Social Work Commons^™

Reflections On The Implementation Of Improved Outcomes For Children And Its Impact On The Capacity Of Child Welfare Workers To Deliver Services, Rita Sanchez-Torres

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The emergence of the New Public Management with its emphasis on performance measurements and managerial strategies such as accountability, efficiency, and cost effectiveness have encouraged nonprofit child welfare agencies in New York City to pursue the practice of the private sector. In the current environment, service delivery has become more entrepreneurial, strategic and outcome minded on the assumption that the market-oriented approach is more effective (Watson-Bishop, 2007). This study examines the relationship between policy and service delivery. Specifically, it investigates the impact of the initiative known as Improved Outcomes for Children on child welfare supervisors in a managerial environment.

The …

Examining School Leadership In New York City Community Schools, Stacey Campo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The community school model is rooted in John Dewey’s (1902) conceptualization of the public school as a hub for the community. The model has recently been identified as part of New York City’s school turnaround strategy and continues to gain prominence nationally, because of this, it is essential to identify the key components of an excelling leadership partnership. This dissertation describes findings and recommendations from interviews with principals and community school directors in ten New York City community schools. These interviews were triangulated with analysis of the New York City school environment survey utilizing both faculty and parent responses. This …

Letter To The President: Longitudinal Critical Discourse Analysis Of Academic And Hip Hop Genres In A Rap Narrative Program, Debangshu Roygardner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The objective of this study was to examine an in-school rap narrative workshop through critical discourse theory (Bamberg, 2012; Daiute, 2014). Twelve youth from a public school serving youth in urban Houston, TX were recruited from an in-school and after-school Hip hop/Rap narrative program to participate in a two-year cohort research study. The primary research question guiding the study was “How do young people participating in a school-based Hip hop/Rap program use a wide range of narrative genres for literacy and psycho-social development over two years in the program?”

The data-intensive study involved assessments of literacy and psycho-social development via …

Social Work Students' Endorsement Of Recovery-Oriented Principles And Practices When Working With Consumers Diagnosed With Severe Mental Illness, Jennifer M. Nikou

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this study, I examined the extent of endorsement of recovery-oriented principles and practices by conducting both a pilot and final study of 143 total social work students in the Masters of Social Work program in an urban school in the Northeast. I explored five variables highlighted in the literature as most frequently influencing extent of endorsement of recovery-oriented principles and practices when working with consumers diagnosed with serious mental illness (SMI). These included knowledge of severe mental illness (mental health literacy), social contact (social distance), concerns regarding safety (dangerousness), knowing someone diagnosed with mental illness (familiarity), and having more …

Expectations And Aspirations Of Motherhood For Young Women In Foster Care, Joanna Kibel-Gagne

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Young women in foster care are more than twice as likely to become teen mothers than their non-foster care peers. However, research regarding teen motherhood for this population is limited. Existing studies focus on risk factors and poor outcomes, which are more prevalent for foster care youth than those in the general population. Some studies have examined the experience of motherhood from the perspective of the youths revealing a complex experience that is not wholly negative. This dissertation builds on this body of knowledge by examining these young women’s expectations and realities of burgeoning motherhood from the point of pregnancy. …

Fitting-In: How Formerly Incarcerated New York City Black Men Define Success Post-Prison, Mika'il Deveaux

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The problem of community reintegration emerged following the rise of the US prison population, which began in in the 1970s, disproportionately affecting US-born African American men. In this qualitative study, the researcher examined the perceptions of 17 formerly incarcerated New York City African American men to understand how they defined post-prison success after having been in the community at least three years in the wake of the era of mass (hyper) incarceration.

During the study, the researcher employed a constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006) approach using data from semi-structured interviews to identify factors that enabled these African American men to …

Dehumanization: A Case Study, Regina Varthi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The capstone “Dehumanization” is divided into three main parts.

The first part contains a brief presentation on the UN family (or UN system), showing its role through its organizational and managerial structures. All data are derived from UN corresponding websites.

The second part, “Homelessness,” focuses on the SDG 11 of the 2030 GA Agenda. In 2014 the United Nations Human Rights Council appointed Leilani Farha Special Rapporteur on adequate housing in order to conduct research on the subject of homelessness as a violation of human rights. In her report, presented at the Human Rights Council in March 2016, Farha claims …

The Fear Factor: Exploring The Impact Of The Vulnerability To Deportation On Immigrants' Lives, Shirley P. Leyro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This qualitative study explores the impact that the fear of deportation has on the lives of noncitizen immigrants. More broadly, it explores the role that immigration enforcement, specifically deportation, plays in disrupting the process of integration, and the possible implications of this interruption for immigrants and their communities. The study aims to answer: (1) how vulnerability to deportation specifically impacts an immigrant’s life, and (2) how the vulnerability to deportation, and the fear associated with it, impacts an immigrant’s degree of integration. Data were gathered through a combination of six open-ended focus group interviews of 10 persons each, and 33 …