The CARES Team consists of representatives from across the campus to come together to discuss referrals from all over campus and find unique, positive outreaches to support student success. CARES is also set up to assess any referrals that involve behaviors that are disruptive or concerning in order to outreach the individuals involved to support community, safety, wellness and success. It provides “one stop” for communication about student and campus issues in real time.
Kent State University at Stark prides itself in its commitment to student success in all forms. CARES was created as another avenue to assist students that may be struggling in ways that may fall outside of the roles of normal campus offices and still need assistance and support. The goal of CARES is to promote a campus that fosters academic and personal success.
CARES is multi-disciplinary which means that representatives from a variety of campus offices are coming together in one place in order to get the best “big picture” of a referral. Current members include:
All referrals and information discussed related to a referral is confidential to CARES. This means that the information is kept completely separate from academic records, does not have a physical paper trail, and is not accessible by any individual on the campus other than the members of CARES. The identities of individuals that submit a referral are kept confidential by the members of CARES; however once a referral moves to the outreach stage, it cannot be guaranteed that the individual outreached will not be able to determine the identity of the referral source. Keeping referrals confidential is important to each member of CARES in order to respect the privacy of all individuals involved and to allow individuals to feel comfortable in making a referral.
There are many types of situations and behaviors that you can refer to CARES. Appropriate referrals include behavior that is disruptive or distracting, as well as any concerns about an individual’s well-being, physical or mental health, or physical safety. Other appropriate referrals are concerns that do not appear to fit appropriately in to the roles of the established offices on campus.
Some examples would be:
There are two primary ways to make a referral to CARES.
You may be contacted by a member of CARES for further information about the referral if necessary. However, every effort will be made to keep the source of the referral confidential.
If you include your email address when you submit a referral to CARES, you will receive a confirmation email that your referral was received and will be reviewed. In some situations, you may be contacted by a CARES Team member for additional information. CARES will perform an outreach based on your referral without providing information about the outcome of that outreach, although there may be some situations in which you will remain involved as part of the outreach from the referral.
