Public Health in the Rockies 2026

University campuses are diverse ecosystems of students, faculty, and staff, many of whom are involved in the care of children and dependents. College student parents (CSPs) and other campus guardians struggle to find ways to integrate this identity with their campus roles. These challenges include standard access barriers and a sense of belonging to an environment where the focus is to develop and support incoming young adults. Protecting campus guardians and developing a family friendly campus benefits not only the guardians on campus, but all campus community members. A request-driven toy drive (TD) was developed and implemented by students at the University of Northern Colorado to provide support without requiring navigation of institutional barriers. To enhance accessibility, materials were offered in both English and Spanish. The TD was evaluated using a survey that included a sense of belonging (SOB) Likert scale and open-ended questions guided by the RE-AIM framework (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance). The survey was distributed to TD participants, including volunteers who donated gifts and guardians who received them, all affiliated with the institution (students, staff, and faculty). Qualitative responses were coded using RE-AIM domains, while SOB data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, a one-way ANOVA, and independent samples t-tests. Results for SOB showed no difference between groups but did show that institutional SOB was high. Qualitative results communicated the TD overall was successful in adoption, implementation and maintenance, but had areas of improvement for effectiveness and reach. This study provides important insight into the effectiveness of student-led initiatives, like TDs, in addressing the needs of campus subcommunities who are often traditionally excluded from campus programs, while facilitating opportunities for meaningful campus engagement. This study also demonstrates that the RE-AIM framework can be a useful tool in evaluating low-barrier charity programs.