Last year, CARA partnered with the Peralta Community College District (PCCD) to strengthen and expand the Student Success Navigator program. This semester, that work is taking root across Laney College, Merritt College, Berkeley City College, and the College of Alameda, where Navigators are becoming a critical source of student support.

In November, our team traveled to Oakland to learn more about the impact of the district’s first unified Navigator training, built using CARA’s College Allies framework, and to use tools from Unlocking the Power of Peers to help further develop their model. As campus leaders embrace the district’s strategic vision of a “no wrong door” approach, they are positioning Peer Navigators to support students to move between campuses as they explore majors and programs. 

Following CARA’s caseload approach, this spring each Navigator will be assigned a “crew” of new spring-start students, building sustained relationships and guiding them through key milestones that help ensure they return in Fall 2026. The Navigators are excited about this new approach – one explained seeing it as aligned to mentoring in high schools and thinks it will help students to feel “more included in the community”.

With assigned caseloads, clearer supervision, and professionalized training, Navigators are stepping into their roles with confidence and direction and students are, in turn, receiving targeted support. .

We are grateful to Vice Chancellor Tina Vasconcellos, Ph.D., and to the Nam-Macgill Family Fund and the Oakland Children’s Initiative for making this partnership possible.