Students entering health, social service, and related fields often have limited real‑world experience working with people facing homelessness, trauma, and complex social needs. This project will evaluate whether structured, interprofessional learning at Windsor’s Homelessness and Housing Help Hub (H4) helps students develop stronger empathy, confidence, and preparedness when engaging with vulnerable populations. Using a validated empathy tool administered before and after participation, the study will examine how direct, supervised community exposure shapes students’ understanding of homelessness and reduces stigma. The findings will provide early evidence on the value of community‑embedded, student‑led learning models and help strengthen future training approaches across health and social service programs.

Strengthening students’ empathy and confidence when working with vulnerable populations can help build a more compassionate, community‑ready workforce. Insights from this project will guide future training models that better prepare students to support individuals experiencing homelessness with dignity and understanding.