Associate Professor Kristin Ferguson of the USC School of Social Work has received a $742,033 federal stimulus grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to engage homeless youth in a vocational training program integrated with clinical services designed to improve their employment opportunities and mental health.

Homeless youth with mental illness face employment barriers and challenges inherent in living on the streets, including limited education and job skills. Moving these youth off the streets requires more than finding them low-wage jobs.

This study aims to help homeless youth achieve economic self-sufficiency by replacing their high-risk, street-survival strategies with marketable job skills and providing comparable income that substitutes their street earnings. The host homeless youth agency will operate a small business run by the youth who complete the training program.

"We believe strengthening these youths' employment skills and opportunities will have a positive effect on their mental health and other functional outcomes, such as housing," Ferguson said.

The two-year grant will build on a previous pilot study that taught participating homeless youth vocational skills in graphic design along with marketing, budgeting and accounting skills they used to create apparel for public sale. Findings indicated participants had greater levels of satisfaction with life, family contact and social support, as well as experienced fewer depressive symptoms.

This time, Ferguson plans to recruit homeless youth with more severe symptoms of mental illness.

Lawrence Palinkas, professor of social work and anthropology at USC, will serve as co-principal investigator, and John Brekke, professor at the USC School of Social Work, will be a co-investigator.