Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Finding Kurt, Ryan Block

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Upon completion of my Honors Project, I will have filmed, edited, planned, and directed a documentary on poverty in Akron. Through film, I will show the community what it is like to be homeless, without anyone there to look out for you. I will journey across Akron alongside my friend Jordan, looking to find a specific homeless man we once met. Along the way, I hope to come across other people without homes who will share stories about their lives, either in passing or through interviews. If I do not end up finding the man I set out to find, …

Queer Survival Amidst Hiv/Aids, Covid-19 And Homelessness, Julia Young

Pitzer Senior Theses

The treatment and survival of a society's marginalized peoples reveal the true impacts of a pandemic. An analysis of homeless queer youth during the HIV/AIDS and SARS-CoV-2 crises lays bare the systemic failure of the United States government to provide equitable healthcare.

I compare the HIV/AIDS and COVID-19 pandemics in queer homeless youth to demonstrate the dangers of disease moralization via a sociocultural analyses of disease stigma and responsibility politics. Utilizing syndemic theory I draw on the synergistic relationship between disease and illness to describe the unique challenges queer homeless youth face. A syndemic framework is applied to address common …

Setats Detinu, Felicia Elizabeth Flores

Senior Projects Fall 2022

One in four American adults has had a sibling incarcerated.

1 in 10 women have been raped by an intimate partner.

On any given night, approximately 41,000 unaccompanied youth ages 13-25 experience homelessness.

76% of child abuse perpetrators were a parent to their victim.

I felt so alone. The moment my brother was arrested, my ex-boyfriend raped me, I was a homeless child who ran away from my family, and my father abused me, I felt othered by society. My brother was a criminal, but he was my beautiful, passionate, kind, protective rock. My ex-boyfriend was a rapist, but he …

Using Visual Storytelling To Design Solutions-Based Approaches To Homelessness, Peggy Peattie

Dissertations

Despite millions of dollars spent over several decades on assistance programs, the nation’s homeless population has increased for the last four years in a row. The number of people reporting as homeless for the first time doubled in San Diego between June 2019 and June 2020. Trying to impose a one-size-fits-all model of care on a population comprised of unique individuals has resulted in many homeless opting for the street rather than subjugating themselves to rules they feel do not treat them with respect and dignity. Yet, the perspectives of homeless individuals are excluded from decision-making dialogue around policies and …

Óscar Romero: A Liberative Model For Engaging With The Homeless In Cleveland, Maxwell Linnville

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.

Only One Went Through The Green Door, Rachel Sahaidachny

Graduate Thesis Collection

Written in three parts, Only One Went through the Green Door, explores abandonment, homelessness, childhood, womanhood, and choices made or unmade that create the complicated and winding path of life. The poems use narrative and lyric to examine the effects of childhood trauma on the development of a persona, and its shadow. Emotional realities explored through natural landscapes, and at times through child-like language, create an unsettled speaker who quests for some final understanding that might lead to peace.

People Experiencing Homelessness Within Music Therapy Settings: A Descriptive Study, Amelia E. Ehmling

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The population of people experiencing homelessness has decreased less than 15% in the last ten years, but issues like mental illness and substance use are rising. There are many misconceptions about race, gender, location and age of people experiencing homelessness. Music therapy research about the homeless population is minimal and often focused on just one setting or treatment location. The purpose of this study was to better understand the relationship between music therapists and people experiencing homelessness. A survey of 365 music therapists in the United States revealed just under half of working clinicians provide services to people experiencing homelessness. …

Benefits Of Expressive Dance Classes In Women Experiencing Homelessness, Ashley J. Runnells

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This project represents multiple layers of a therapeutic dance experience intended to assist homeless women in increasing their sense of social connectedness, happiness, and self-esteem. Therapeutic dance classes were conducted at Mercy House in Harrisonburg, VA, illuminating the benefits to participants as well as the challenges of engaging this population. Further exploration occurred during the January dance therapy intensive workshop regarding developing of therapeutic dance interventions. The project concluded with a choreographed site-specific dance work exploring the stories of the participants, and a tangible creative response by way of a tea bag dress. Lessons learned included the rich opportunities present …

Broken: How New York Systems Fail Vulnerable Youth And Send Them To Sex Work, Megan Cerullo

Capstones

The very places where homeless youth seek refuge have become breeding grounds for those who sell sex to bait young people into what they refer to as “the life.” Homeless youth, particularly those who have already been sexually abused, by family members or neighbors, or in the foster care system, make vulnerable prey for exploiters, who loiter outside of shelters, and other organizations providing services to the disadvantaged population. Unwitting youth who are broke and homeless and former foster care kids often turn to pimps for food, clothes, shelter -- and affection.

Many victims are youth who have aged out …

Challenging Students At Fort Worth Christian School To Engage The Economically Disadvantaged In Their Community, James Hensley

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This doctor of ministry thesis presents a project in which I led a group of students at Fort Worth Christian School in experiences that challenged them to be more engaged with the economically disadvantaged in their community. The problem I identified at the outset of the project was a lack of such experiences along with troubling attitudes about poverty. Many students initially demonstrated ambivalence or even outright hostility toward the notion of helping people who live in poverty. I found such attitudes to be contrary to the teachings of Jesus and to my central beliefs as a Christian. I believed …

Changes In Quality Of Life Following Substance Use Disorder Treatment For Mentally Ill Homeless Individuals, Lauren Hayes

All ETDs from UAB

Quality of life (QOL) is a treatment outcome for substance use disorders that has largely been overlooked. Research suggests QOL is poor among persons with substance use disorders, even following treatment, but is unclear if this is primarily attributable to substance abuse itself or other life areas. Some evidence suggests other factors are responsible for low QOL, such as psychiatric distress. This paper examined QOL, its changes following treatment, and its contributors in two substance use disorder treatment studies (Homeless IV and EARTH) among persons who are homeless with co-occurring disorders. The purpose was to evaluate whether psychiatric distress should …

Word On The Street: Examining What Characteristics Of A Street Paper And Its Host City Best Contribute To Success, Nicole Gorny

Honors Capstone Projects - All

By creating opportunities for microentrepreneurship, street papers have been tackling homelessness and poverty in U.S. cities since the late 1980s. Homeless or low-income vendors purchase these social justice-oriented publications for a fraction of the cover price, and then resell them on street corners for profit. By 2015 the self-help model had spread to 35 U.S. cities, according to the International Network of Street Papers. These cities range significantly in characteristics such as population size, climate, geographic location and political atmosphere.

Drawing on interviews with more than 20 editors, staff and vendors at North American street papers, I have identified five …

Documenting The Oral Narratives Of Transient Punks, Thomas Ross Heffernan

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The uninitiated do not realize the complexity of the punk rock sub-culture. Outsiders may find it hard to distinguish the subtle lines by which differentiation occurs within the so-called subculture. The "punk rock subculture" is a misnomer; it is not a salient community. The experience of being "punk" is fractal; what it means to be punk and what classifies one as punk is in constant redefinition and there are various different communities with varying ideologies and identities. The punk subculture has absorbed various epistemologies in its 40+ years of existence, modified them, and made them their own. Within this milieu …

Haole, Shawn Alff

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Just after midnight on a chilly April night in 2005, the author finds himself homeless in Hawaii, searching for a place to sleep. The account that follows is the true story of a young man's misadventures on the road as he attempts to reconcile his wanderlust with a need for order and security. This work of creative nonfiction reconstructs the first half of the summer the narrator spent wandering Hawaii. Specifically, this section concentrates on the author's experiences on the island of Oahu. There, the narrator, who constantly changes his name, is stuck at a crossroads; he is torn between …

"Re-Homing": Sustaining Housing First, Jennifer Mckinney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The problem of homelessness is an issue in every city of America. Increasingly there are more individuals and families that find themselves without a permanent residence due to varying factors. Traditionally, the approach to this crisis has been to shuffle from emergency shelters to transitional shelters towards temporary housing. However, this lengthy, regulated process prohibits a large portion of the homeless population from ever settling back into housing. It is also merely a stop gap for the issue and this process absorbs a large sum of resources in land, money and manpower. However, there is a new model emerging to …

Permanent Supportive Housing In Tampa, Florida: Facilitating Transition Through Site, Program, & Design, Nicole Lara Dodd

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rapid re-housing of the homeless into permanent supportive housing has proven to be cost effective. The improved quality of life and stability reduces stress on the formerly homeless and therefore increases their viability as self-sufficient individuals.

Hillsborough County (which encompasses Tampa, Florida) reported 9,532 homeless persons on any given night in the year 2007. Currently, there is not enough housing to meet the needs of every individual. While existing housing facilities contribute a great deal to this community, their locations in dilapidated urban conditions are not the most conducive environments for homeless persons to succeed. The stigma associated with the …

A Strategy For Ministry To The Homeless In North London, Carl Thorpe

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

Despite the benefits that the English Social Security provides, many individuals fall out of the safety net into abject poverty. Every night hundreds of individuals sleep rough. Exposed to the elements, these people are in need of food and a permanent place. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in North London is not providing an adequate ministry to meet the physical and spiritual needs of these people. This dissertation sets out to develop a strategy for ministry to the physical and spiritual needs of those who "sleep rough" in North London.

Method This study looks at various aspects relating to homelessness, …

Religious Affiliations And Attitudes Of Homeless Problem Drinkers, Charles Taylor Knippel

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

Based on particular studies in the field of alcoholism, this thesis specifically examines, evaluates, and interprets information and data concerning the religious affiliations and attitudes of homeless problem drinkers.