College Student Basic Needs

Many college students in the Detroit region face insecure access to basic needs that makes it harder to stay enrolled and complete a degree such as financial instability and unexpected expenses​; transportation challenges​; and competing family and work responsibilities​. Even small disruptions (e.g., a missed bill, broken car) can derail progress.​Colleges and community partners are testing targeted, just‑in‑time supports to address these barriers. We are currently evaluating the effect of two of these initiatives: the Detroit Area Talent Fund and the Catch-A-Ride Program.

School Diversity and Social Capital: Conditions That Foster Bridging Ties in Schools

Diverse social networks can drive upward mobility for low-income youth, yet ties across social class remain difficult to form due to structural and organizational constraints. We examined the mechanisms through which friendship ties form within schools, especially cross-class ties. Using administrative and survey data from 948 11th-grade students, and 32 student interviews, across five high schools in metropolitan Detroit, we found that shared extracurricular activities and courses are the strongest predictors of friendships, while residential proximity plays a minimal role in most schools. We found that these mechanisms operated similarly for cross-class and same-class friendships, suggesting that students do not require different social processes to bridge class differences. Rather, it is the unequal opportunity for repeated interaction within organizational settings that prevents cross-class friendships from forming. Interviews further illuminated mechanisms through which school activities created spaces for cross-class interaction. Findings suggest schools can foster cross-class and other social ties through intentional programming, course structuring, and course scheduling, with important implications for educational equity and social mobility.