Real College California Impact:
Envisioned by the Chief Executive Officers of the CEO Affordability, Food & Housing Access Taskforce,  the Real College California Coalition was created in 2019 to provide the latest evidence, integrated with hands-on guidance to inform implementation and help members develop a cutting-edge mindset to increase their institutional effectiveness and strengthen California’s ecosystems to support students’ basic needs and promote college completion.

Today, more than 90 colleges are part of the Real College California Coalition and have been able to:

  • Use data to inform basic needs programming and effective interventions
  • Implement strategies to support students with equitable emergency aid models (doubling graduation rates)
  • Strategize to develop innovative programs to secure housing, maximize the implementation of one-stop centers, and leverage funding opportunities
  • Build internal capacity to respond to the ecosystem nuances, enhancing the operationalization of programs designed to support students

The Taskforce has coordinated and hosted five basic needs summits focused on sharing best practices and building a network of leaders and practitioners focused on basic needs and student success.

  • Friday, December 7, 2018, at Compton College with 250 participants
  • Friday, December 6, 2019, at Laney College with 222 participants  (Capacity was 222), view webpage
  • Friday, December 4, 2020, hosted by Cypress College and Imperial Valley College with 525 participants (virtual), view webpage
  • Friday, February 4, 2022, hosted by San Diego Mesa College with 418 participants (virtual), view webpage
  • Friday, December 2, 2022, at San Bernardino Valley College with 300 participants (Capacity was 300), view webpage

Save the Date for our 2023 Annual Real College California Basic Needs Summit:

Rising to the Challenge: Heroes for Basic Needs

Friday, December 8  | Evergreen Valley College  | San Jose, CA

Click here to visit the event webpage.

Real College California Coalition Membership:
The goal of the Real College California Coalition offers support for incubating, implementing, and assessing equity-based solutions and support services to address basic needs insecurities experienced by students in California’s community colleges. Member institutions receive help building internal capacity and gaining tools to impact institutional transformation in the following three areas:

  • Statewide & National Advocacy for Basic Needs Support Services and Funding
  • Networking, Support, and Professional Development
  • Elevating Best Practices & Research

Real College California Membership Cost & Benefits:

  1. Any California Community College may apply to become a member of the Real College California for one year.
  2. Member institutions agree to share information on their current Real College basic needs efforts and participate in convenings and advocacy
  3. Participate in the Real College California survey every two years
  4. Discounted registration for annual Real College California Basic Needs Summit (fall)
  5. Invitations to regional convenings (spring)

Membership Pricing: Annual membership varies by institutional size (headcount) and includes participation in the Real College California survey.

  • 10,000 students or less $3,000
  • 10,000- 20,000 students $4,000
  • 20,001- 30,000 students $5,000
  • 30,001 students or more $6,000

For additional information or questions, contact League Staff at cclc@ccleague.org.

Complete Your Membership Application Now! 
Note: Colleges that complete the Real College California membership application will receive an invoice from the Community College League of California for membership payment.

About your institution:

If you are signing up all colleges in your district, please complete an application for each college, separately.

Who will be the point of contact for your membership?

Who can we contact to follow up on the membership payment?

Commitment Statement:
Please review this statement with your college president and affirm that they agree to it. If possible, please post your commitment publicly.

We recognize that secure access to food and housing is essential to academic success in higher education and must, therefore, be treated as a top educational priority. We will exemplify this commitment in our public statements and in our daily work. We will advance a campus culture of caring that recognizes that students are humans first. We will use data and evidence to drive our efforts to reduce food and housing insecurity and seek to impact as many of our students as possible. Finally, we will address the structural poverty that created this basic needs security crisis. 

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