Homelessness

HOUSING & HOMELESSNESS:  Nearly half of all PSU students have experienced food insecurity and over 15% have experienced homelessness. This Capstone considers the challenges of housing insecurity and homelessness, faced by our country and here on our campus, through a critical systems-thinking approach to complex social issues. The course is guided by our collaborators at The PSU Landing at FUMC: A new PSU community resource sheltering students through housing crisis and transitions. Capstone student projects will work to change narratives, implement creative actions, and advocate for effective housing policies. In Spring Term 2021, this class will be offered fully remotely, meeting in synchronous Zoom meetings; and a weekly one hour asynchronous Capstone Project meeting is also required.

In this course, students have the opportunity to learn the basics of grant writing. A much sought-after skill in many sectors, grant writing helps a variety of nonprofits and government agencies obtain funds for various projects they are interested in pursuing. For this class, our community partner will be JOIN. As they describe on their website, JOIN exists to support the efforts of homeless individuals and families to transition out of homelessness into permanent housing.

Community Psychology

This course focuses on the development of consultation skills applicable for use with a broad range of organizations and utilizes a Community Psychology perspective. Students will join one of several available consultation teams, each working collaboratively with a particular community partner on a project to address a critical organizational need. Community partners organizations are typically working in the fields of child/social welfare, social justice, health/mental health, violence prevention, education, criminal justice or community development. The capstone strives to foster the development of practical  skills related to organizational consultation and collaboration, program evaluation and development, effective teamwork, technical communication, as well as ethics, inclusion, and social responsibility. Previous capstones have assisted community partners with a broad range of projects. For example, evaluations to assess program effectiveness, creating the foundation for new programs, enhancing prevention and safety efforts, and supporting/assisting with the development of a major community training event.