In the News 

2024 City of Milwaukee Rental Housing Stability Fund

If you are experiencing challenges with paying rent due to financial hardship within the last 60 days, you may be eligible for assistance through the newly established City of Milwaukee Rental Housing Stability Fund. This fund is designed to help City of Milwaukee tenants facing temporary income loss or hardship. Eligible applicants will receive a one-time assistance payment, provided they have the means to sustain their rent obligations moving forward. 

Senator Tammy Baldwin delivers in funding to Southeastern Wisconsin

Senator Baldwin helps FAST Fund with $500,000 of support, “The FAST Fund at MATC is so grateful for this funding from Senator Baldwin. She clearly recognizes the realities for Wisconsin community college students and the basic needs emergencies they face," says Director Liz Franczyk 

Emergency Support, with a Human Touch

How FAST Funds Meet Students’ Needs, by AFT

Local 212 FAST Fund: Helps MATC Students with Emergency Basic Needs

Local 212 FAST Fund: Helps MATC students with emergency basic needs, by WIS Business 

FAST Fund ED Liz Franczyk sits down with John Mercure and Greg Matzek at WTMJ 620

College students today face many barriers to success. The FAST Fund help to alleviate some of those barriers.

Emily Files of WUWM talks with FAST Fund ED Liz Franczyk and MATC student Reggie Leslie

Outstanding debt can prevent MATC scholarship recipients from enrolling at the school

Local 212 MATC FAST Fund Helps MATC students Continue their Education

The MATC FAST Fund is pleased to announce that in the 2022-2023 academic year its grants not only kept Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC) students from dropping out of college but also improved the college’s capacity to serve students overall.

Foster kid, teen mom, homeless college student. Now she's making a difference, helping others.

Bria is the ultimate FAST Fund success story. Check out this Journal Sentinel article to learn more about our Board Secretary and how a little helping hand can make a huge difference

Video recap of Great Lakes FAST Fund Consortium

Click here to watch video! 

48 Hours Inside a Student Emergency-Aid Experiment

Eric Hoover, a journalist at The Chronicle of Higher Ed,  recently flew to Milwaukee from his home in Washington D.C. to learn more about the FAST Fund, how we work, and why we do what we do. The article, 48 Hours Inside a Student Emergency-Aid Experiment: A small-grant program in Milwaukee offers hope, $275 at a time, against a torrent of needs, is excellent and we are excited to share it with you all.

Great Lakes FAST Fund Consortium Fellowship 

The first of its kind, the Great Lake FAST Fund Consortium is a regional organizing effort with student Changemaker Fellows and faculty leaders working together to develop an advocacy agenda, increase awareness about students' basic needs and advocate for policy and practice changes.

MATC FAST Fund publishes its
2021-22 Annual Report

Click here to learn more about FAST Fund during the 2021-22 academic year including total number of students helped, donor profiles, and student success stories.

Milwaukee County Grants $100,000 in Aid for MATC Students Facing Housing Insecurity

“Milwaukee Area Technical College is the only college in Wisconsin that has a majority of its students are people of color,” Shea said during the committee meeting Thursday. “Many of them come with all kinds of economic challenges attending school; some of our students are homeless; many of our students are single parents… They’re not asking for a handout as so much as a hand-up.”

As Student Need Rises, More College Faculty Set Up Emergency Aid Funds

Even as FAST Funds help to fill gaps in social services today, labor leaders think that in the future, the movement has the potential to organize faculty and staff around advocacy for campus policies that actually close those gaps for low-income students and educators.

FAST Fund gives diapers, peace of mind over holidays

While being short on money has been part of college life for decades, for some students the need can force them to quit school. Liz Franczyk, Director of MATC's FAST Fund, is trying to relieve that financial stress for students.

AFT's Randi Weingarten visits Milwaukee to support MATC union-run financial aid program

The president of the nation’s second-largest teachers' union was in Milwaukee Thursday to throw support behind a pioneering college affordability program at MATC.

FOX 6 news highlights Partnership with MATC FAST Fund

Click here to watch video footage of Mayor Johnson's announcement of a $200,000 grant to the FAST Fund 

FAST Fund to receive $200,000 from Milwaukee for MATC students' basic needs costs

The Faculty and Students Together (FAST) Fund is partnering with the city of Milwaukee and Mayor Cavalier Johnson as the city approved a $200,000 grant to the FAST Fund which will go students of MATC to help cover basic needs costs.

MATC FAST Fund publishes 2020-2021 Annual Report

Clink on the link to read about the struggles MATC students endured during the 2020-21 school year but also their triumphs; read faculty testimonies; learn about our amazing donors, the Mary Anne Gross Memorial Endowment fund and more.

MATC Student Stories: Corey Lee went back to college to set example for his kids

In the last installment of the StoryCorps-inspired series, we hear from Corey Lee. He’s a father of two who graduated with a business management degree in December.

During his time at MATC, Corey turned to the faculty-run FAST Fund for emergency financial aid. He got to know Michael Rosen, a retired economics professor who founded the FAST Fund. The fund has helped hundreds of students stay in school.

MATC Student Stories: Tiffany Mosby learned to read as an adult before attending college

Tiffany Mosby dropped out of high school as a junior, after struggling to read for years. As an adult, she took classes at Literacy Services to improve her reading so she could get her GED and go to college.

Mosby is about to graduate from MATC with an associate degree in business management. She sat down with her close friend, Andrea Pabon.

MATC Student Stories: Liana Howard was inspired by grandmother as she juggled school, work and kids

Liana Howard, 29, is a hospital critical care technician, college student and mother. She took classes at MATC over the past couple years with the goal of enrolling in the nursing program.

She spoke with her grandmother, Linda Tolbert, who helped Liana take care of her kids while she was attending classes and they were in virtual school.

MATC Student Stories: After incarceration, Troy Muns returns to school with goal to help others

Inspired by the long-running StoryCorps series, WUWM invited Milwaukee Area Technical College students to talk about these questions with someone who has helped them on their education journeys.

When Attending College Means Losing Your Home

Nearly 60 percent of college students report struggling to access basic necessities, including food and housing. A national program is providing emergency funds to change that.

MATC faculty-run emergency aid program sees increased need during pandemic

"We've seen a greater need since the pandemic, but at the same time I think all the pandemic did is exacerbated an already existing issue," Franczyk said. "That need was there, it just got worse."

The FAST Fund keeps students in school

AFT Local 212’s FAST Fund has helped 1,426 students with basic needs costs over the last five years

Survey Indicates Emergency Aid to Students Keeps Them in College

The most stunning finding of the report is that 93% of FAST Fund students remained enrolled, transferred to another college or university, or graduated from MATC.

Wisconsin Examiner

When government and colleges come up short in meeting student needs, faculty unions step up

Digital Bridge delivers laptops to MATC students 

Digital Bridge, the non-profit organization that provides refurbished laptops to marginalized communities, delivered laptops for MATC students

INSIDE HIGHER ED- food insecurity

Millions of college students face food insecurity and it’s time for the federal government to step in.

INSIDE HIGHER ED-
LATINX students

A new study argues that debt aversion and transportation problems pose major barriers to college completion for Latinx students

THE HOPE CENTER

Advancing a federal agenda for #RealCollege students.

EDQUITY REPORT

Students receiving aid twice as likely to graduate.

EVERYDAY HEROES

Natalie's Everyday Heroes: Dr. Michael Rosen, director of MATC's FAST Fund

BRIA BURRIS

An MATC student has overcome some challenges thanks to MATC's FAST Fund program.

GWEN MOORE

US Congresswoman for the FAST Fund Gala held on February 21, 2020.

FASTFund on TMJ4

FAST Fund partnership with Pete's Fruit Market

KRISTINE TEROUNZO 

MATC students living on economic margins rely on emergency funding to avoid homelessness, hunger
BY MARGARET CANNON 

FASTFund on 89.7
WUWM

Many MATC Students Are Experiencing Homelessness, Survey Finds
By ANGELINA MOSHER SALAZAR 

NOU THAO on 89.7
WUWM

A View From The Front Lines Of The COVID-19 Pandemic 

By JOY POWERS 

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FASTFund on ADELANTE

Local 212/MATC FAST Fund on MPTV’s Adelante

THE PLIGHT OF HIDDEN HOMELESSNESS

Meet five people willing to share the stories of their homelessness –

BY BARBARA MINER