Pictured above, left to right: Maninder Kaur, Jasmine Summers- Evans, Rosemary Wallace, Diana Nguyen (Team Leader), Alicia Kwan (Team Leader), Melinda McMonigle, and Fiona Zhang
SAR Food Justice and Basic Needs Team:
Increasing Student Accessibility to UCLA’s Basic Needs Resources
Project Description:
Our project aims to help UCLA students gain access to the basic needs resources they may need. UCLA offers a wide array of help centers and resources offered. However, students frequently struggle with finding that help: be it a website, center hours, microwave locations, and more. Evidently, Bruins can easily feel lost at times when they need the most help.
We want to improve basic tools already in place, such as the basic needs website and resource maps. Just by updating tools already in use, students will not need to find an entirely new website. Rather, websites that have previously been more complex than necessary will have more links and simpler and more welcoming graphics. We plan to spread surveys on social media, hold focus groups, and talk to on-campus resource-focused clubs to understand what students want.
Students need to be students, and should not have to take so much time and energy to find the hidden gems of aid here on campus. Our SAR team aims to lower the stress levels of students here at UCLA by giving them a simple way to access the care they need. Overall, we want resources to be more accessible and helpful.
Stakeholder: Chidera Izuchukwu, Basic Needs Manager for the UCLA Community Programs Office
Leaders: Diana Nguyen, Alicia Kwan
Members: Maninder Kaur, Melinda McMonigle, Jasmine Summers-Evans, Rosemary
Wallace, and Fiona Zhang