At the Villages at Cabrillo, a comprehensive social service community serving veteran and non-veteran homeless individuals and families, it also helps to have Cal State Long Beach's devoted faculty, administrators and students close by.
Located on a 26-acre former U.S. Navy housing site in west Long Beach, the Villages at Cabrillo is a unique model for social services. The community currently provides shelter for approximately 1,000 residents, including nearly 500 veterans, in the largest facility of its kind in the nation.
Its family housing and support services include an emergency shelter, a teen shelter and group home, a transitional shelter, permanent housing and support services, comprehensive child development, childcare and a preschool.
To do its part, CSULB's Center for Community Engagement is helping families as they transition from the streets to permanent homes by developing an array of projects and services that complement the villages' already exceptional housing facilities. This utilizes the talents of the university's student body and faculty through service-learning programs, community-based participatory research and other activities.
"The response from the residents of the Villages at Cabrillo to CSULB students and faculty has been incredibly positive. The adults have welcomed the involvement of our students in the life skills workshops and have appreciated their assistance in learning computer skills and writing resumes," says Carina Sass, associate director of CSULB's Center for Community Engagement. "One of our students-a freshman-was able to actually lead a workshop session on health and the participants were so gracious and supportive."
CSULB's efforts at the villages are supported by a three-year $600,000 HUD Hispanic-Serving Institutions Assisting Communities (HSIAC) grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of University Partnerships.
Last September, the university opened the CSULB Oasis Community Center at the villages that provides a computer lab, administrative office and a classroom for agencies to use for shared programming and services for children, teens and families. Oasis is now the center for nearly all CSULB activities and a welcoming and comfortable common space that can be used by all villages residents.
Oasis is supported by federal work-study students, interns from Psychology and Family and Consumer Sciences, College of Education SERVE students and service-learning students.
Student intern and social services major Mikako Mashimo often finds her work there helps her cope with her own experience of recently being temporarily without a home because of a fire.
"All the workshop participants learn so many things at the Oasis Center. Every day I walk through the door with more thoughts and hopes," says Mashimo. "I personally experienced a fire at my residence [in February] and had to cope with that experience while doing my internship at the villages. So participating in the workshops have also given me the tools to move on and sharing my personal story inside the classroom has helped me develop my self-awareness. This internship experience has changed my world."
Moreover, CSULB is coordinating with local schools, after-school care providers and other partnering organizations to enhance out-of-school academic and enrichment programs and is addressing gaps in existing services and programs to strengthen families living there.
CSULB sophomore Daniella Hagood tutors Courtney King, left, and Bijai Kinsey, right, at the Century/LIFT (Learning Initiatives for Today) after-school program at the Villages at Cabrillo. "I have developed such a strong bond with the children and I feel like they inspire me to want to help future children just like them so they can succeed in the world," Hagood says.
Last semester at the villages, CSULB students served as after-school academic mentors through Long Beach Better Learning After School Today (BLAST). In addition, Professor Scott Wilson and his students from his anthropology and film course are working on an ongoing basis with Long Beach Unified School District's (LBUSD) Mary McLeod Bethune Transitional Program for Homeless Children to conduct ethnographic research and develop DVDs that increase awareness among LBUSD educators regarding the needs and rights of homeless children.
A key role of CSULB is providing a variety of services to the youth at the villages. Last summer, CSULB's youth committee helped facilitate arrangements for summer camps. Professor Laura Henriques, utilizing donations from Verizon and the Long Beach Junior League, conducted her Young Scientists Camp for the Bethune program, while art Professor Carlos Silveira welcomed 20 children to a Young Artists Camp. The University Library's children's collection is also available to the families.
Linguistics Professors Michael Fender and Malcolm Finney are spearheading community-based participatory research by meeting with family-serving agencies that work at the villages to understand the issues and needs of the community.
Finney, chair of the Department of Linguistics, explains that the collaborative approach developed for the research enables them to recognize the unique strengths that each brings to the table to address topics of importance to the community, which are generally articulated by the families living there.
"This type of research differs from traditional faculty scholarship in the sense that issues researched are generally identified by the community and the faculty researcher becomes involved with community groups in working to address them," explained Finney. "In addition, many of the projects frequently result in a relationship between faculty and community partners that provide opportunities for faculty to offer community service and for students to become actively engaged in community activities as part of their educational experience. The overall goal is to combine knowledge and action for social change."
