JEP introduces homelessness service learning program

The Joint Educational Project is launching a new eight-week volunteer program called “Understanding Homelessness through Service” as part of the USC Initiative to Eliminate Homelessness, which was introduced in April 2016.

In its pilot semester, the program will connect students to local nonprofits that work directly with homeless populations.

According to JEP Program Assistant and graduate student Riley Runburg, JEP hopes to provide students with a community perspective while doing its part to contribute to the University’s homeless initiative.

“USC students can spend their time volunteering at one of our organizations and leave with a new perspective — an understanding of the problems that go on in an urban area and having a little bit of empathy,“ Runburg said. “They can contribute to solving these kinds of social problems [like homelessness].”

JEP will partner with local community nonprofits to enact these social changes throughout the eight-week program. For example, it will work with Chrysalis, an organization that provides adults with resources to find and retain employment, and School on Wheels, a group that offers tutoring services and basic job training for school-age homeless children. In addition, JEP students will volunteer at local homeless shelters and public libraries.  

Students who participate in the program will work with JEP and the nonprofits for two hours per week, where they will directly provide services to local homeless populations and learn about the social problems these populations face.

While the first semester will focus on volunteer programs alone, Runburg and JEP Associate Director Susan Harris are working to expand the project in coming semesters.

Runberg and Harris are currently working with USC’s Thematic Option program to develop a course about understanding homelessness that will include service learning volunteer projects in its curriculum. While it isn’t confirmed, they hope to debut the program in spring, Harris said.

In 2015, Provost Michael Quick addressed homelessness as a “wicked problem” faced by society in a university-wide email. Since then, the University has sought to tackle the issue through the development of a committee consisting of six USC deans and the establishment of community housing resources.

“Homelessness, as we know, is an intractable problem that has reached epidemic proportions in Los Angeles,” Quick said in an email to the Daily Trojan. “We also know that it is not an easy problem to solve. It takes a major university like USC to research, support and develop new ways to address this complex issue.”

According to Brenda Wiewel, director of the USC Initiative to End Homelessness, the JEP program is part of USC’s pipeline strategy to provide essential skills for individuals to enter and maintain a place in the workforce.

“[The USC Initiative is] engaging students through volunteer work, internships and job placement to help build and fill the pipeline of jobs that are required to increase housing stock and provide services that place people into housing,” Wiewel said.

Students interested in the program can visit the JEP House, located at the corner of Trousdale Parkway and West 34th Street between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. until Sept. 1 to sign up for the program’s inaugural semester.

“We know we need to come at [homelessness] from different directions and one of those is to engage our undergraduates. The JEP effort is a service program that will do just that,” Quick said. “Let’s put our brightest minds to this issue — students, faculty and staff — to further our mission of a private university that serves the public good.”