{"id":78694,"date":"2026-09-02T14:26:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T21:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=78694"},"modified":"2026-09-02T14:26:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T21:26:42","slug":"students-and-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/students-and-homelessness\/","title":{"rendered":"How students are working to solve the homelessness crisis in Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"

A program that started in 2023 will continue\u00a0to give NAU students hands-on experience\u00a0in addressing the homelessness\u00a0crisis\u00a0while they earn graduate degrees.\u00a0The Garcia Family Foundation renewed its grant for the NAU Community Impact Fellowship\u00a0Program (CIFP), which will support four graduate students\u00a0by funding their education as\u00a0they earn their MA in psychological sciences.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose of the program is to support high-impact graduate training in evidence-based program evaluation,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0<\/span>Laura Noll<\/span><\/b>,\u00a0co-director of the Interdisciplinary Health Ph.D.\u00a0program and associate professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences.\u00a0\u201cIt\u00a0helps\u00a0students use the\u00a0science and the education they are getting at NAU to solve real-world problems, such as homelessness, in collaboration with community\u00a0partners\u00a0using innovative program development and evaluation strategies.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The grant provides\u00a0students with 20 paid hours a week while they receive training in collaboration with organizations in either the Flagstaff area or\u00a0elsewhere in the state.\u00a0In Flagstaff, they work with Northland Family Health Center and Catholic Charities of Northern Arizona, while at the state level, they train with\u00a0associate professor\u00a0<\/span>Robert Wickham<\/span><\/b>\u00a0at\u00a0the\u00a0<\/span>Arizona Housing Analytics Collaborative (AzHAC).<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Their work centers on trying to solve the housing crisis by using data-driven strategies to help prevent people from becoming homeless and helping these organizations use data more efficiently with limited funding.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEach fellow has an individual training plan,\u201d Noll said. \u201cDepending on their training and career goals, and because this is a\u00a0workforce\u00a0pipeline development,\u00a0fellows\u00a0might have a local emphasis,\u00a0a statewide emphasis\u00a0or both.\u00a0This program helps students be ready for the workforce by providing them\u00a0not only with scientific training, but also\u00a0with a lot of skill development opportunities.\u00a0Students develop\u00a0effective professional communication\u00a0skills,\u00a0working\u00a0to\u00a0establish\u00a0trust and sustainability with people outside of academia,\u00a0in the community\u00a0and to\u00a0really understand the nonprofit ecology so they\u00a0can\u00a0collaborate\u00a0more meaningfully.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Joseph Parker<\/span><\/b>, a first-year\u00a0master’s\u00a0student\u00a0who graduated with a\u00a0bachelor\u2019s\u00a0degree in psychological science last spring, said he applied to the program for both its academic rigor and its welcoming nature.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to all the things I can learn and accomplish as part of this program,\u201d Parker said. \u201cI still\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0know what organization I will be working with, but I think my work in the program will be important because it will support local organizations in the Flagstaff community.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Noll said the students also receive\u00a0training\u00a0in\u00a0establishing\u00a0partnerships, creating\u00a0agendas\u00a0and leading meetings, as well as program evaluation, data\u00a0collection\u00a0and\u00a0analysis\u00a0implementation.\u00a0By working\u00a0with nonprofit organizations, those who are interested in careers in science can\u00a0determine\u00a0what job categories fit them best while helping solve homelessness.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy neighbor’s needs\u00a0are\u00a0my needs; we are all interconnected,\u201d Noll said. \u201cOur community is only strong and healthy\u00a0when\u00a0everyone is taken care of. As a publicly funded institution that has a mission to train the next generation of leaders and public service workers and people who are going to help Arizona remain healthy and economically vibrant, it is so important that we are playing a role in addressing\u00a0urgent social issues like the housing crisis, which is\u00a0dire in the state of Arizona, like elsewhere.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This fall, the program will welcome its fourth cohort of CIFP\u00a0Fellows:\u00a0current fellows\u00a0<\/span>Olivia Tobias<\/span><\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Collin Kracht<\/span><\/b>\u00a0and incoming MA students\u00a0<\/span>Caden Stevenson<\/span><\/b>\u00a0and Parker.\u00a0NAU\u00a0Honors College\u00a0student\u00a0<\/span>Bella Rios<\/span><\/b>\u00a0will return as an undergraduate team member,\u00a0as will\u00a0interdisciplinary health\u00a0Ph.D.\u00a0student\u00a0<\/span>Aubrie Patterson,<\/span><\/b>\u00a0who provides leadership and supervision\u00a0to all CIFP fellows.\u00a0For information on how to apply, email\u00a0<\/span>Laura Noll<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/a>Mariana Laas | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-5050 | mariana.laas@nau.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A program that started in 2023 will continue\u00a0to give NAU students hands-on experience\u00a0in addressing the homelessness\u00a0crisis\u00a0while they earn graduate degrees.\u00a0The Garcia Family Foundation renewed its grant for the NAU Community Impact Fellowship\u00a0Program (CIFP), which will support four graduate students\u00a0by funding their education as\u00a0they earn their MA in psychological sciences.\u00a0 \u201cThe purpose of the program is…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3019,"featured_media":78696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1829],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics","category-student-edition"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78694"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78710,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78694\/revisions\/78710"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}