Workers at the Nashville Diaper Connection
Workers at the Nashville Diaper Connection
Tuition is often covered for post-secondary college students through state programs in Tennessee, though outside costs and responsibilities can still be a barrier to completing school, especially for those with young children. Nashville Diaper Connection hopes to eliminate one such barrier.
The local nonprofit is offering its Diapers for Diplomas program for a second school year. This year, the Nashville nonprofit will award 125 “diaper scholarships” to students enrolled in four area community colleges — Nashville State, Volunteer State, Motlow State and Columbia State. Applications are open until Aug. 30.
Parenting students with diaper-age children will receive a supply of diapers monthly, for a value of close to $100 per month.
In its first year, Diapers for Diplomas helped parents across 15 campuses and 14 counties. In the first cohort of 104 students, 78 percent were able to complete the 2021-22 academic year, according to data from NDC. Seventy percent of participants were Tennessee Reconnect state tuition grant recipients, 69 percent were first-generation college students, and 25 percent were single parents. The highest number of students were going into the health field at 47 individuals, with 20 studying business or marketing, 14 liberal arts and 7 studying education.
In polling last year’s recipients, Nashville Diaper Connection program manager Heidi Hayne heard from students that having the monthly supply freed up time and money.
“They just talked about how they didn't have to miss class or not do homework because they had to go to take a trip to go to the store to get diapers,” Hayne says. “Those were smaller things that directly impacted school.”
Joni Allison, adult student services coordinator at Columbia State Community College, says she was better able to connect with students on additional services when they were coming in to pick up diapers. Allison says that, with the knowledge that community college students tend to be older and have more household responsibilities, wraparound services are become increasingly important to success.
“Diapers are expensive, and when you look at it over the course of a year, having the opportunity to have some of those taken care of and paid for, that's a lot of cost offset,” Allison says.
While statistics show that getting a college degree generates more earning power for both the parent and child, Nashville Diaper Connection founder Doug Adair adds that it’s also about making the here and now easier for parents.
“It's an extra $100 they have — they can spend it for what they need it for,” says Adair. “If it gives them an extra 25 bucks to have pizza on a Friday night, I'm glad, if it gives them a chance to breathe a little easier.”
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