Case Study
York Technical College
Challenge
As a 2-year technical college, we have an older student body than a typical college, which means our students come to us with some very serious work-life issues. When you layer coursework on top of an existing job and family, it can be very stressful. Another challenge our counseling center faces is how transient our student body is. They tend to commute to campus from other places, so we need to offer a network of providers where our students live and work.
Solution
We started using MYgroup’s Student Assistance Program (SAP) as an extension to the services we provide at our on-campus counseling center. Thanks to MYgroup’s strong local network of community providers, our students can receive 1:1 counseling close to their home or workplace. To drive awareness of the counseling resources available to students, MYgroup provides us with EAP wallet cards that are discrete and easy to distribute. We also post their custom student-facing flyers in heavily trafficked areas on campus and at our annual health fair, MYgroup sets up a booth to educate students about the opportunities for counseling.
Results
York Technical College opened its counseling center in 2011, and as students started responding and faculty starting making referrals, traffic really picked up. Now, thanks to our partnership with MYgroup, we can cost-effectively meet the needs of our campus with professional, long-term counselors. Our students appreciate the confidentiality that comes from meeting with a counselor close to home or work instead of on campus. Most importantly, however, MYgroup’s SAP has become a great retention tool by helping students overcome personal issues or work-life challenges and stay enrolled.
