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Full-Text Articles in Social Work

Challenges And Resilience In African American Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: A Review Of The Literature With Practice Implications, Fengyan Tang, Heejung Jang, Valire Carr Copeland Sep 2015

Challenges And Resilience In African American Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: A Review Of The Literature With Practice Implications, Fengyan Tang, Heejung Jang, Valire Carr Copeland

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

This paper reviews literature on grandparents raising grandchildren, focusing on caregiving challenges and resilience in African American grandparent caregivers within a socio-cultural context. A strengths perspective that emphasizes capacities and competencies at the individual, family, and community levels is applied in understanding how African American grandparents rely on their strengths to overcome caregiving challenges. Building on the review of social programs and intervention services that targeted empowerment practice, the authors propose an empowerment model of working with African American grandparents, that is, building capacities through an empowerment process to address caregiving challenges and to achieve positive caregiving outcomes. Finally, the …


Equality: Empowering Queer, Allied, And Trans* Youth, Jessica J. Schpero, Amanda C. Hayden, Nazli Boroshan, Kathy Huynh Sep 2015

Equality: Empowering Queer, Allied, And Trans* Youth, Jessica J. Schpero, Amanda C. Hayden, Nazli Boroshan, Kathy Huynh

21st Century Social Justice

LGBTQQ identified youth are often targets in school settings for harassment, maltreatment, and bullying. This negative treatment often leads to decreased academic performance and limited potential for successful long-term outcomes. Through school and community-wide programming, EQuALITY seeks to increase acceptance of LGBTQQ identified students, foster self-empowerment, and support young adults as they navigate different social environments and interactions between LGBTQQ identified students and allies. The authors hypothesize that with the creation and implementation of EQuALITY, a program designed to create a widespread shift in LGBTQQ acceptance and understanding from the school community, students’ feelings of isolation will decrease, feelings of …


Sustainable, Empowering Organizational Model For Intimate Partner Violence Services, Janet A. Mason May 2015

Sustainable, Empowering Organizational Model For Intimate Partner Violence Services, Janet A. Mason

Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers

IPV refuges are an important resource for those wishing to free themselves from IPV violence, but only if they truly empower the IPV survivor by not replicating the control and power differentials from which they are fleeing. Early feminist grassroots activists actively fostered empowering helping relationships in the organizational model of collectives which espoused equality, participatory decision making, and interpersonal relationships. Due largely to funding pressures, collectives were gradually replaced by the hierarchal organizational model found in refuges today. Many worry that most IPV organizations today may actually pose a barrier to the empowerment of survivors. This research project explored …


Autism Spectrum Disorder Students In Mainstream Schools And Classrooms: Effectiveness And Empowerment, Kathleen Soltau May 2015

Autism Spectrum Disorder Students In Mainstream Schools And Classrooms: Effectiveness And Empowerment, Kathleen Soltau

Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers

This study examines teachers’ perceptions of the effectiveness of mainstream educational practice in empowering students diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. This study provides a focus on Minnesota and a mainstream educational program in southern Minnesota. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to better understand this topic. Interviews were transcribed and coded using grounded theory methods. Findings revealed an overwhelming amount of support for students with autism spectrum disorder in mainstream schools and classrooms. This support was shown through multiple themes identified by interviewees. Implications for social work practice and advocacy within mainstream schools serving students diagnosed with autism spectrum …


"It's Not Written In Stone": A Narrative Analysis Of The Mothering Experiences Of Women Who Experienced Childhood Sexual Abuse By A Family Member, Eva L.P. Burrill Jan 2015

"It's Not Written In Stone": A Narrative Analysis Of The Mothering Experiences Of Women Who Experienced Childhood Sexual Abuse By A Family Member, Eva L.P. Burrill

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Within the existing body of literature on women survivors of intrafamilial childhood sexual abuse (CSA), there is extant literature that indicates that survivors will experience mothering challenges later in life. However, little research has focused on the possibility that mothering might also function as a site of healing. Addressing this gap, this thesis explores the mothering experiences of six women who experienced childhood sexual abuse by a family member. Working within a narrative methodology, data was gathered through semi-structured, in-depth interviews, and analyzed using a combination of categorical-content and holistic-content analysis. Three overarching themes were identified: 1) The Impact of …