CSULB leads area urban project

Cal State Long Beach will serve as a testing ground for a project sponsored by the CSU Urban Coalition that aims to help lowincome urban communities.

The department of social work was awarded a $625,000 grant from the Kellogg Foundation to fund the project.

The project, developed by the CSULB department of social work, is designed to help teach professionals from diverse disciplines to collaborate to meet the needs of children and families living in the urban areas, said Julie O'Donnell, an associate professor and project co-director.

O'Donnell said the project is made up of three parts. "Part of it is training students and professionals," she said. "Another part is getting professors from the other disciplines to begin work together and teach these collaboration skills."

She said the last part calls for the active involvement of community members so that residents will be involved in designing curriculum, helping with training, and receive training themselves.

According to the project proposal, students from various majors may participate in the project's Community Fellowship program where they will receive a stipend for educationallydirected field-work experience, or internship, and participate in specialized training seminars in interdisciplinary collaboration.

O'Donnell said the fellowship program, which begins September 1996, is designed so that students will learn the skills they need now to work with a wide variety of disciplines after graduation.

"I think it's really an exciting project because it is helping different disciplines to broaden their scope," O'Donnell said. "It's nice to have a project that actively seeks the input of community residents who often benefit from the services that we're attempting to generate and improve."

The CSU Urban Coalition is a partnership between the six Los Angeles-basin campuses: Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Fullerton, CSULB, Cal State Los Angeles, Cal State Northridge, and Cal Poly Pomona.

Each campus' Urban Coalition office coordinates activities among the schools and the community, O'Donnell said.

CSULB is the leader for the project. Once the program is tested, it will be extended to the other campuses in the coalition, she said.

O'Donnell said that the Kellogg Foundation has provided grants to various departments at CSULB, but this is the first time that the social work department has received one.