Kristin Ferguson, an assistant professor in the USC School of Social Work, has been awarded a faculty fellowship of $12,000 by the John Randolph Haynes Foundation, a leading supporter of social science research in Southern California.

"These awards are extremely competitive, and it is a great honor for a faculty member in our school to receive this kind of recognition," Dean Marilyn Flynn said.

The fellowship will help fund Ferguson's research on migration and transience among homeless youth in Los Angeles, a collaborative project involving social work faculty nationwide to develop a more comprehensive data source on homeless and street-living youth.

The expected result is a database that will expand the current sources of information beyond those gathered from shelters and include intersections and drop centers. She hopes to gain knowledge about how homeless youth move around, how they get to where they are and where they end up, ultimately helping service providers with their outreach efforts.

The fellowships are meant to encourage research into the underlying causes of and possible remedies for social problems in Los Angeles, and are awarded annually for projects that are well-conceived, imaginative and groundbreaking in the field of economic, social and political problems in the Los Angeles region.