic year, now you're up to, like, 3000 so do you contact the Department of Education with a new grant or or ask for more money? How does that work? So that you get more money?
Speaker 2 11:02
So that comes through our grant reports. We haven't had to do one yet. Our first grant report to the Department of Ed will happen next semester. So I've been gathering all of the data, and that when we'll kind of let them know, this is how the program has been doing. This is how we've been using this money, and kind of where we are. It is a three year grant, so we're on year two. So next year will be the last year, and that will open up, kind of what the next steps are going to be, whether to increase funding, continuation of funding, to begin with, all of those pieces.
Speaker 1 11:35
Okay, excellent. So it seems like you're breaking the stereotypes with students, with deciding whether or not they're going to come and use the services. So you're getting through that way. Clearly, you're getting through that way. So what are some of the challenges that you're still facing, though, at this point, with take what you need. I
Speaker 2 11:51
still feel like the biggest challenge has always been that idea of somebody needs it more than I do. So I don't want to access it. I don't want to take away a resource from somebody else, which I always pivot with, well, if anything, you're helping our program, if you're utilizing it, because you're giving us those numbers. So even if you don't think you need it as much as somebody else, if you need it at all, that's enough. So we're really trying to address that part. I think that's really just been the biggest challenge. We are navigating some smaller trends and some smaller challenges. We're really trying to break away from this idea that it's Black Friday and there's a big rush with that big line at the beginning, and trying to make it a bit more equal opportunity, knowing that people have different schedules. So with that, we have really opened up more to students being able to come to our office in between event to access item. We always keep a backup stock of everything that way, if it doesn't work for their schedule, or maybe they just don't want to be in a large space. I think especially after December, we've heard some of those concerns. We want to just have a lot of different options for students to get that support. Okay,
Speaker 1 12:51
what led you to adopt the housing first model in your in your work, and how does this model benefiting students experiencing housing insecurities?
Speaker 2 13:01
So when I was practicum student with the School of Social Work, we do a practicum like an internship for our program, and I worked with the Nevada homeless alliance for a bit, and they really highlighted that housing first model for me, which is a model that really focuses on providing housing at first before you focus on any other concerns. It's been a pretty common model in the past when it comes to emergency housing and shelter, and you know, those community programs to focus on, you know, if there's substance abuse or if there's, you know, unemployment or another concern, they would focus on that before providing the housing, and you had to meet certain requirements, which was very restrictive. And research really just showed that once you get people into comfortable, stable, adequate housing, everything else can follow. And I really follow that when I work with students, because the biggest thing so with our hope Scholars Program, for example, we do have a GPA requirement for that program, but if they fall below a GPA one semester, it never we are taking away this money right away. We're taking away your housing. It's always let us work with you, and let's focus on the academic, but let's make sure that we keep your housing stable and kind of just address that a little separately and make sure that you still have that support, yeah,
Speaker 1 14:22
because I can see that, you know, if you're taking away the housing, let's say, because the grade drops, or they don't have a certain GPA, that leads to, you know, like a snowball of effect. You know, of things happening with these particular students? Is there a particular group of students that you're trying to reach with the basic need program that's not yet showing up to that particular group?
Speaker 2 14:46
Oh, that's a great question. I'm not sure I feel like we're just trying to reach all students. Honestly, I feel like UNLV is just so big, so sometimes it's hard to tell. So I know that we're in MSI, right? And our data, we have had data kind of showing that 63% of our attendees are first generation, about 30% are Hispanic. So we do see that, you know, we want to be minority serving. We are seeing some of those numbers there, but there are some numbers that, you know, some demographic that I'm sure we could be reaching more, some colleges we can be reaching more. It's kind of hard to say who exactly is all missing. I think, I think we need some more data to kind of show us that. So maybe with this year's data we can really see that. But I think we really just want the method to be across so all students know about the support.
Speaker 1 15:40
Okay, excellent, excellent. So how do you collaborate with other UNLV departments or community organizations to ensure that students have access to a comprehensive range of support services? Let's say, if they're not comfortable, you know, let's just say, I don't know, with gender care here on campus, maybe there's an organization on the outside that they'd be more, you know comfortable with or any whatever services you're offering here on campus. How do you partner with off campus partners to make sure that those services, if the student wanted off campus, are available as well? Yeah,
Speaker 2 16:12
great question. So we typically try to have a list of resources, community based resources available to students to access at all of our events in our office, so they'll know about the biggest one that comes up is around child care. So parenting students who come to our events, it can hit or miss. How much child care, how many child care items will ever have at one point, because it's just a little harder for us to go out of our way to get them, because there's so many different diaper sizes and so many different things, right? We work very closely with babies bounty, so they are a nonprofit organization out here in Las Vegas, and they have a diaper bank, and they just do so much amazing work. So typically, when we get items, we get it from them. But today, just an hour ago, I had some students saying, Hey, you don't have any diapers out. Where can I get them? So we make sure we stay connected and we stay up to date about what resources are available in the community. So we can just be like, you're having this issue, you need the support. Okay, I can pinpoint where to direct you and make sure that I'm not just sending you out into, you know, the community, not really knowing how to navigate things. So we try to make it as easy as possible, and we try to also just collaborate and be around a lot of different areas, same with on campus. So we work very closely with the food pantry, who does amazing work. We can't provide perishable items, but they can, so we partner with them for some of the additional programs that we do. That way students can come to take what you need for some of the non perishable foods or the basic or the hiding item, but they can go over to the food pantry if they need, you know, fruits, veggies, bread, some of those other things. And similarly, we work closely with some of the little there's pockets of food pantries on campus, so the grad College has a support spot. So we make sure that they have some items available in in their college area for easy access. We've been working with the Academic Success Center. They have a Ramen Bar, so we help provide them with some items that way, if students are just in different areas, they can fill access to support. Wow, that
Speaker 1 18:19
is excellent. I didn't know you had so many off campus partners, that's excellent. So you still you have students that actually rely on those diapers also. So about what percentage? What is maybe 3% 5% 2% of students that actually rely on on that service.
Speaker 2 18:34
That's a great question. We haven't asked that in any assessment data, in the path of, you know, are you a parenting student or, you know, is that an item you are accessing? But that is a great note that I'll make to kind of we're trying to fine tune what questions we're trying to ask. One, we don't want assessment to be so long that they become a barrier to accessing the event. But two, we also want the data so we know what additional things we can tap into. Yeah,
Speaker 1 18:58
and speaking of data, what feedback have you received from students who have access basic needs, and what do they share? What do they say about the program?
Speaker 2 19:07
So I have some quotes for you. We have collected some testimonials over the years. So last year, students anonymously shared with us, I'm houseless and my job doesn't pay well, so this event helps a ton. Thank you for all you do. Another student said, I struggled to make rent living on campus, so this program helped assure that I have enough money to remain living on campus. Another student says, Thank you for doing this event, because it gives me some human dignity to be accessing support. Another said that this helped me not worry about the added financial burden of purchasing basic needs items, so instead, I can put my money towards the research that I want to do. So we see a few different ways that it helps students, but I think it always comes down to it can help me focus on my studies, which is what they're here to do. And it can really just make me feel human, feel supported, feel loved, feel like. They belong on campus. While this
Speaker 1 20:01
is a much needed program, you know, some of those testimonials are just heart wrenching, but it's a real reality for some students, and they rely on this program to actually get by and to be able to, you know, not go to bed hungry, because it's tough for students to sit in class and focus and do what they need to do if they're hungry, absolutely.
Speaker 2 20:21
And so many students have said over the years, I chose to pay my tuition over paying for food. And I was one of those students too. I remember, I remember trying to scrape up money and going to super pond and pawning off what I could get to pay my tuition, and then I didn't have money left for groceries for, you know, the the few weeks I really relied on the dining hall on campus. But even then, it definitely was a challenge. I remember what it's like, and I think we're still seeing that, especially post pandemic and with everything,
Speaker 1 20:50
I think it's so important to have someone in place, such as yourself, someone that has been through that experience, because you have the empathy and the understanding of knowing what these students go through and, you know, and probably, probably without even some of the students saying that, you know, how they're feeling at that moment when they have to come through that line to get these to get these items, and it takes a lot of courage to actually stand in line, you know, for a basic need program, you know, indicating, hey, I need this service. So I think it's excellent that we have you, and I think you have UNLV is so lucky to have you in that particular position because you've been through that struggle.
Speaker 2 21:25
Thank you. I love doing this. It's really great. I really wish I had this resource when I was a student. So I'm so glad that it exists now. And really just seeing kind of how students come out on the other end, because they're so excited to email me and say, like, hey, just so you know, I'm graduating. I don't know if you remember me, but you really helped me out. And it really it makes me cry so often, and I love it. It's just so fulfilling. Because for me, it's always about the students, right? Of course, I'm here for a paycheck, but it always comes back down to the students. That's why, even though I went for a social work degree, I stayed in higher ed, because it's such an important community, and I was the first gen student too, so I really know what it's like. Yeah,
Speaker 1 22:05
you know, that's one of the reasons that I'm in higher ed. Also, of course, you know, I worked in public school in San Diego for 10 years, but I wanted to make a bigger impact. And higher ed for me was that place where I can make a bigger impact. You know, whether it was being a professor and even being here working in admin. You know, I have students that I call my phone and say, Hey, this is the issue that I have. How can you help me? And so I'm always happy to have that phone line open so they can call and they can come by the office. I have an open door policy. I even now I'm over here, my door to my office is open. I always have my door open for students. So it means a lot to students, you know, when they know that a person, the person they're talking to, have been through the struggle, have been through what they're going through, and they don't feel embarrassed, you know, having to sit in my office and talk to me about, you know, not having money to buy toiletries or something to that effect. So, yeah, yeah, we are so lucky to have you in that, in that position. What would you say are some of the unique needs of LGBTQ students experiencing housing or food insecurity, and how does your program address these need for these particular students?
Speaker 2 23:09
So for the LGBTQ plus community, and I remember this because I've been through it too, it's that lack of a support system. So many of these students come to me with a housing insecurity, and it's usually because they were kicked out of their home, or their relationship ended very suddenly, very abruptly, because of their identity, because of who they are, or just with the way that things happen, and it's so hard to find those resources. So even when we're thinking of in the community, there aren't really any LGBTQ, plus shelters in Las Vegas, the only one I can really think of is the Salvation Army has a shelter, but one that very far into That's a hit or miss for so many people in the community, just because of the, you know, the background and whatnot. So it's really hard to find that support, even in a city that you know, is so big and so grand and so, you know, bright. So those, I know, those needs, are just so unique, because when it comes to basic needs, that's such a broad definition, right? And it's going to vary. So when it comes to this community, it goes beyond. Sometimes it goes beyond, you know, toiletries and food. Sometimes gender care is a basic need for them, right? So that's where being connected with the health center on campus and their gender care team is so important to me. So I can say like, Hey, did you know that you can go to this resource? Because so many of them don't. So I think it's so important to focus on the different different populations that we have on campus,
Speaker 1 24:41
that's excellent. And I love that you actually make sure that you have a focus on LGBTQ students. And UNLV as a whole does as well. I know Student Diversity Programs does as well. So many times students can feel like they've been pushed to the back, you know, and here at UNLV since. I've been here, I've noticed that they shine a spotlight on all students, and they try to make sure that all students feel welcome and have a sense of belonging here on this campus, you know, SDP department always make sure that they have cultural events for any identity group, for all identity groups. So that's one thing I like about that department. So let me, let me ask you this question, if money wasn't an issue at all, what would you like to see for the basic need program? I
Speaker 2 25:27
would love for us to have an actual pantry space. I love doing these monthly events, but it's so much to take all of our volunteers every month and take all of our inventory to a different space, to a different room. If you ever come into our office, room 309, in the student union, if it's right before an event, you can see that it looked like a mobile warehouse. My office is often flooded with different boxes. It makes it very difficult to navigate the space, also knowing we're sharing it with the hope Scholars Program and fostering Scholars Program. So I would just love one day if we had the money to have an actual pantry space, similar to the food pantry and works in connecting with the food pantry, so it doesn't have to be a monthly event. We can just do this all the time. We do have about 60 students who come to our office per month, which is new for us, and even natural law capacity wise. So if money wasn't an issue, a full on basic need pantry with enough Dave to make it happen. Wow.
Speaker 1 26:26
You know what I thought about for for basic needs, if money wasn't an issue, when you first started talking and said, Oh yeah, we've we started out saying that we were gonna take care of 900 students a year. Now we up to 3000 the first thing that popped into my mind was, wow, if money was an issue, I would love to see a grocery store built on campus just for students, and employ students that need jobs there at that store, and we will always be able to stock it, and you can get perishable, non perishable, just like a regular grocery store, and students can just go through, and, let's just say, we give them a limit of, I don't know, $400 a month for each student, and they can go through and pick out $400 worth of groceries for that groceries for that month, and, you know, next month roll around and get another $400 on their card they can use. So okay,
Speaker 2 27:08
I need a dream bigger. I'm glad you mentioned that too. I kind of just want to do a quick plug on Monday. So next week is hunger and homelessness Awareness Week. So on Monday, we're doing a big grocery bingo event. We've never done it before, but this is where students can come and play bingo to win full sets of groceries as as a prize. So that will be from 4pm to 6pm in the student union room, 208208 that's on the second floor in one of the big ballrooms, not a ballroom, but just around the corner of the ballroom, around the corner from the ball, right? And that's Monday. November 18, 4pm to 6pm four to six. Okay,
Speaker 1 27:43
great, great plug. Okay, and it was in closing. What's your advice? What advice would you like to offer students when it comes to basic needs? What would you like for them to know?
Speaker 2 27:53
Honestly, it always goes back to Don't, don't be afraid to reach out for support. There are so many people at UNLV who want to be that support system for students and who really care about them, and we want you to feel like you belong and that you can access, you know, we know there's going to be tough times or, you know, rough patches, but always know that there's no shame that this program is here for you, and that's what we're here for, excellent,
Speaker 1 28:17
excellent, and that's what, you Know, I would go as far as saying what all staff is here for, because we're here for the students. Just think, if there wasn't students on campus, we wouldn't have a job. We wouldn't have a job, you know, and we wouldn't have a reason to come here. We come here for the students, and we want them to realize, you know, we're here for them, and we want them to feel a part of we don't want them feeling ashamed for coming to get these things their staff, you know, and faculty and staff also that, you know, take part in this program that needs this program as well. So just wanting to know that UNLV is here. We're here for them. Basic needs is an excellent program, and definitely, definitely, I'm going to be volunteering more in basic needs. I've done it before, and I can vouch for the good work that the department does. So thank you. Yeah, you are very welcome, and your staff and me plug your staff as well. Super helpful, super super nice. Always have a smile on their face when helping students, and I'm sure that the students appreciate that and have noticed that as well. Yeah,
Speaker 2 29:14
so we're with the Office of service, learning and leadership. So amazing office, amazing team, excellent.
Speaker 1 29:18
Thank you so much ash for coming to join us today, and anytime that you want to come back to talk about a basic needs program, or any program that you have coming coming up, you're always welcome to come back. Thank
Unknown Speaker 29:29
you so much. I appreciate it. Thank
Speaker 1 29:31
you so much. I really appreciate it. Ash Quinn, program coordinator for basic needs, thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Let's Talk. UNLV, bow
Dr. Renee Watson 29:42
down. For more, let's talk UNLV. Be sure to follow us on social media, where you can get the latest updates on the show, plus great behind the scenes content. We're on Facebook at, let's talk UNLV podcast. Twitter at, let's talk UNLV and Instagram. At, let's talk UNLV pod. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai