Guiding Principles
Asset-Based Model
Use an asset-based approach that looks at the opportunities for innovation and builds upon the strengths of the department rather than viewing counseling from a deficit-based approach that focuses on what students and departments cannot do
Identify the growing diversity of students and variety of student needs as an opportunity for departments to innovate away from the traditional model of counseling that has existed for over 50 years
Put the onus on the entire institution to support students rather than one specific department
Customized Approach
As community college campuses become more diversified, it is critical for counseling departments to move beyond one model to serve diverse student needs (Bruce-Sanford, Heskeyahu, Longo, & Rundles, 2015)
Move away from a one-size-fits-all approach with both appointments and drop-ins offering different modalities such as group, online, or mobile as a strategy to reach more students.
Move beyond the walls of the Counseling office to “meeting students where they are” in the classroom and across the campus
Understand the specific populations that are disproportionately impacted at a specific campus and how best to serve them
Apply transformative counseling approaches that design services based on values versus solely resources
Student Success Teams
Integrated student supports calls for both academic and student support services to collaborate and integrate to best serve the student inside and outside of the classroom
Teams provide an opportunity for both classroom and non-classroom faculty, staff, and administrators to work collectively in an established structure to support student success. The team structure allows for regular communication and the opportunity to think outside the boundaries of divisions and traditional organizational structures.
Teams can be formed around meta majors allowing for support services to be embedded in specific pathways
