Connecting Students With Public Benefits: Early Lessons From Kynectors in the Kentucky Community and Technical College Systems

ABSTRACT

Basic needs insecurity of college students has been prevalent across the country. As a way to address this issue, there has been a recent discussion of helping students apply for and benefit from public subsidies such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Since 2024, the Kynector initiative, hiring a full‐time professional who can help students connect to government subsidies, has been implemented at all sixteen Kentucky Community and Technical College Systems. This chapter introduces the new initiative in Kentucky and provides early lessons from the initiative.