Project Non Nobis Solum was created to ensure students who live on campus and experience food and/or housing insecurities have an avenue to seek support, especially during break periods. While not always easily identifiable, the prevalence of college students who experience, or fear, homelessness and going hungry is significant. This is especially so at open-access institutions like Washburn University. By supporting Project Non Nobis Solum, you can show students who are housing and food insecure that they no longer need to be alone in their struggle. It is this type of coming together as a greater Washburn community that brings action to Washburn’s motto, Non Nobis Solum.
There are five goals to Project Non Nobis Solum:
- Prevent students, who are unable to pay for housing or food during break, from leaving campus and putting themselves in potentially unsafe environments. The approximate cost of housing and food over a break is $37 per day.
- Create awareness among faculty, staff and students about issues of food and housing insecurities that directly impact Washburn students.
- Assist off-campus students who are in an unsafe situation with temporary housing and food.
- Provide homemade care packages for students who have self-disclosed or who have been referred to Residential Living by other offices as a student who has experienced homelessness and/or hunger, students who lack a safe place to go over break periods and students who struggle to purchase personal toiletries. These care packages will serve as a gift of welcome and support to show students they are now a part of the Washburn community and family.
- Engage students who stay over break periods in a program or outing that gets them off-campus and in the Topeka community. Help students to create a memory over a break or a holiday that they want to remember and share. Potential activities include a trip to the Brown vs. Board museum, a movie or a dinner.
As a Washburn community, it is critical that students who are housing and food insecure are able to witness and come to know, perhaps for the first time, that they no longer need to be alone in their struggle. It is just as critical that faculty, staff and students know, and are perhaps humbled, to realize the experiences and the worries of some of the students in their classroom and in their residence hall are not like their own. It is this type of coming together as a greater Washburn community that helps to bring action to the words Non Nobis Solum.
