“Need Help?” The CARE Team is Here!
Arriving in a surprisingly small package, the new “Need Help?” stickers distributed throughout campus are designed to make crisis resources offered by Bridgewater State more accessible to the student body.
By scanning the QR code on the sticker or visiting bridgew.edu/help, students are brought to a website with links to a variety of resources, including counseling services, housing assistance, and referrals to the BSU CARE Team.
Two members of the CARE Team spoke with The Comment regarding the sticker initiative. Elizabeth Ching-Bush (she/her), Acting Assistant Vice President for Student Engagement and the Dean of Students, and Eileen Estudante (she/her), Director of Student Outreach and Special Programs, as well as the campus point of contact for home and food insecurities.
Ching-Bush explained that the stickers can help faculty and staff members connect students to support they need. “Students feel very comfortable sharing some of the things that are happening in their lives [with faculty and staff],” she said. “And the easiest way for them to guide those students is by having something simple…to say ‘okay, this is what my next steps are.’”
Estudante described some of the work she does with the CARE Team, including relocating students facing homelessness to campus housing and providing meal swipes and financial aid arrangements for students with food insecurity. “We’re not just putting a bandaid on it, but…actually helping them while they’re attending school,” said Estudante.
“I think the biggest resource is offering that one-on-one support,” she later added. “Come in and talk and share what you’re going through. And let’s see how we can help you.”
Ching-Bush stated that since the stickers were shared, many students were enthusiastic about the idea. “I would say that more people have sought forth, which was surprising. And more and more people like, ‘Yes, yes, I want one. And I’m like, ‘that is phenomenal.’”
Students have them just in case, and “that’s exactly how we try to pitch it,” she said. “You could help a friend, you could help yourself. You could help a colleague, a peer, whatever, just take it.”
The “Need Help?” stickers are an easy way to raise awareness, but Estudante enthusiastically recommends that students who want to get more involved join the Bears Who Care club. Students in the club help run the food pantry in the Rondileau Student Union and do fundraising.
“That’s a great group of students to get involved with,” Estudante affirmed.
