The FamilyU Cohort:
Transform your institution to better serve student parents

Advance and propel your student success efforts by creating deep institutional change that results in improved student parent outcomes

Meet the 2024 FamilyU Cohort!

Generation Hope has announced the five higher education institutions participating in our 2024 FamilyU Cohort. Our team is working with staff members and parenting students at each of these institutions through 2026 to create more family-inclusive campuses and promote student parent success.

What is the FamilyU Cohort? The FamilyU Cohort is a comprehensive, customized, evidence-based, two-year capacity-building experience designed to build and refine institutional competencies to improve student parent success. In partnership with institutional staff and student parents, colleges and universities participate in our peer learning convenings and campus-focused independent coaching sessions. Generation Hope has launched three FamilyU Cohorts since 2021 comprised of institutions that are leading the way in innovative supports for this population. Learn more about the challenges student parents face every day while pursuing their degrees and the FamilyU experience by downloading “On a Journey for Families: Lessons Learned from Colleges Investing in Student Parents,” which offers insights and take-aways from our 2021-2023 FamilyU Cohort.

Generation Hope Scholar Alum Ana celebrating her graduation with her two sons, one of whom holds up a sign that says, "Our mom is off to nursing school."

Components & Outcomes

Join a cohort of colleges that are committed to better serving student parents and improving overall student outcomes.

Members of our FamilyU Cohort will receive the following benefits:

Customized work plan for your campus guided by the Student Parent Campus Capacity Assessment Tool.
A dedicated coach to analyze your institution’s Student Parent Campus Capacity Assessment Tool results, support and facilitate your institution’s student parent efforts, and assist with problem-solving over the two-year cohort.
Eight, interactive, quarterly cohort meetings aligned with Core Competency Areas: Data, Policy, Culture, and People using facilitation techniques that focus on reflective dialogue, learning, collaboration, and results.
15 one-on-one customized coaching sessions focused on your institution over two years, engaging representatives from a range of departments.
One Student Parent Fellow to take part in the implementation phase of your institution’s student parent work, trained and compensated by Generation Hope.
One executive session with your governing body and/or executive leadership team to report progress on your institution’s student parent work.

FamilyU Cohort Outcomes:

Increase awareness of the student parent population enrolled at your institution and their needs for college completion.
Boost student enrollment, retention, and completion rates at your institution.
Enhance institution-wide student parent work, engaging various departments and key stakeholders.
Build deep relationships with peer institutions and field experts working to improve student outcomes.
Improve data collection methods and tools to better track the parenting status of your students.
Develop and implement racially equitable, parent-friendly policies at all levels on your campus to help students thrive.
Cultivate student-parent champions at your institution to galvanize systems-change efforts.

To learn more about eligibility and fees, please RSVP to one of our information sessions linked above.

Our Core Competencies for Student Parent Success

Harnessing 14+ years of boots-on-the-ground experience helping parenting students earn college degrees, the FamilyU Cohort focuses on four competency areas for student parent success.

Policy

Analyze institutional policy using a student-parent lens, develop a plan to amend policies that negatively impact student parents, and create policies to help this population thrive. We will also encourage you to think strategically about integrating state and federal policy into your student parent supports.

Data

Create a more comprehensive and utilitarian student parent-centered data collection system. In addition to walking you through best practices, we will connect you with experts on how to enhance your data collection methods and provide recommendations based on their lessons learned.

People

Assess the staff, faculty, and administration’s knowledge of student parents and identify strategies to increase awareness, training, and understanding that will lead to transformative support. We will walk you through individual practices that can either marginalize or encourage student parents.

Culture

Develop and implement strategies that foster a welcoming environment for student parents. From the physical campus environment to the unspoken traditions or practices that define a culture, we will partner with you to unpack what messages you are sending to parenting college students each day.

FamilyU Cohort Institutions

Twenty-one institutions have participated in Generation Hope's FamilyU Cohort to date, advancing student parent success across the country. In addition to our 2024 FamilyU Cohort, which you can meet at the top of this page, learn more about our 2021 FamilyU Cohort, 2022 FamilyU Cohort, and 2023 FamilyU Cohort.