Social Work Commons^™

Flawed Analysis Of Prostitution In Rhode Island, Donna M. Hughes Dr., Margaret Brooks

Donna M. Hughes

Toward A Client-Centered Benchmark For Self-Sufficiency: Evaluating The ‘Process’ Of Becoming Job Ready., Philip Young P. Hong

Philip Hong

The purpose of this study is to evaluate how service providers, clients, and graduates of a job training program define the term self-sufficiency (SS). This community-engaged, mixed method study qualitatively analyzes focus group data from each group and quantitatively examines survey data obtained from participants of the program. Findings reveal that psychological transformation as a ‘process’ represents the emic definition of SS—psychological SS—but each dimension of the concept is reflected in varying degrees by group. Provider and participant views are vastly different from the outcome-driven policy and funder definitions. Implications for benchmarking psychological SS as an empowerment-based ‘process’ measure of …

Validation Of The Employment Hope Scale: Measuring Psychological Self-Sufficiency Among Low-Income Jobseekers, Philip Young P. Hong, Joshua R. Polanin, Terri D. Pigott

Philip Hong

The Employment Hope scale (EHS) was designed to measure the empowerment-based self-sufficiency (SS) outcome among low-income job-seeking clients. This measure captures the psychological SS dimension as opposed to the more commonly used economic SS in workforce development and employment support practice. The study validates the EHS and reports its psychometric properties. Method: An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted using an agency data from the Cara Program in Chicago, United States. The principal axis factor extraction process was employed to identify the factor structure. Results: EFA resulted in a 13-item two-factor structure with Factor 1 representing “Psychological Empowerment” and Factor …

Using Service Learning In The Teaching Of And Research On Program Evaluation, Brandon W. Youker Ph.D, Nicholas Bayer Bs, Allyssa Ingraham Bs

Brandon W. Youker Ph.D

Most students who are planning for a career in the health and human services are required to complete a course on program evaluation. This article describes a graduate-level service learning course whereby the instructor divided students into small evaluation teams and assigned the teams one of two distinct models by which to evaluate the same non-profit organization. The teams were assigned either goal-free evaluation or success case method; and they conducted their respective evaluations independently and simultaneously. Each team was responsible for disseminating their findings to the program via a written report in addition to an oral presentation. At the …

“IʼM A Leader Of All Of Them To Tell The Truth”: Participatory Action Principles For Uplifting Social Work Research Partnersʼ Identities, Katherine Tyson Mccrea Professor

Katherine Tyson McCrea

Identity, understood from many vantage points, is continually evolving based on relationship experiences, including those relationships established in social and behavioral research. Whether rendered anonymous in large quantitatively-studied samples, or intimately known in qualitative studies, those contributing to science in a role termed “subject” receive, through the research, definitions of their identities. Because those identities are part of published social research, identities created in the research process become part of the public discourse about persons in the “subjects’” situations, and also influence policies that in turn influence persons’ lives. For their part, the identities of social and behavioral researchers also …