Social Work Commons^™

The Reentry Of Young Offenders: A Look At Successful Reintegration, Samantha Bellmore

Open Access Dissertations and Theses

This qualitative study looks at the experiences of youth reentering their communities after serving a custodial sentence. Interviews were conducted from the perspectives of five key informants, including youth counselors and probation officers. Based on these conversations, the nuances of youth reentry were explored in-depth. These pages contain personal stories regarding the successes and challenges that come with reentry and reentry programming. Based on the findings and relevant literature, recommendations and suggestions on how to improve reentry are made. Further, in contrast to dominant recidivism-based understandings of success, this study promotes a more holistic understanding of successful reentry outcomes.

Poverty Knowledge, Coercion, And Social Rights: A Discourse Ethical Contribution To Social Epistemology, David Ingram

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In today’s America the persistence of crushing poverty in the midst of staggering affluence no longer incites the righteous jeremiads it once did. Resigned acceptance of this paradox is fueled by a sense that poverty lies beyond the moral and technical scope of government remediation. The failure of experts to reach agreement on the causes of poverty merely exacerbates our despair. Are the causes internal to the poor – reflecting their more or less voluntary choices? Or do they emanate from structures beyond their control (but perhaps amenable to government remediation)? If both of these explanations are true (as I ...

Invisible Minority: People Incarcerated With Mental Illness, Developmental Disabilities, And Traumatic Brain Injury In Washington's Jails And Prisons, Bette Michelle Fleishman

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

An Inconsistent Invitation: Am I Invited To Be A Party? How Not Affording Party Status To Youth In Washington Dependency Hearings Can Be A Violation Of Due Process, Laura Baird

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Rural Communities: How Do Individuals Perceive Change When Industry Enters The Area?, Katherine Danielle Ferrari

Graduate School Theses and Dissertations

As the landscape of the United States changes and world resources face depletion, shale gas development has become a major social justice issue. Social workers may be called upon to help support communities undergoing change from industry as well as the environmental and social justice concerns that are arising in areas with rich natural resource supplies.

This research examines how a rural population perceives change when industry enters an area. It explores community change and social justice concerns that are occurring with shale gas development in order to help determine implications for social work practice.

Using a phenomenological approach, this ...

Pathways To Higher Education For Native Hawaiian Individual Development Account Participants, David W. Rothwell

The International Indigenous Policy Journal

As the cost of higher education rises, a growing body of theory and research suggests that asset holding in the form of savings and net worth positively influence education expectations and outcomes. Native Hawaiians, like other Indigenous peoples, have disproportionately low college enrollment and graduation rates tied to a history of colonization. Using data from an Individual Development Account (IDA) program for Native Hawaiians, I examine the trajectories through the program and find: (a) welfare receipt and unemployment reduces the chances of IDA enrollment; (b) net worth increases the probability of IDA graduation; and (c) IDA graduates were more likely ...

University-State Child Welfare Training Partnerships: The Challenge Of Matching Dollar Contributions, Jerry D. Marx, Melissa Wells

Social Work Scholarship

Universities are uniquely positioned to provide the very best training opportunities to public child welfare workers. However, university–child welfare agency training partnerships require a significant commitment of time and resources by university personnel at a time of extensive state cuts to public higher education. This national survey of university partnership administrators found significant differences among university respondents involving length of the contractual relationship, matching dollar requirements, and overall satisfaction with the training partnership.

Social Work: A New Phenomenon In China, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Social tensions are bubbling in China. Are social workers the way to maintain social stability?

Corporate Social Responsibility – An Idealistic Goal Or A Reality?, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Despite widespread discussion on CSR, there continues to be much disagreement around what constitutes CSR, and how to define it. In addition, the term is often used interchangeably with notions such as corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, triple-bottom line, sustainability, creating shared value, and in some cases, corporate ethics and governance. However, all of these ideas point in the same direction: a sharp escalation in the social roles corporations are expected to play today.

32. Lyon, T.D., Wandrey, L., Ahern, E.C, Licht, R., Sim, M. & Quas, J.A. (In Press). Eliciting Maltreated And Non-Maltreated Children’S Transgression Disclosures: Narrative Practice Rapport Building And A Putative Confession. Child Development., Thomas D. Lyon

Thomas D. Lyon

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Culture In Making Psychiatric Diagnosis: Hwabyung (火病) And Neurasthenia (神經衰弱), Jonghyun Lee

2013 New England Association for Asian Studies Conference

The Role of Culture in Making Psychiatric Diagnosis: Hwabyung (火病) and Neurasthenia (神經衰弱)

My paper looks at two psychiatric illnesses and discusses their social and cultural dimensions. The two illnesses to be compared are the Korean affliction called hwabyung, and the once-popular Western malady labeled neurasthenia, a common ailment in 19th century America.

Neurasthenia was defined as “a disorder characterized by feelings of fatigue and lassitude,” which is caused by the nervous system. That definition could fit most people at some time or another. Hwabyung, on the other hand, means “fire illness.” Koreans believe that chronic distress can cause the ...

An Unholy Alliance: The Connection Between Foster Care And Human Trafficking, Michelle R. Lillie

Fifth Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking 2013

It is general knowledge within the anti-trafficking community that children facing abuse, neglect and parental substance abuse are at the greatest risk for human trafficking. Yet very little research has connected these same abused and neglected children that are currently in foster care with human trafficking. This paper examines the connection between foster care and human trafficking in the United States with special emphasis on sex trafficking. Within the human trafficking literature there is a very large gap regarding foster care and wards of the state. Very little statistical data are available on the prevalence of foster care children involved ...

Social Work Practice In The For-Profit Sector: An Examination Of Experience, Identity And Practice, Nicole M. Dutchak

Open Access Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this qualitative study was to learn more about the experiences of social work practitioners who are employed in the for-profit sector. Data were collected through individual interviews with four registered social workers. Findings showed that social worker’s experiences of practice within for-profit or private practice settings falls into six main categories. ‘Social work identity’, which includes a comparison of social work and other professions, professional values and ethics, and professional practice issues. ‘Valued characteristics’, which includes past and current work experience, goals for practice, service provision, and job flexibility. The category of ‘fee for service’ examines ...

Learning Child Welfare Social Work Without Learning To Colonize, Kara G. Samuels

Open Access Dissertations and Theses

Canadian social work education is founded on, and maintained by predominantly Eurocentric ideologies and discourse, which pose problems for social work educators and students because together they strive for social justice within a climate that perpetuates oppressive practices. Colonization is a core component of Education and Child Welfare therefore This research thesis asks how social work education can create an environment where learners receive the most accurate and helpful information to critically analyze their practice to reduce oppression. My question is narrowed down to focus on the practice of child protection as its aims are to protect children but at ...

Internet Consumption In A New Home, Shuang Cui

Open Access Dissertations and Theses

Through an interpretative lens, the current study examined how international students’ Internet use affects their new lives in the host country. Eight Chinese graduate students participated in this study. The data was collected through face-to-face qualitative in-depth interviews, which were guided by a semi-structured interview guide using open-ended questions. It was found that the Internet plays a significant role in the development of these students’ social capital in a new country. International students use internet to maintain the newly-built social relations in Canada and the old ones in China. Through the Internet, the students can get informational and emotional supports ...

Exploring The Role And Significance Of Religion/Spirituality In The Immigration Experience Of Romanian Evangelicals: A Critical Realist Perspective, Marius C. Ivan

Open Access Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study is to explore intersectionality of Religion/Spirituality and immigration in the experience of Romanian evangelicals in Canada from a Critical Realist perspective. In the first two chapters I provide background information outlining the interconnection between spirituality/religion, social work and immigration and examine the existing body of knowledge of present literature on ways of utilizing relevant concepts, methods, emerging themes and I address some of the implications and critiques pertaining to the literature perused. In the following two chapters I present the theoretical framework of Critical Realism, the methodological approach utilized -Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, and ...

'Taking The Heat': Front-Line Experiences Of Discharge Planning, Lori A. Lawson

Open Access Dissertations and Theses

With government pressure to cut healthcare costs, the hospital sector in Ontario has directed increased attention to moving patients out of the hospital as soon as they are deemed not to require acute care. Discharge planning has become a highly measured and managed process facilitated by social workers and Community Care Case Managers. The purpose of this thesis is to look at the experiences of hospital social workers and CCAC case managers and the common (and distinct) ways they experience their discharge planning roles and responsibilities. Information was obtained from two focus groups: one with hospital social workers and the ...

Illuminating Struggles For Gendered Responses: Practice With Women Offenders Of Intimate Partner Violence, Dana C. Gillespie Tozer

Open Access Dissertations and Theses

The Duluth Model of intervention for those charged with domestic violence offences has for the past thirty years been instrumental in conceptualizing violence, abuse, power and control, how to hold offenders accountable and keep victims safe, and is reflective of a collaborative, feminist approach to violence intervention. The model’s design assumes that violence is perpetrated by men against their female partners as a mechanism to maintain/gain power and control. However, increasing numbers of women are now being charged with violence against their male partners and being referred for service. Problematically, there has been little development of policies or ...

Agency Restructuring And Amalgamation Of Children Aid Societies: Social Workers In Northern Ontario, Steven Tremblay

Open Access Dissertations and Theses

This research project explores the effects of neoliberal policy reform at Children Aid Society (CAS) in Ontario with a specific focus of a newly amalgamated agency in Northern Ontario. For the purpose of this research paper, the agency currently restructuring is referred as Agency # 1. The amalgamation has been initiated by the Ontario Ministry of Youth and Children Services (MYCS). In order to provide these changes, the MYCS formed the Commission to Promote Sustainable Child Welfare (CPSCW) to look into approaches that would make services more efficient and sustainable. This project focuses on the interpretation of the amalgamation through three ...

Looking For Children: An Alternative Crown Ward Review, Susan M. Clowes Chisholm Ms

Open Access Dissertations and Theses

As child welfare practice in Ontario attempts to move toward increased partnerships with families, and recognition of the ways in which social work is implicated in perpetuating marginalities through the application of an anti-oppressive lens, direct social work practice with children lacks a similar critical discourse. Social work practice with children in care in Ontario occurs in the context of a guided practice model, Looking After Children, and within numerous audited standards and compliances. It is a bureaucratic and managerial environment which can constrain the social work agenda with children whose voices are easily silenced. This qualitative research study looks ...