CLU students to interview Valley homeless

Service-learning project aids 100,000 Homes effort

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Nicholas Novosel developed the service-learning project as a way to enrich the students’ learning experience while teaching them civic responsibility and providing a benefit to the community.

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - March 16, 2012) Students from California Lutheran University will use their statistical skills to gather and interpret data on homeless people in North Hollywood and Sun Valley as part of the national 100,000 Homes Campaign.

Adult Degree Evening Program students in Nicholas Novosel's "Statistical Methods" class will help the San Fernando Valley Homeless Coalition by finding and interviewing homeless people to determine their level of vulnerability. The effort is part of Community Solutions' national campaign to house 100,000 homeless Americans by July 2013. The students will interpret and graph the data they collect and write a report on their findings.

Coalition co-chair Eddie Sanders will train the students during their class on Monday, March 19, on the university's Thousand Oaks campus. On the evenings of March 26 and 27, the students will fan out across North Hollywood and Sun Valley using maps generated from earlier work in the area to find and survey people living on the streets.

The service-learning experience grew out of a project Novosel's class did last year counting homeless people in the San Fernando Valley as part of the Los Angeles Housing Services Authority biennial count.

Novosel developed the service-learning projects as a way to enrich the students' learning experience while teaching them civic responsibility and providing a benefit to the community. It's one of many service-learning experiences integrated across the curriculum at CLU.

For more information on the 100,000 Homes Campaign visit http://100Khomes.org.

 

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