CUNY launches Chancellor’s Emergency Relief Fund

Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation is supporting the Chancellor’s Emergency Relief Fund, providing stipends to address CUNY community college students’ immediate food and shelter needs. Prior to the pandemic, 71% of CUNY students lived in households earning less than $30,000, 63% reported housing instability and 50% experienced food insecurity in the past year.

COVID-19 threatens to further deepen inequities for CUNY students on multiple fronts. Many of these degree-seeking students work on campus or in the severely-impacted food and retail industries—and have now suffered loss of income.

As part of Deutsche Bank’s Born to Be youth engagement program, the Foundation has commissioned research on how non-tuition financial barriers—such as increasing costs of living and daily transportation expenses—often stand between students and two-year degree completion.

“Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation is proud to support this collaborative fund, which responds to the heightened needs of New York City’s most vulnerable students during this unprecedented time,” said Alessandra DiGiusto, Head of CSR Americas and Executive Director of the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation.

Click here to read CUNY's press release.