Supporting Students Facing Basic Needs Insecurity: Trauma-Informed and Practical Approaches for Faculty & Staff - National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week

College students navigating food insecurity, housing instability, transportation barriers, or financial crisis often struggle in silence—and their challenges may show up as absenteeism, disengagement, changes in academic performance, or behavior changes. This training equips UIC faculty and staff with the awareness, tools, and response strategies needed to better identify and support students experiencing unmet basic needs.
Participants will explore how basic needs insecurity impacts mental health, academic outcomes, identity-based inequities, and help-seeking behaviors. The training emphasizes trauma-informed, culturally responsive approaches and outlines campus and community resources, referral pathways, and communication strategies that reduce stigma and increase trust. Whether you teach, advise, supervise, or support students in another role, this session helps you respond with empathy and effectiveness.

Learning Objectives:
By the end of the training, participants will be able to:
Recognize Indicators and Understand their Impact

Identify common signs of food insecurity, housing instability, transportation barriers, and financial distress as they appear in academic, behavioral, or interpersonal contexts. Briefly explore the history of marginalized communities with access to basic needs and learn how to respond with empathy and trauma-informed language. Explain how unmet basic needs affect student mental health, learning capacity, attendance, persistence, and sense of belonging—especially among first-generation, low-income, and system-impacted students.


Use Trauma-Informed Language

Engage students using respectful, non-shaming, and choice-centered language that considers cultural and socioeconomic contexts.


Know the Resources and Make Effective Referrals

Confidently connect students to on-campus and community resources (e.g., food pantries, emergency funds, housing support, legal services, counseling, case management).


Collaborate Without Overstepping

Clarify the appropriate role of faculty/staff in supporting students’ basic needs without acting as case managers or requiring personal disclosure. Understand the importance of choice-centered language.


Reduce Stigma and Foster a Trusting and Supportive Environment

Use strategies that create inclusive classroom and office environments where students feel safe asking for support.

DOS: Student Assistance | View More Events
Co-hosted with: UIC Counseling Center

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