Hello Friends and Colleagues! It is difficult to write a blog about AHEPPP Cares without reflecting on just how much I care about AHEPPP. Like many of you, I often describe the Family Engagement in Higher Education experience as much more than a professional development opportunity or a mere higher-ed organization. Yes, the work being done is phenomenal and the resources are in abundance, but it’s so much more. We build relationships here. We are familial here. We lean into this community. We rely on one another. Never has this been more prevalent than during the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost immediately we saw our colleagues and friends turn to this community for support through social media, Zoom meetings, phone calls and daily check-ins. The connections here are strong and the impacts are very real. It may have been the profession, the resources or maybe even the conference that brought you here, but it is without a doubt, the people and relationships that have connected you here. 

We are a caring and connected community. That is why, since 2017 the AHEPPP Cares initiative has been so meaningful to our conference committee and attendees. Cares provides our organization an opportunity to say thank you to the local areas welcoming our national conference. Each year we work with the City Representative to identify an organization that our members could easily support either on-site or in advance of the annual conference. With the impact of 2020 and the necessary shift to a virtual conference, our efforts to provide an AHEPPP Cares initiative could easily have been put on pause, but that is not something we wanted to do. We know there is no better time than now to provide support to those in need; and when it came to identifying an organization, we found no better community in need of support than our very own. 

The reality is that many of our members are facing budget cuts, spending freezes, travel bans and more. Even some of those that are working the hardest to support the 2020 Annual Conference are at risk of not being able to attend. While the virtual conference is a fraction of the cost of attending in person and eliminates the cost of travel and time away from the office and family, we still know there are many faced with this difficult reality. We are excited to share that this year AHEPPP Cares will give members, with the resources to do so, an opportunity to sponsor in full or contribute to the scholarship of, colleagues who may be experiencing financial hardship in their office and would otherwise be unable to attend the virtual conference. While we recognize we may not be able to sponsor all, we do hope to gain some support from members in an effort to reach our goal of fulfilling a few *scholarships.

There is a linear path drawn between the work we do, the knowledge we share, the hearts we have and the care we give--not just in our work but each and every day. If you are able, I do hope you consider supporting one another this year. If you are interested in contributing to AHEPPP Cares About One Another please complete this form. Contributions may be given anonymously or credited accordingly. 

Stay well friends!

All the best,

Kerri Fowler

*The scholarship application will be available after the registration deadline has closed.