The Upstate Homeless Training Resource System

By: Kimberly Johnson

The Upstate Homeless Training Resource System is a collaboration between the Professional Development Program (PDP), Rockefeller College, University at Albany, SUNY, and the NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. This project aims to reduce time individuals spend experiencing homelessness by providing trainings for homeless services providers. The purpose of these trainings is to enhance direct service providers’ knowledge and skills for working with people experiencing homelessness and to foster a sense of compassion for individuals living unhoused. The project is grounded in the belief that enhanced skills and knowledge, combined with an attitude of compassion will increase job satisfaction and reduce staff turnover, which will, in turn, enhance service provision to people experiencing homelessness. 

This project recognizes that service providers at all levels have meaningful interactions with shelter residents. Because of this, all trainings are open to workers at all levels and positions, from front-line workers such as intake specialists and residential aides to specialized services (e.g., case managers and housing specialists), to program and project administrators. 

Trainings are delivered in 90–120-minute, facilitator-led, interactive webinars, with topics ranging from trauma and homelessness to how to increase staff effectiveness in interviewing, documentation, and goal setting. Training content ranges from concrete skills such as conflict and crisis management to knowledge such as vocabulary surrounding specific subpopulations (e.g., the LGBTQIA+ community) and understanding the medical model of addiction. 

In addition to concrete skills and knowledge, each training focuses on teaching skills that foster a resident experience of partnership, empathy, and the use of a strength-based perspective. To foster partnership, we encourage training participants to recognize interactions with residents as collaborations between experts; the resident is an expert in their own life and the shelter worker is an expert in listening and making referrals. We do this by providing practice activities to enhance communication skills in each training and by demonstrating how to use free state and federal databases to find local service providers. These trainings encourage direct service providers to foster a sense of egalitarianism within the professional relationship between the staff and the resident and to provide supportive and insightful interactions rather than providing mandates or advice. 

To promote a sense of empathy toward residents, trainings present multiple frames of reference as reasonable, useful, and valid. Understanding how and why someone perceives a situation as they do helps shelter workers place the client’s perspective at the center of services. These trainings include videos and scenarios used to spark discussions about the different ways in which people can see and react to a set of circumstances. 

Finally, promoting the use of strength-based perspectives is achieved by activities in which the training participants engage with a scenario then are asked to list strengths that the resident displays. The participants then recommend strategies that the shelter workers in the scenario could use to draw on these strengths and to support and encourage the resident. These activities reinforce the notion that all individuals have strengths, are worthy individuals, and are capable of moving toward stable housing and re-integration into society.

As noted by Miller and Rollnick (2013), without context, skills such as empathy and partnership can be rote, or even manipulative. To counter this, a humanistic ideology undergirds all the courses offered. Humanist ideology is a philosophy that centers each individual’s potential and innate ability to strive toward self-actualization. This philosophy forms the underlying belief structure for the problem-solving and strengths-based methods that are highlighted in each training, and by taking multiple courses, participants receive not only training in specific topics but also an education that promotes critical and creative thinking by marrying skills and knowledge with an attitude of compassion.

A 2015 survey indicated that turnover in non-profit organizations, including organizations that provide services to people experiencing homelessness, is high due to low wages and excessive workloads. Workers also noted a lack of training and professional development opportunities and the resultant inability to receive promotions as an important reason for high turnover rates.  

2018 data indicates that staff turnover rates for direct service shelter providers ranged from 50-60% annually, with employment tenure averaging 18 months. The time needed to replace workers averaged about 3 months, and while organizations were in the hiring process, other workers were expected to take on extra duties until a replacement worker was hired.

Recognizing budgetary constraints that make increasing hourly and annual salaries difficult if not impossible, this program focuses on reducing turnover by increasing job satisfaction and offering concrete evidence of ongoing training that can be used to support career advancement applications. We offer certificates of completion for all classes, and these certificates are currently being used by employers to verify attendance at ongoing professional development opportunities and to differentiate between applicants when hiring for positions above entry-level. Volunteers also collect certificates and use them to bolster their applications when applying to for paid work at a shelter. 

PDP’s Upstate Homeless Services Training and Resource System project aims to enhance homeless services by providing trainings specific to homeless services providers’ experiences. The purpose of the trainings is twofold: to increase the providers knowledge, skills, and ultimately attitude in working with people experiencing homelessness and to help foster a career path for participants. We believe that increased feelings of competence along with the potential for advancement will lead to enhanced job satisfaction and reduced turnover. By providing trainings and support to homeless service providers, we ultimately aim to improve services offered to people experiencing homelessness. 

Resources: 

William R. Miller, & Stephen Rollnick. (2013). Motivational Interviewing, Third Edition: Helping People Change: Vol. Third edition. The Guilford Press. 

Wong, P. T. P. (2017). Meaning-centered approach to research and therapy, second wave positive psychology, and the future of humanistic psychology. The Humanistic Psychologist, 45(3), 207-216. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/hum05624000062

Larry E. Sullivan. (2009). The SAGE Glossary of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. SAGE Publications, Inc.

Nonprofit HR. (2015). 2015 Nonprofit Employment Practices Survey Results. Accessed from http://www.nonprofithr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2015-Nonprofit-Employment-Practices-Survey-Results-1.pdf Accessed on 5-5-2021.

Kroman, D. (2018, June 4). Case workers: ‘A paycheck away from being homeless themselves’. Crosscut. https://crosscut.com/2018/05/case-workers-paycheck-away-being-homeless-themselves Accessed 5-5-2021.

Kim is a leader at University at Albany’s Rockefeller School of Public Policy in the Professional Development Program (PDP) on a contract with the NYS Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance that provides training to homeless services providers in upstate NY and Long Island. She is the lead curriculum developer for the project.

From Hobohemia to Housing First: Creating and Implementing a Course on Homelessness in an MSW Program

By,  Jennifer M. Frank, LSW, PhD

Millersville University School of Social Work

The social work profession is charged with attending to the needs of those marginalized by society, those struggling to meet basic needs, and those in challenging life transitions (NASW, 2017).  But even while recognizing that stable housing is a basic human need affected by both micro issues and macro structures, content on this critical area of community practice is largely absent in social work curricula.

When I began as an instructor at my university some 11 years ago I offered to teach our “housing elective” only to learn that we did not even have one.  Every chance I had, I’d pitch creating one and only this past spring was I able to finally do that (11 years later).  Offered as a temporary “special topics” course, I led our concentration year MSW students on an historical exploration of homelessness in the US.  The course, From Hobohemia to Housing First: A Critical Reflection of Homelessness in the US, provided students with an historical overview of homelessness as a social problem in the United States. The two main texts that I used for the course were Larkin, H., Aykanian, A., & Streeter, C. (2019). Homelessness prevention and intervention in Social Work: Policies, programs, and practices and Kusmer, K. (2003). Down and out and on the road.

The creation and implementation of this course has been an inspiring journey.  I’m excited to share.

Goal #1: Structure the Syllabus Sensibly

Structuring the course was the first challenge and I decided to build it from an historical perspective.  I used critical events to define key time periods. I found that it is very necessary to position the historical constructions of homelessness in context.  Students examined the disparate conceptualizations of homelessness over time and the individual, community, and policy approaches intended to address them.  Students, many of whom were relatively unfamiliar with much of this history, seemed to be fascinated with the intersection between society’s structures and how those “without permanent abode” had been conceptualized and attended to over time.  The terminology alone proved interesting in that regard, such as Anderson’s (1961) typology of the “hobo, tramp, and bum,” Snow and Anderson’s (1993) “dislocated, straddlers, and outsiders,” or Gowan’s (2010) “hoboes, hustlers, and backsliders.” 

We explored historical issues such as the “wandering poor,” the post-Civil War tramps, the workhouse, the Great Depression and the Bonus Army, Skid Row SROs, and the rise of the transitional housing infrastructure of the 1990s.  These topics provided an opportunity to discuss the role of social workers (e.g. charity organizers, community organizers, case managers) over time, providing an interesting discussion about whether and to what extent social workers are agents of change or agents of social control, both then and now. These theoretical questions were easily couched in practical realities of relevant contemporary issues such as “shelterization” (Grunberg & Eagle, 1990), secular and faith-based organizational collaboration, “economies of makeshift,” (Hopper et al., 1985), panhandling, and Housing First (Padgett et al., 2016).

Goal #2: Cultivate Critical Connections

While the course was online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I diversified my teaching strategies as much as possible.  As noted in the syllabus, I included a number of movies, mostly documentaries, that students watched and reflected upon.  Our discussion of the struggles and experiences of real people helped us to cultivate empathy.  Each week, a student was assigned to select a narrative from the YouTube podcast, Invisible People, to reflect upon and discuss as a group. Beginning with these personal narratives served to focus our interpretations of homelessness squarely on observing those with lived-experience as the experts.  Our discussions of contemporary topics helped us to cultivate policy engagement. Weekly, students would share a Hot Topics in Homelessness bringing a national current event to the metaphorical table for discussion.  To combine these empathy and policy efforts, students worked in pairs to select a subpopulation of interest and explored the structural dynamics affecting them and their unique service needs.  Findings were displayed creatively through the development of electronic posters.

Goal #3: Innovate & Inspire Students

To inspire the students and provide diverse perspectives, I hosted a number of inspiring national and local guest speakers, including someone from the National Alliance to End Homelessness.  Most importantly, I found it necessary to be flexible and to respond directly to the need in our own local community. I suppose it felt disingenuous to simply talk about homelessness as an abstract concept without doing something tangible to help.  After being inspired by a guest speaker who shared his experience doing outreach with the unsheltered of our community, students were captivated to fully engage with the issue locally and in real time.  

Students embarked on a project—for which they took full ownership and leadership—to study the best ways to attend to unsheltered homelessness in our local community.  I made it a point to teach and include students at every level of the research project (e.g. letters to partners, IRB application, research, presentation).  The class invited the mayor’s office and LancoMyHome (our local homelessness coalition) to participate by sharing their insights and receiving our findings. 

To facilitate the research, I assisted students to three focus teams, each responsible for covering their focus area: the local issue, recommendations of national organizations, and effective best practices.  Committed to including the input of those with lived-experience, we developed a brief survey for individuals who had prior experience sleeping rough.  This entire process also provided students with insight and experience into preparing an IRB proposal. 

The research findings included implications such as eliminating barriers to services, avoiding criminalization practices, and increasing multi-sector collaboration.  The students’ presentation can be found here.  Findings were disseminated at our student conference and in a meeting with the Mayor’s Office, LancoMyHome, and interested faculty.  Healthy and collaborative discussion ensued.  This project sparked an interest for several students and, with the help of a small grant, work on the project is slated to now continue after the semester’s end.  

Goal #4: Challenge Curricula to Include Homelessness as a Central Topic

On one night in 2019, 567,715 people were homeless in the United States (NAEH, 2021).  It is a curricular mistake and a moral failure to approach the topic of homelessness as a practice context and not a direct content area.  This semester I confirmed that given the opportunity and the resources, students will approach the topic of homelessness with passion, engagement, and authentic inquiry.  I was inspired by the advocacy of my students this semester and plan to continue fighting to make this course on homelessness a permanent part of our curricula on behalf of those 567,715 homeless individuals.

References

Anderson, N. (1961). The hobo: The sociology of the homeless man. University of Chicago Press.

Gowan, T. (2010). Hobos, hustlers, and backsliders: Homeless in San Francisco. University of Minnesota Press.

Grunberg, J. & Eagle, P.F. (1990). Shelterization: How the homeless adapt to shelter living, Hospital & Community Psychiatry, 41(5), 521-525.

Hopper, Susser, & Conover (1985) Economies of Makeshift: Deindustrialization and Homelessness in New York City, Urban Anthropology, 14, 183-236

Kusmer, K. (2003). Down and Out and on the Road. Oxford University Press. 

Larkin, H., Aykanian, A., & Streeter, C. (2019). Homelessness prevention and intervention in Social Work: Policies, programs, and practices. Springer.  

National Alliance to End Homelessness (2021). Homelessness statistics. www.endhomelessness.org

National Association of Social Workers (2017). Code of Ethics. https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English

Padgett, D., Henwood, B., & Tsemberis, S. (2016). Housing First: Ending Homelessness, Transforming Systems, and Changing Lives. Oxford University Press.

Snow, D. & Anderson, L. (1993). Down on their luck: A study of homeless street people. University of California Press.

Steve Hicks School of Social Work food pantry serves students during pandemic

By Calvin Streeter, PhD

In 2014, the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin established a food pantry to support social work students who needed supplemental food assistance. Originally established through personal funding from faculty, staff and students, the food pantry consisted of cabinets filled with non-perishable food items located in the school’s student lounge. Assistant dean for undergraduate programs, Cossy Hough, said “when faculty heard our students were dealing with food insecurity, they got to work. Our social work student council and our staff and faculty teamed up to create a food pantry for our students. This food pantry is a microcosm of the grassroots level change we believe in.”

When the Coronavirus pandemic forced the university to close, students were unable to access the school’s food pantry. Like students across the country, our students were forced to quickly adapt to a new learning environment while being displaced, laid off or furloughed, forced to self-isolate, and in some cases care for immunocompromised family members. It became clear very early in the pandemic to the school’s administration and its Social Work Advisory Council that they needed to provide immediate support to students experiencing food shortages and financial issues as a result of COVID-19.

In March 2020, pantry operations shifted in response to the pandemic. A committee of faculty, staff and students was formed to plan and fulfill bi-weekly, socially distanced food distribution events for students. In less than two weeks after the campus closed, the committee met to prepare more than 20 packages filled with non-perishable food items such as beans, rice and pasta, for the first student food pick-up. The packages were set out in front of the school so students could anonymously pick it up on March 31, 2020.

Food variety expanded with support from the greater UT Austin community. For example, an officer with the UT Police Department donated boxes of non-perishable food items and members from the Social Work Advisory Council gave monetary donations and collected additional donations from local businesses to restock the food pantry. As a result, student food packages gained additional non-perishable food items, along with fresh produce such as lettuce, tomatoes, apples, oranges, bananas, bread, dessert, meat and frozen foods. I addition, a list of recipes and cooking tips was developed and additional resources for food access were made available to students.

The food pantry fed 61 unique social work students and their families during the summer of 2020 and student food distributions continued throughout the 2020-2021 academic year. Through the end of April 2021, 93 unduplicated individual students had received food at least once and 24 students received food packages 4 or more times during the academic year. These numbers included 21 large families, which were provided with double food boxes. A total of 314 food packages have been distributed through the pantry since the pandemic began.

When one Social Work Advisory Council member was asked about her involvement with the food pantry, she said “The school is full of people who live what they teach. The Deans, faculty and staff involved with the pantry at the school are the heroes because they were doing their work while ensuring the food was procured, boxed and delivered. They went far above and beyond. The pantry was a providence that set everything in place. When COVID-19 hit, I was so grateful the infrastructure was already established and we were able to just continue to fulfill those needs.”

Calvin Streeter, Ph.D., is the Meadows Foundation Centennial Professor in the Quality of Life in the Rural Environment. He received his MSW and PhD from the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. His social work practice experience includes rural community development, program planning and implementation, and program evaluation.

Streeter teaches both MSSW and Ph.D. courses. He has most recently taught Strategic Partnership through Collaborative Leadership, Program Evaluation, and Dynamics of Organizations and Communities in the MSSW program and Data Analysis in the Ph.D. program. He also teaches the forum seminar in Social Entrepreneurship and Non-Profits for the university’s Bridging Disciplines Program

Identifying Opportunities to Teach Students about Homelessness

By Amanda Aykanian, PhD

Homelessness is a topic that gains little attention in social work curriculum. Yet, it is a social problem that intersects with many of the topics (e.g., mental health, substance use, child welfare) and populations (e.g., youth and young adults, families, survivors of domestic violence) addressed consistently in coursework. 

In thinking about why homelessness is not more prominent in social work education, some immediate barriers come to mind. Programs may not have faculty with expertise in homelessness, developing curriculum integration ideas can be time consuming, and some departments have strict rules that limit the degree to which course content can be modified. One could also highlight turning points in social work’s history that have contributed to an ideological shift towards problems, topics, and populations that lend themselves more readily to direct clinical practice and traditional therapies. This shift has made homelessness (and poverty more broadly) less appealing because it requires a macro lens to address the complex policy, system, and community dynamics that contribute to individual experiences. Because of these factors, and perhaps others, homelessness has not been given consistent attention across social work curriculum and degree programs.

The good news is that the profession has made an effort to reinvigorate its commitment to homelessness—most notably is its inclusion in the Grand Challenges for Social Work initiative. The collaborative work of the Grand Challenge to End Homelessness and the National Center for Excellence in Homeless Services has also produced important resources for teaching about homelessness, such as CSWE’s Curricular Guide for Addressing Homelessness and the first social work textbook on homelessness. In a new article in the Journal of Social Work Education, Tara Ryan-DeDominicis and I present a model of low, medium, and high effort strategies for integrating homelessness into coursework. Below are some ideas and resources we discuss in that article.

1. Start Small: You do not need to be a homelessness expert to start integrating the topic into your courses. Start with something simple, like a reading swap (see #3), and use it as an opportunity to learn alongside your students.
2. Look for “Easy Ins”: Look for topics in your syllabus that provide an easy connection to homelessness and target changes in those areas by making reading swaps (see #3) or modifying assignments. 
3. Swap Readings: Pick one or two areas to add or swap-in a reading that connects the course topic to homelessness. Teaching about trauma? Read about how young women with histories of victimization and homelessness perceived the value of a trauma-informed group intervention. Teaching about suicide? Read about factors that contribute to whether young adults experiencing homelessness tell friends about their suicidal thoughts. Teaching about the strengths-based perspective? Read about how that approach has been used with homeless mothers.
4. Use Existing Resources for Inspiration: Need ideas? Check out the National Center’s journal article and non-fiction book reading lists. CSWE’s Curricular Guide for Addressing Homelessness also has reading suggestions and activity ideas for using homelessness to teach across the nine social work competencies.
5. Use Publicly Available Videos/Webinars: The National Alliance to End Homelessness, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the National Homelessness Law Center, the National Council on Health Care for the Homeless, and the National Low Income Housing Coalition all have publicly available webinars on topics related to service needs, service systems, and policy issues.
6. Don’t Forget About Policy: Ending homelessness will require significant political will and large-scale changes to federal and state-level policy, including policy areas outside of housing (e.g., criminal justice reform). This makes it a topic ripe for classes on policy analysis and advocacy. Some resources to use for talking about homelessness and policy include these Policy Recommendations for Meeting the Grand Challenge to End Homelessness, these homelessness-related Policy Proposals for the 2020 Presidential Election, and NASW’s 2021 Blueprint of Federal Social Policy Priorities.
7. Think Outside the Classroom: Service learning, research projects, and other forms of experiential learning are also great ways to connect social work topics to homelessness. A recent special issue of the Journal of Social Work Education highlights several examples.

The ideas above are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg for ways social work educators can teach students about homelessness. I imagine faculty across the National Center’s partner schools and beyond are already using creative curriculum integration strategies. Perhaps as the National Center and the Grand Challenge to End Homelessness evolve, more attention will be paid to sharing educational ideas and evaluating curricular innovations.

Amanda Aykanian, PhD is an assistant professor of social work at the University of Texas at Arlington. Her work centers on program, system, and policy implementation and community-based evaluation research. Her recent research has focused on homeless service access and understanding how communities implement federal mandates while navigating complex local, state, and federal policy arenas.

Homelessness in Higher Education during COVID-19

By Morgan Weber, Yadira Maldonado, and Rashida Crutchfield, E.d.D.

Higher education in the United States is a critical avenue for social and economic mobility. College and university degrees continue to be essential as the wage gap between individuals with and without a degree continues to widen. While beneficial in the long run, the trajectory towards this goal can be tumultuous. As the price of college attendance and cost of living increases in many parts of the country, some students are unable to support themselves and are often forced to cut costs on basic needs such as food and housing. The issue of homelessness for college and university students has emerged as a pressing across the country. 

As a part of our research in basic needs insecurity in higher education, we’ve spoken to hundreds of students who experience homelessness. For some, student homelessness may include street living, sleeping in their cars, or living in spaces not meant for human habitation. For many, homelessness is never having a consistent place to stay. Students “couch surf,” or move from location to location, relying on temporary stays with friends, family members, or hotels where they can’t stay long term.  Pauline, who lived in a storage unit for most of the academic year, described her experience saying, “I’m like constantly stressed out. Like, where am I going to live next month? How am I going to stay here until I need to graduate. Like, am I gonna’ have a place to live when I find a job, like, I don’t know.”

 In 2019, a national survey found that 46% of students experienced housing insecurity and 17% had reported homelessness. Research conducted in California found that 5% of University of California (UC) students, 10% of California State University (CSU) students, and 20% at California Community Colleges (CC) students experience homelessness. The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the problem for these students. The ongoing instability and fear of homelessness is traumatic, and the pandemic, for so many students, deepens the financial and person strain. For many experiencing food and housing insecurity, their college campus served as an anchor to access resources and find support. Students utilized their campuses as a source for safe housing, food, technology, support services, and an environment to foster social connections. Statewide lockdowns and stay-at-home orders have forced campus closures, preventing students from accessing these crucial resources. Some schools have extended these precautions until the middle of next year. For instance, as of September 10^th, 2020, the California State University (CSU) system announced that it would continue to primarily hold virtual learning until June 2021. 

Without access to basic needs or the ability to be highly mobility, students who experience homelessness may not be able to use the resources of support they once had. Many lost jobs that were keeping them just afloat enough to make it. Lucy and her children had found stable housing, but after layoffs, had very few choices. She said, “Luckily, we have a van, we can live in that van if that’s what it is.” Students who are highly mobile often do not have a safe space to “shelter in place”. They can be forced to make very difficult choices, risking living in places they may not feel safe or spend more time exposed to open environments which may lead to COVID-19 exposure, negative experiences with police, and food insecurity. Some steps have been taken to better support students experiencing homelessness. 

Campuses and communities can still support students who face homelessness. California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) offered and extensive Basic Needs Program prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. This included a case management approach, allowing students to tell their story only once and referring them to appropriate programs, services and resources like emergency grants, Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program (SNAP) application assistance, emergency housing and, most recently, access to a Rapid ReHousing program that supports long term housing support. The campus also had open library hours, on-campus employment, use of the gym showers and lockers, after-hours study hall, counseling services, and a food pantry. The Basic Needs Program is still responding to students and application for this support have skyrocket. 

However, many programs are saturated or limited given the amount of current need, and the quick shifts to primarily off-campus learning to ensure the safety of students does not always take into account what students in the greatest need might be living. Sam had been living in his car prior to COVID but gained emergency housing on his campus. When the closures hit and campus housing did not account for what that meant for him, he suffered. He said, “Then COVID happened here and then I had to worry about all over again of like, oh my God.” Sam fought to stay on campus, but systems must be put in place to avoid retraumatizing students.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the availability and access to resources on college campuses has decreased; however, students persist in their efforts to earn degrees. In fact, though some campuses are seeing worrisome decreases in matriculation rates, many campus are still seeing surges in online enrollment. Many students are aware that, without college and with limits on available employment, their outlook is dependent on the long-term investment in education despite persistent burdens of getting their basic needs met.

Students experiencing homelessness have had to quickly adapt and research new ways to meet the needs once provided by campus resources. This could force some students to choose between using their savings or financial aid on their basic needs or their academics. Many work or continue to work in employment that is low paying, but high risk for contracting COVID like the food industry. Communities and campuses have opportunities to address these issues. Offer available resources to students and communicate with care and concern. Consider hosting students experiencing homelessness in recently vacated housing units. Bridge links between students and off-campus resources and invest in case management models for referrals to resources on- and off-campus. Advocate for state and federal financial aid allocations for students who need it.

The COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated the existing epidemic of student homelessness in higher education, which has been exacerbated due to closures and economic vulnerability. They have had to reimagine their daily lives and utilize crucial survival skills to juggle meeting their basic needs while continuing their education. It is imperative to acknowledge the resilience and dedication displayed by these students, and it is just as important for staff, educators, and administrators to continue providing aid and support in their journey for a higher education in the time of COVID-19. Campuses are strongly encouraged to consider how students experiencing homelessness and think creatively to address basic needs insecurity. 

“I strongly believe that education is the greatest investment that the society can put upon itself, an investment in us, which is the future, which is the next generation, is the most rewarding for an economy, for research, for science, for literature, for culture, the arts, and for any budget cuts to be coming towards us will dramatically affect us. They affect our health, they affect our future, they affect our progression out of poverty.”

-Tom (CSU Student who experienced homelessness)

Authors:

Morgan Weber is an undergraduate student activist pursuing her bachelor’s degree in Sociology at California State University, Long Beach.  She is the founder of The Butterfly Effect, a social movement tackling basic needs awareness in higher education through outreach and community engagement.

Yadira Maldonado is a master of social work student at California State University, Long Beach. She is a research technician for the study of student basic needs for the CSU.

Dr. Rashida Crutchfield is an associate professor in the School of Social Work at California State University, Long Beach. Her continued research and advocacy on basic needs for students has garnered statewide and national attention. She is a co-author of Addressing Homelessness and Housing Insecurity in Higher Education: Strategies for Educational Leaders.