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Education, homeless
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August 26, 2009
Tightening the educational financial belt
B.C. taxpayers are bracing for cuts to key services in the provincial government’s impending budget to help buffer a $3-billion deficit as a result of the province’s worst recession in 27 years. SFU’s new dean of education Kris Magnusson cautions the government against cutting too deeply into education, one of three critical services (the others being health care and social services). “Educational programs such as special needs, early childhood and First Nations teacher training are only gravy if we think we are doing an amazing job of mainstream education, and thereby making all of these ‘special’ programs redundant,” says Magnusson. “The reality is that the things we learn from focusing on special-needs groups serve to inform all educational practice.” An expert on 21st century learning, educational response to rapid change and the role of education in building strong adaptive societies, Magnusson is available to comment on the impact of B.C.’s upcoming budget on education.
Kris Magnusson, 778.782.3148, kris.magnusson@sfu.ca
Housing the homeless
Julian Somers, an associate professor in the SFU Faculty of Health Sciences, is the principal investigator for the Vancouver site of a new $110-million five-city Canadian research demonstration project in mental health and homelessness. Sponsored by the Mental Health Commission of Canada in partnership with Health Canada, the project is the first randomized trial of housing interventions. While conventional help-the-homeless projects focus on putting the homeless through medical programs to treat addiction and psychological issues before setting them up in housing, this project focuses on housing first. Somers, the son of a homeless man, can address the validity of the new study’s approach and what his own personal experience of dealing with the homeless has taught him. See story: http://www.sfu.ca/vpresearch/news/homelessness.html
Julian Somers, 778.782.5049, jsomers@sfu.ca
B.C. taxpayers are bracing for cuts to key services in the provincial government’s impending budget to help buffer a $3-billion deficit as a result of the province’s worst recession in 27 years. SFU’s new dean of education Kris Magnusson cautions the government against cutting too deeply into education, one of three critical services (the others being health care and social services). “Educational programs such as special needs, early childhood and First Nations teacher training are only gravy if we think we are doing an amazing job of mainstream education, and thereby making all of these ‘special’ programs redundant,” says Magnusson. “The reality is that the things we learn from focusing on special-needs groups serve to inform all educational practice.” An expert on 21st century learning, educational response to rapid change and the role of education in building strong adaptive societies, Magnusson is available to comment on the impact of B.C.’s upcoming budget on education.
Kris Magnusson, 778.782.3148, kris.magnusson@sfu.ca
Housing the homeless
Julian Somers, an associate professor in the SFU Faculty of Health Sciences, is the principal investigator for the Vancouver site of a new $110-million five-city Canadian research demonstration project in mental health and homelessness. Sponsored by the Mental Health Commission of Canada in partnership with Health Canada, the project is the first randomized trial of housing interventions. While conventional help-the-homeless projects focus on putting the homeless through medical programs to treat addiction and psychological issues before setting them up in housing, this project focuses on housing first. Somers, the son of a homeless man, can address the validity of the new study’s approach and what his own personal experience of dealing with the homeless has taught him. See story: http://www.sfu.ca/vpresearch/news/homelessness.html
Julian Somers, 778.782.5049, jsomers@sfu.ca