Learning 4 Life Services

Two students at the Learning for Life Financial Aid session

Learning 4 Life (L4L) is a research-based, multi-faceted community and college partnership that links students to a network of services, supports and opportunities. This collaborative work fortifies students for college success and removes any challenges that they may encounter in keeping college a central priority in their lives.

Understand Our Team

The L4L team includes Navigators (peer mentors) who are supported by Lead Navigators (Graduated Assistants), a Director and Assistant Directory, and community partners. This entire L4L team moves side-by-side with students to meet the challenges of becoming a college graduate. We are about resilience and excellence.

"Learning 4 Life is exactly what every college campus should have. It is an all-inclusive space where students, faculty and staff can come and be welcomed with open arms. As a student who came into college afraid and not confident that I would be able to complete a college education, Learning 4 Life strengthened my confidence and served as a compass in what seemed like a foreign land to me."

Learning 4 Life Scholars

Learning 4 Life

L4L seeks ΢��Ȧ students who have sought out a college education in the face of adversity and who, as a current ΢��Ȧ student, need assistance in completing their higher education goals. We call these students L4L Scholars.

Interested in Becoming a Scholar?

We will link you with a Navigator and/or have you meet with an L4L staff member. Together you will talk about your strengths and challenges to determine how we can best assist you on your course to success.

Partnerships & Collaborations

Collaborators are campus and/or community colleagues who have engaged in a mutual initiative with L4L. Partners provide essential funding, personnel, and student resources to L4L and the students we serve.

Onward We Learn (formerly known as the College Crusade of Rhode Island) is an innovative nonprofit organization founded in 1989 to reduce high school dropout rates and increase educational and career success for low-income urban youth. Each year they serve approximately 4,200 students from Rhode Island's most economically disadvantaged families in Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, Woonsocket, and Cranston. Onward We Learn combines the steady, nurturing presence of caring adults with a rich array of programs that focus on academic enrichment, social and personal development, career awareness and exploration, and preparation for postsecondary education. Onward We Learn assists L4L in outreach and recruitment of Scholars as well as providing an Onward College Success Coach to serve students 4 days a week in the L4L space during the academic year.

College Visions empowers low-income and first-generation college-bound students to realize the promise of higher education by providing advising and resources to promote college enrollment, persistence, and graduation. College Visions advances equal access to educational opportunities in historically under-served communities. College Visions team member’s serves as a Community Navigators, providing one-to-one support to students at ΢��Ȧ who have also been part of the College Visions Success Program.

The Unity Center is the ΢��Ȧ multicultural center. Its mission is to promote the accessibility of educational services and the opportunity for excellence to all students through collaborative programming among its student affiliates, faculty, staff and the wider community. The Unity Center served as the first main hub for Learning for Life, providing an opportunity to reach out to students in one of the hearts of student activity on campus. The Unity Center provided space and a founding presence for L4L. Since this early partnership that began in 2012, the Unity Center and L4L have worked together on multiple initiatives to: create a student resource area to bring needed campus and community services to students in a comfortable, safe drop-in space; advance the Center’s textbook lending library; and provide leadership development opportunities for students.

Learn More About Unity Center

΢��Ȧ Partners

External Partners

CASO RI
Children's Friend
Central Falls Pawtucket Housing Development
DUNAMIS Synergy Initiative, West Elmwood Housing Development Corp.
House of Hope
SNAP Outreach Worker
Sojourner House
Panera Bread
NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley
New Urban Arts
΢��Ȧ A. L. L. I. E. D.- the Advanced Learning and Leadership Initiative for Educational Diversity
RI Student Loan Authority
We Share Hope

2024 Navigators

More About our Navigators and Coordinators

Who Are Our Navigators

At the heart of L4L is the Navigator model of student support, peer-to-peer mentorship and linkages to resources for students through a network of trained students in partnership with the ΢��Ȧ School of Social Work.

Navigators are Masters or Senior level students, from a diverse set of backgrounds and majors, whose primary role is to support the students we serve, called L4L Scholars. Each Navigator will work with a network of students, building bridges upon which students can reach each other and the resources they need for success.

L4L and the School of Social Work have developed a multi-faceted training curriculum that is required for all L4L Navigators and taught by campus staff and faculty, as well as community partners.

Become a Navigator

Navigators are students from a diverse set of backgrounds and majors. If you would be interested in an internship or job as a Navigator please contact jgarzon@ric.edu for more information.

Navigator Training

The L4L Training Program includes:

L4L Overview, Operations, and Findings from the Recent Evaluation
Who is the L4L Scholar?
Diversity and Inclusion
Principles of Practice: Boundaries, Use of Self, Confidentiality and Ethics
Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention
Substance Use and Addictions
LGBTQ Awareness and Support
Intimate Partner Violence
Mental Health and Suicide Prevention
Assertive Advising Strategies
Academic Guidance and Support
Basic Needs Resources: Housing, Food, Financial Support
Student Advocacy
Campus Tour

Who Are Our Coordinators

The L4L Community is organized through networks of support led by Educational Support Coordinators who serve as the central point of contact for Scholars as well as the Navigators.

ESC’s, as we call them, also coordinate project objectives including outreach to students, the development of marketing materials, communications, and collaborative initiatives.

Clinical oversight for the Navigators is provided through a faculty member of the School of Social Work, Dr. Jennifer Meade and the Associate Director of Learning for Life.

Contact Us

Learning 4 Life

We are here to connect students to on and off campus resources and opportunities to empower and overcome life obstacles on their journey to graduation.

l4linfo@ric.edu
401-456-6320
Adams Library, Level 1

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