Marguerite Meraud, a nursing major at North Campus, is one of many students searching for financial assistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to get Medicaid, but now that my son\u2019s 18 they cut it off,\u201d Meraud said.<\/p>\n
She turned to Single Stop USA, a service at the College that offers eligible students free screenings for resources such as food stamps, financial counseling, health insurance, legal advice, psychological counseling referrals, and tax preparations, for help.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone from Single Stop came to one of my classes and explained the program to us,\u201d Meraud said.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been with them for the past three months in order to file my request to reclaim my Medicaid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Single Stop USA was launched at Miami Dade College in October 2010. Its a non-profit organization whose main goal is to ensure that households are kept financially stable.<\/p>\n
Since January, they have served more than 2,000 students at MDC\u2014a $3.62 million value of benefits and services, according to Barbara Pryor, the Director for Single Stop USA\u2019s offices at MDC.<\/p>\n
Offices are currently located at North and Wolfson campuses, as well as at the Carrie P. Meek Entrepreneurial Education Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is government money for government benefits that gets left on the table every year,\u201d said Janet Zoglin a Miami-based Single Stop consultant. \u201cPeople don\u2019t claim that money because if you go to a federal aid office you have to wait three hours and the people don\u2019t treat you right sometimes. People get frustrated.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to this, the Benefits Enrollment Network (BEN) was created. BEN is a computer program that does a rapid screening for people to determine the benefits that they are eligible for. After the screening process, Single Stop helps the individuals apply for the benefits they qualify for.<\/p>\n
Pryor says she has noted the increasing number of students and their families using the resources available at Single Stop, despite second thoughts about the success of the program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were a little nervous, usually when students think of government benefits or food stamps their\u2019s a negative connotation associated with that,\u201d Pryor said. \u201cBut just assisting students, we\u2019ve been able to make a name for ourselves and established our existence on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jarrid L. Smith, an AmeriCorps VISTA Program Leader for Single Stop, says he\u2019s heard just about everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re looking for heartening examples, I\u2019ve got them,\u201d Smith said. \u201cA student in his early thirty\u2019s came in about a month ago, I walked up to him and asked how I could help. He said \u2018yes, I\u2019m hungry.\u2019 This student was from Texas and he had spent all of his money on his courses. He had no family here. We were able to connect him to soup kitchens and other forms of food resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information, contact Single Stop Director Barbara Pryor at\u00a0bpryor@mdc.edu<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0(305)237-1444 or visit\u00a0http:\/\/www.mdc.edu\/main\/singlestop\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Marguerite Meraud, a nursing major at North Campus, is one of many students searching for financial assistance. \u201cI used to get Medicaid, but now that my son\u2019s 18 they cut it off,\u201d Meraud said. She turned to Single Stop USA, a service at the College that offers eligible students free screenings for resources such as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":309,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news"},"yoast_head":"\n