Currently, 35 of the system’s 115 community colleges have Dream Resource Centers, according to a report on undocumented students published earlier this year by the California Community Colleges. The existing centers are supported by a combination of the colleges’ own funding as well as external dollars. For example, the California Campus Catalyst Fund, an initiative that supports undocumented students, helps fund centers at colleges including Chabot College in Alameda County, Oxnard College in Ventura County and San Diego Mesa College.

Iliana Perez, a DACA recipient and director of research and entrepreneurship at the San Francisco-based organization Immigrants Rising, wrote a comprehensive guide on life after college for undocumented students. Perez said the biggest challenge she sees with being an undocumented independent contractor is developing an entrepreneurial mindset for creating income-generation opportunities.

At each of his concerts, Alejandro Sanz has met with a group of DACA recipients, undocumented immigrants, and their parents. Not only has he held private meet-and-greets, he is also raising funds through the sale of a “DREAMER” t-shirt for three organizations that benefit DREAMers: Dream Big Nevada’s DACA renewal fund, Immigrants Rising’s entrepreneurship program, and a college scholarship program, The Ascend Educational Fund.

“We are very lucky to be the recipient of the Catalyst fund grant,” said Dolores Ortiz, a sociology professor at Oxnard College. “It is a three-year grant that we will have over $300,000 and we have a lot of great programming. What we are aiming to do is create sustainable resources so that even when the grant money runs out we continue to offer resources to students and in the Ventura County area.”

Published August 20, 2019.

Oxnard College celebrates the grand opening and ribbon cutting of its Dream Resource Center on Wednesday, August 14. The Center will provide comprehensive services to undocumented students, their families and campus allies.

Read the full story: Dream Resource Center Grand Opening (The VCCCD Connection)…

Published August 19, 2019.

Starting this fall, Oxnard College will have new resources available at the school’s Dream Resource Center.

“Knowing that there’s a resource on campus to help guide them I think is very powerful, it’s a powerful statement,” Cobian says.…