UNO Launches Durango’s Advancement and Support Hub (DASH)

Durango’s Advancement & Support Hub, also known as DASH, is designed to welcome and engage students, build and foster community collaborations, and create opportunities for professional development and social mobility. With its home in room 112 of the Milo Bail Student Center, DASH’s goal is to collaborate with campus and community partners to create space and to holistically support students.

The new office merges two formerly distinct offices — the Office of Hardship and Resiliency Support (OHRS) and Success Academies, adding more opportunities for student support and community collaborations. Additionally, the Maverick Food Pantry is housed within DASH but the physical location remains in the CEC.

About DASH

DASH exists to highlight and grow the four following pillars:

• Hardship & Resiliency Support: Supporting and empowering students with lived experience in the foster care and justice systems, students with incarcerated parents, students who are pregnant/parenting, and students who are facing hardships. This area is focused on building and strengthening pipelines from child welfare and prison systems, as well as referral avenues from community partnerships.

• The Scholarship Collective: Creating a positive learning and mentoring experience for scholarship or special population cohorts. This area currently manages 13 donor-funded scholarships and is slated to increase the scholarship capacity through new partnerships with existing community partners.

• Maverick R&R Toolkit: Building and referring students to internal and external resources to create stability and support for students as they navigate life’s challenges. This toolkit aims to increase self-advocacy, retention, and social mobility. Most recently, the Maverick Food Pantry will now be housed within this pillar.

• The Peer Mentor Alliance: Designing opportunities for peer mentors to become more well-rounded humans by focusing on basic needs or system-impacted knowledge to better support students from a peer-to-peer lens. This new focus will offer skill advancement in critical thinking and problem-solving, empathy and compassion, and workforce development.

DASH’S message to students is, “You have the ingredients, we just add a dash of support.”

Any UNO student is welcome to use the space and engage in planned events with topics focused on accountability, financial wellness, rest, and fun. Scholarship cohorts have additional support through professional coaching and peer mentor meetings.

For additional information, visit the DASH website and meet the DASH team.

DASH Open House

Learn more about DASH at their Open House on March 18 from 1 to 4 P.M. in 112 MBSC.