This class is run in collaboration with https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/colab , a partnership between CSUMB and MIIS to increase the impact of faculty and students at the two institutions on intractable issues and problems in Monterey County. The intractable problem – wicked problem (https://ssir.org/books/excerpts/entry/wicked_problems_problems_worth_solving) is another name for these kinds of challenges – we will focus on this semester is homelessness. We will undertake research and action in partnership with homeless service providers in the local area. By the end of the course, Students will have:

1. Understood community-engaged action research as a methodology particularly suited to making a difference on seemingly unsolvable problems and compared/contrasted it to other research approaches;

2. Sharpened research skills learned in other courses they have taken either at MIIS or previously;

3. Developed a long-term learning and accountability framework for CoLab’s work on homelessness over the next 5-10 years;

4. Produced actionable knowledge for practitioners in our area’s homeless service providers;

5. Grasped the full range of forces – structural, cultural, political, economic, historic – that make ending homelessness so very difficult.

The precise scope/deliverables for the semester are still under development: course faculty are in continuing talks with homeless service providers about the best focus for the spring semester. However, a key partner for the semester is Gathering For Women (https://www.gatheringforwomen.org/), a Monterey organization focused on homeless women.