Strengthening Support for People Experiencing Homelessness
Thanks to an additional $150,000 grant awarded this summer by The New York Community Trust (NYCT), the School of Social Welfare’s National Center for Excellence in Homeless Services will be able to expand upon the initiatives put in place in 2015 to address the needs of the homeless population.
Launched in 2013 and made possible, in part, with a $50,000 anonymous gift to SSW, the center grew out of an existing partnership between the school and the Committee on the Shelterless (COTS) of California. John Records, founding co-director and senior adviser, is a UAlbany Public Service Professor who served as executive director of COTS from 1992-2013. Center director Heather Larkin, associate professor of social work, says the grant will build upon the $100,000 NYCT grant awarded last year by the New York Community Trust to fund the National Homelessness Social Work Initiative.
The Homelessness Initiative partners with social-work programs nationally to build relationships with policymakers and providers to strengthen homeless services, disseminate knowledge and build research collaborations, and increase homelessness curricular content in social work.
