As a design student in Detroit，Veronika Scott was worried about the increasing numbers of homeless people suffering deeply during the cold winters．At the age of 21，she created The Detroit Empowerment Plan not to solve homelessness，but to provide muchneeded warmth to the city's 20，000 street homeless people by designing a sleepingbag coat．
It is selfheated，waterproof（防水的），and transforms into a sleeping bag at night．It's made by a group of homeless women who are paid，fed and housed while creating these coats made for those living on the streets．The focus is on the humanitarian system to create jobs for those that desire them and coats for those that need them at no cost．The goal is to employ，educate，and instill （灌输）pride．The importance is not with the product but with the people．
Veronika Scott is a product design student at the College for Creative Studies．When she was working in studio class，a humanitarian group came in to sponsor the studio．They said"to design to fill a need"．Detroit has a pretty large number of people，about 20，000 living on the streets．She spent three days a week，every week，for five months working in a homeless shelter．The people there became part of the entire design．When the term ended，the project did not．She continued the project not just because she was crazy about it but because actually people needed it．She realized she had to take it to the next level and make it a system．
In the beginning the empowerment plan was just about the coat．She could produce some coats by herself but she really wanted to reach out to people who needed jobs．Now the importance of the project lies not within the product，but within the people who are involved and affected by the system．Thus it is one way to break the homeless cycle by giving homeless women jobs while in the shelter，so they can earn money，find a place to live in，and gain back their independence for themselves and their family．



Veronika Scott's sleepingbag coat ______ ．

A. is very expensive
B. has many functions
C. is mainly used at night
D. is made by some students

What first drove Veronika Scott to create The Detroit Empowerment Plan？ ______

A. Her studio class．
B. The visiting group．
C. Her college teachers．
D. The homeless people．

People CANNOT get ______ through the empowerment plan．

A. clothing to wear
B. houses to live in
C. family to feed
D. jobs for independence