For some students, it’s hard to even think about going to college with the struggles of everyday life. Things can be easier with people that share the same struggles, hardships, and community as you.
At San Joaquin Delta College the Empowerment Resource Center, Delta Pride Center, and Basic Needs center is here to help.
The Empowerment Resource Center, Delta Pride Center, and associated services are places for students that are LGBTQ+, formerly foster youth, formerly incarcerated, or students seeking help for meeting basic needs, including housing, food, and laundry service.
“The Phoenix Project helped me by establishing a community here at Delta College with people who understand who I am, accept who I am, and help me be a better man.” said Primo Bonilla, a student worker with the Empowerment Center’s Phoenix Project, which helps formerly incarcerated students, students currently incarcerated in the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) and the Custody to Community Transitional Reentry Program (CCTRP).
The Empowerment Resource Center has different programs and services.
According to the center’s page on the Delta College website, this includes resources for Independent Living/Youth Empowerment Strategies for Success (ILP/YESS) for “current foster and probably youth ages 16-21.”
Patty LaMar is a program specialist with FKCE Foster & Kinship Care.
“We do the education for foster resource families in San Joaquin county,” said Lamar. “We do the orientation for the resource families. We do pre service training, on the job training, and we do continuing education if they have to keep up eight hours of continuing education every year to keep their house approval status current.”
Next door to the Empowerment Resource Center is the Delta Pride Center.
According to its website ”the San Joaquin Delta College Pride Center provides a welcoming safe space for academic success and support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) students and their allies.”
“The Pride Center was one of the first places I visited on campus coming here to Delta and immediately I was met with smiling faces and just an overall positive energy from everyone in the center,” said Hallelu Granlund, a student worker of Pride Center. “Everybody wanted to know who I was, where I was coming from and it was just the first place I felt welcomed and I had a place to belong on campus. Now that I’m graduating I think the Pride Center has really helped me just find my group of people here on campus and also make me feel more comfortable talking about myself and my experiences going forward” said Granlund.
Some of the centers like Phoenix and Pride offer scholarship opportunities.
talks about the services provided at the center.
Each center has similar resources like book vouchers, and help with enrollment and registration, but some centers like the Basic Needs center help with housing and help getting food with the Delta College Food Pantry and CalFresh.
Rachel Yang is a student worker at the empowerment center who utilizes services through the Basic Needs Center.
“It really has helped me in the past get a footing on the ground to get me started with college,” said Yang. “They help me with gas money, food stamps, they got me started with cal fresh, and the laundry service has been really helpful.”
