Social Work Commons^™

Immigrant & Refugee Family Wellness Through Yoga & Zumba, Elizabeth Crawford, Faith Swenson, Angela Serrani, Kathleen Cassidy, Brittany Roy

Immigrant and Refugee Family Wellness Engagement Through Yoga and Zumba

Research poster stemming from IPEC mini-grant funded student project Immigrant And Refugee Family Wellness Engagement Through Yoga And Zumba. Students from multiple health professions collaborated to provide Yoga and Zumba classes at the Riverton Community Center. The project aimed to increase the participants’ ability to utilize stress reducing activities through a blend of student created heath education materials and yoga and zumba classes for refugee women and children.

Evicting Victims: Reforming St. Louis's Nuisance Ordinance For Survivors Of Domestic Violence, Nava Kantor, Molly W. Metzger

Center for Social Development Research

Nuisance ordinances, established in municipalities nationwide to ostensibly protect the well-being of residents, threaten property owners with fines and jail time if they fail to abate a nuisance occurring on their property. Rather than promoting conflict resolution, such punitive consequences incentivize landlords to simply evict the tenants causing the nuisance. The enforcement of nuisance ordinances can have detrimental and disproportionate effects on already vulnerable populations, including tenants in domestic violence situations. The City of St. Louis employs a chronic nuisance ordinance, which is based in part on the number of police calls to a property. This ordinance can force survivors …

Multiplicative Disadvantage Of Being An Unmarried And Inadequately Insured Woman Living In Poverty With Colon Cancer: Historical Cohort Exploration In California, Naomi R. Levitz, Sundus Haji-Jama, Tonya Munro, Kevin M. Gorey

Social Work Publications

Background: Many Americans diagnosed with colon cancer do not receive indicated chemotherapy. Certain unmarried women may be particularly disadvantaged. A 3-way interaction of the multiplicative disadvantages of being an unmarried and inadequately insured woman living in poverty was explored. Methods: California registry data were analyzed for 2,319 women diagnosed with stage II to IV colon cancer between 1996 and 2000 and followed until 2014. Socioeconomic data from the 2000 census classified neighborhoods as high poverty (≥30% of households poor), middle (5–29%) or low poverty (<5% poor). Primary health insurance was private, Medicare, Medicaid or none. Comparisons of chemotherapy rates used standardized rate ratios (RR). We respectively used logistic and Cox regression models to assess chemotherapy and survival. Results: A statistically significant 3-way marital status by health insurance by poverty interaction effect on chemotherapy receipt was observed. Chemotherapy rates did not differ between unmarried (39.0%) and married (39.7%) women who lived in lower poverty neighborhoods and were privately insured. But unmarried women (27.3%) were 26% less likely to receive chemotherapy than were married women (37.1%, RR = 0.74, 95% CI 0.58, 0.95) who lived in high poverty neighborhoods and were publicly insured or uninsured. When this interaction and the main effects of health insurance, poverty and chemotherapy were accounted for, survival did not differ by marital status. Conclusions: The multiplicative barrier to colon cancer care that results from being inadequately insured and living in poverty is worse for unmarried than married women. Poverty is more prevalent among unmarried women and they have fewer assets so they are probably less able to absorb the indirect and direct, but uncovered, costs of colon cancer care. There seem to be structural inequities related to the institutions of marriage, work and health care that particularly disadvantage unmarried women that policy makers ought to be cognizant of as future reforms of the American health care system are considered.

Lean In: Women, Work, And The Will To Lead, Amanda Blanco

Journal of Financial Therapy

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead is a self-proclaimed “sort of feminist manifesto” written to empower women and men. Sandberg gives insight into how to overcome and help others overcome the internal and external obstacles that may hinder success. This book is recommended for women in the financial services field, as women are underrepresented in certain segments of financial services.

A Heated Debate: Theoretical Perspectives Of Sexual Exploitation And Sex Work, Lara Gerassi

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The theoretical and often political frameworks of sexual exploitation and sex work among women are widely and enthusiastically debated among academic and legal scholars alike. The majority of theoretical literature in this area focuses on the macro perspective, while the micro-level perspective regarding causation remains sparse. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the philosophical, legal, and political perspectives pertaining to sexual exploitation of women and girls and addresses the subsequent controversies in the field.

“Rip It!”: A Juxtapositional And Critical Discourse Analysis Of Gender Violence In 3 Tyler Perry Films, Avina Ross

Graduate Research Posters

This qualitative study uses juxtapositional, intersectional and critical discourse analyses as one composite framework to assess Black female victimness and matriarchy in three Tyler Perry films. Findings exposed a transitional archetype model consisting of 5 domains (Victim, Bitterfruit, Matriarch, Forgiver and Princess) whereby victimized characters are portrayed using racist and sexist stereotypes. Additionally, rich juxtapositions in the films with regard to Black female victimness and matriarchy were also revealed. These juxtapositions play out in the transitional archetype model and reiterate a harmful racist gendered stereotype: strong, Black women (matriarchs) are not and cannot, by way of their strength, aggressiveness and …

Policy Advocacy And Leadership Training For Formerly Incarcerated Women: An Empowerment Evaluation Of Reconnect, A Program Of The Women In Prison Project, Correctional Association Of New York, Rahbel Rahman

Social Work Faculty Scholarship

There is limited knowledge on re-entry initiatives for formerly incarcerated women specifically focusing on building women’s advocacy and leadership skills. Our research highlights ReConnect, a 12-session, innovative advocacy and leadership development program rooted in an integrated framework of empowerment, and transformational leadership theories. Based on CBPR principles, we conducted an empowerment evaluation where ReConnect graduates, staff members, and evaluators in an egalitarian process designed, collected, and analyzed data on how ReConnect assists formerly incarcerated women in the reentry process. The evaluation’s purpose is to offer practitioners and researchers an explanatory model on how to help formerly incarcerate women access …

Over Her Shoulder: What Are Women’S Relationship Perceptions When There Has Been Lived Experience Of Domestic Violence Within That Relationship?, Amy Hannan

Theses : Honours

Research into the social phenomena of domestic violence is a relatively new area of exploration. The focus for domestic violence researchers has been across a broad range of topics with a key theme being the reasons that women stay or leave the relationship. The study described in this thesis engaged with women in discussions regarding their perception of their relationship when there had been experiences of domestic violence. The methodology included the use of a focus group with three women from the South West of Western Australia.

The focus group consisted of both individual and group sessions. For the focus …

An Exploration Of Employment Services For Survivors Of Domestic Violence In The Region Of Waterloo, Alishau Diebold Mrs.

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The ability of survivors of domestic violence to secure employment once they leave their vulnerable situations has been identified in the existing knowledge base as a significant issue, and one that urgently needed to be addressed. This qualitative applied social policy research study was undertaken to derive recommendations that could improve the current state of employment services available to women who had survived domestic violence residing in the Region of Waterloo. This was accomplished by determining which employment services align with the needs of a survivor as they began to seek employment. In-depth interviews were conducted to collect information from …