Pregnancy and Parenting Resource Forums
Bring the Right People to the Table
Pregnant and parenting students shouldn’t have to navigate college without knowing where to turn for support.
A Women Deserve Better Pregnancy & Parenting Resource Forum brings students, campus leaders, and community resource providers together to take a closer look at the resources available to pregnant and parenting students, hear where challenges remain, and identify practical ways to strengthen support.
Better Support Starts with a Conversation
Your campus may already offer more resources than students realize.
Or students may encounter gaps in child care, housing, academic flexibility, financial assistance, health care, or simply knowing where to go for help.
A Pregnancy & Parenting Resource Forum creates a constructive space to find out.
Rather than beginning with assumptions about what students need, the Forum brings together people with lived experience and those positioned to strengthen campus support.
The goal isn’t to criticize what’s missing. It’s to understand what’s available, listen to students, and work together on what could be better.
How it Works
Assess. Connect. Improve.
01
Step One
Understand What’s Available
Begin by looking at the resources, policies, and support already available to pregnant and parenting students both on campus and in the surrounding community.
The WDB Campus Assessment can help identify what’s working, what may be difficult for students to find or access, and where there may be opportunities for improvement.
02
Step Two
Bring the Right People Together
Invite people who understand different parts of the student experience and campus response.
Depending on your campus, that might include pregnant and parenting students, student affairs, academic affairs, faculty, health and counseling services, financial aid, housing, child care, community resource providers, and others.
The most important voices include the students these resources are intended to serve.
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Step Three
Turn the Conversation into Practical Next Steps
Use what you’ve learned to identify realistic opportunities for stronger support.
That might mean making existing
resources easier to find, improving coordination between departments, strengthening a policy or service, connecting students with community resources, or exploring something new.
Every campus is different. The solutions should be, too.
The Conversation
What Happens at a Resource Forum?
A WDB moderator helps guide a practical conversation about pregnancy and parenting resources on and off campus. Participants explore questions such as:
- What resources are already available?
- Do students know about them?
- Are those resources realistically accessible?
- Where do pregnant and parenting students encounter challenges?
- Which campus offices and community organizations should be better connected?
- What practical improvements are possible?
- What should happen next?
The Forum brings together students with lived experience, campus decision makers, and community resource providers to understand existing resources, identify opportunities, and develop practical next steps tailored to that campus.
Listen first. Then build from what you learn.
Small Changes Can Make a Meaningful Difference
A Resource Forum doesn’t have to end with a sweeping new program. Past campus efforts connected with the Forum model have included practical improvements such as:
- Making pregnancy and parenting information easier to find.
- Strengthening coordination among campus offices.
- Establishing student parent networks.
- Expanding lactation and diaper changing facilities.
- Organizing child care support.
- Improving communication about available resources.
The point is not for every campus to adopt the same solution. The point is to discover what would make a difference on yours.
Praise for Pregnancy Resource Forums
Praise for Pregnancy Resource Forums
“Having all the panelists together to share their work was super awesome. I am so happy to hear how much the school is doing already that I was not aware of.”
Kate Wheeler, President of Holy Cross Students for Life, College of Holy Cross
“We received a lot of positive feedback regarding the Forum. One student said it was the best event she’d been to at Fordham. Support for creating a task force to address these issues was strong.”
Laura Notess, Fordham University. FFL Moderator: Serrin M. Foster.
“I enjoyed the forum very much. I admire Serrin Foster’s thoughtfulness, sense of humor, and commitment to practical community interventions to support pregnant students. She motivates others to examine their commitment to standing with pregnant students!”
Sheila McMahon, M.Div., Director, Boston College Women’s Resource Center
Who Comes to the Table
A Model Built on Listening and Collaboration
Students
Students Bring Lived Experience
They can help a campus understand what is working and what may look good on paper but is difficult to navigate in real life.
Campus Leaders
Campus Leaders Bring Knowledge and Decision-Making Capacity
Administrators, faculty, and staff can help explain existing resources, policies, constraints, and opportunities.
Community Partners
Community Partners Expand What’s Possible
Local organizations and service providers may already offer resources that don’t need to be duplicated on campus they simply need stronger connections to students.
Put those perspectives around the same table, and possibilities begin to emerge.
Where it Started
A Model with a
History of Practical
Problem-Solving
The first Pregnancy Resource Forum was held at Georgetown University in 1997, bringing together representatives from university departments and a community pregnancy resource organization.
The model was subsequently used at colleges and universities around the country to examine resources, improve communication, strengthen collaboration, and identify practical ways to better serve pregnant and parenting students.
1997
Georgetown University Forum
FFL held its landmark Pregnancy Resource Forum to systematically establish support frameworks.
Get Started
Start by Understanding Your Campus
If you haven’t already, complete the WDB Campus Assessment. It can help you identify existing resources, questions worth exploring, and people who should be part of the conversation.
Recommended
Assess Your Campus
Take the official WDB Campus Assessment to audit existing resources, map structural needs, and design a starting blueprint tailored to your university.
Bring a Resource Forum to Your Campus
Already have a sense of what’s needed? Contact our national team to coordinate your local Pregnancy & Parenting Resource Forum and bring leaders together.
Women deserve better than having to choose between their children and their education.
Creating campuses where pregnant and parenting students can continue their education and pursue their futures takes more than one office, organization, or individual.
It starts by listening. Then bringing people together. Then turning what you learn into action.
Assess. Connect. Improve.