Donations So Far $450,000
Donate now!Yu Yang
Nickname: Yvonne
Year: 2010
US Campus Assignment: UCLA
University: Sun Yat-sen University
Description: Yu Yang, Yvonne, interned with the Ocean Park Community Center, which serves the homeless population in Santa Monica. She worked on two programs, Daybreak and Safe Haven. Daybreak addresses the basic needs of homeless women with mental illnesses by providing a safe and supportive environment where they can access information and resources needed to stabilize their lives and move into permanent housing.
Safe Haven utilizes a "Housing First" community model to serve chronically homeless individuals living with co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse disorders. Safe Haven has full day services for homeless people and 25 beds available to the homeless, which do not require a commitment to services as a precondition for shelter. This is currently accepted as a best practice by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and by homeless policy organizations throughout the nation.