Social Work Commons^™

Robber Barons And Humbuggers: The Rise Of Philanthropic Museums In Nineteenth-Century New York, Meaghan O'Connor

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

New York City's most recognizable museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History came to prominence in the second half of the nineteenth century thanks to the support of wealthy benefactors. At the same time, social reformers, mostly Protestant and middle or upper-class, were combating the vice and poverty that they saw in the diversifying city with a moralizing rhetoric of character building. This paper will show that these two movements, the rise of Philanthropic Museums and the Social Reform movement were connected and that the large temple-like museums that thrive to this ...

Climate Change: Threats To Social Welfare And Social Justice Requiring Social Work Intervention, Lauren Caroline Achstatter

21st Century Social Justice

The article looks at climate change though a social development framework, with emphasis on social justice and social welfare. It evaluates how market-based capitalism continues to contribute to the problem while ignoring the warnings from the scientific community. The article goes on to report that despite the devastation of climate change, concerns – mainly financial in nature - continue to hinder progress towards reform. The article then argues that given the evidence, climate change qualifies as a topic of interest for social workers. The article goes on to advocate for social work involvement highlighting some suggested areas for action.

Policy Impact Assessment: The “Reasonable Break Time” Provision Of The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act, Merritt Juliano

21st Century Social Justice

Breastfeeding continues to be the most optimal source of nutrition for infants under 6 months of age, and has been associated with a wide variety of infant and maternal health benefits, including protection against certain illnesses and diseases. Most health organizations recommend exclusive breastfeeding for at least the first 6 months post-birth. Despite these recommendations, breastfeeding women, especially those in lower socioeconomic groups face many challenges in our society. Moreover, maternal employment stands as a significant barrier to successful breastfeeding durations. To counter these problems, Section 4207 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act [ACA] was enacted to offer ...

Conditional Cash Transfers, Community, And Empowerment Of Women In Colombia, Harlan Downs-Tepper

21st Century Social Justice

In 2001, the Colombian government initiated an experiment in poverty alleviation called Familias en Acción. This conditional cash transfer (CCT) program takes a novel approach to poverty reduction by addressing short- and long-term factors contributing to poverty. Though Colombia’s CCT program is just one of a wave of similar initiatives, its unique context and unexpected social effects, beyond the primary intentions of program designers, differentiate it from other such programs. Drawing on 200 interviews and focus group discussions which he conducted with academic experts, program beneficiaries and program administrators in three Colombian cities, the author finds that an unexpected ...

The Importance Of Access To Benefits Under The Family Medical Leave Act For Low-Income Families For Bonding And Attachment Facilitation With A Fragile Infant And The Role Of The Social Worker, Theresa Stewart Moran

21st Century Social Justice

Lack of universal family leave discriminates against low-income families with infants who require care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Birth complications tend to occur more frequently in families living with low socioeconomic status, placing a disproportionate burden on an already vulnerable population. Parents in this group tend to be employed in jobs that do not include the benefit of parental leave. Considering that attachment relationships form as the result of bonding transactions during a critical time in development, limiting contact curtails secure attachment. This, combined with other risk factors, increase the odds of lifelong negative outcomes. Family leave policy ...

The Child Client: Representing Children In Child Protective Proceedings, Merril Sobie

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Voices Made (M)Other, Lizbett Benge

Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Master's Projects and Theses

Voices Made (M)other is a theatrical project I created consisting of two original short plays, Momologues and ILL. This interdisciplinary project combines motherhood studies, feminist studies, whiteness studies, and theatre. One cannot have political change without revolutionizing each individual; and so I am sharing the process behind creating ILL, an autobiographical play tracing events throughout my motherline, to demonstrate the ways in which this project has helped create a more nuanced version of motherhood that incorporates mental illness, maternal abuse, and healing from trauma. This project builds upon the theory of empowered mothering (O’Reilly, 2006) by which society ...

A Dereliction Of Duty: Homeless Veterans In America, Christopher R. Fee

English Faculty Publications

U.S. government efforts to help homeless veterans in America are not enough.

When I first began grappling with homelessness issues in my local community quite a number of years ago, Dave, then-director of the local homeless shelter in our small town, told me a story that illustrates some of the special circumstances faced by homeless veterans in America.

Dave said a community of homeless vets had based themselves in caves in the hills outside of town, and after one was stricken with pneumonia and had to be hospitalized, his ongoing recovery left health care providers with a thorny dilemma ...

I Didn't Consent To That: Secondary Analysis Of Discrimination Against Bdsm Identified Individuals, Larry Iannotti

Dissertations and Theses, 2014-Present

Sadomasochism (BDSM) sexual behavior is an understudied phenomenon within the social sciences generally, and social work in particular. While BESM sexuality encompasses a wide variety of activities a community of individuals interested in BDSM is identifiable and has coalesced around organized groups, events, political activism, and shared sexual interests. This community has experienced discrimination, violence, and harassment (DVH) as a result of social approbation and stigma associated with BDSM practices. The study examines results of a secondary analysis of data from the Survey of Violence & Discrimination against Sexual Minorities, conducted in 2008. Severity and frequency of various types of DVH ...

An Equine-Facilitated Prison-Based Program: Human-Horse Relations And Effects On Inmate Emotions And Behaviors, Keren Bachi

Dissertations and Theses, 2014-Present

Policy makers and correctional authorities are seeking ways to enhance effectiveness of incarceration and reduce recidivism. Equine-facilitated prison-based vocational programs aim to rehabilitate inmates. Informed by the theories of attachment and desistance, this study evaluates the emotional and behavioral effects of such an intervention utilizing a quasi-experimental methodological triangulation design.

Recidivism and disciplinary misconduct are examined by clinical data-mining of institutional records. Propensity Score Matching, binary and multinomial logistic regressions are applied in a discrete-time event history analysis. Semi-structured interviews revealing the subjective experiences of participants are analyzed via the Listening Guide methodology. Quantitative questionnaires, exploring attachment and closeness to ...

The Relationship Between Community Investment In Permanent Supportive Housing And Chronic Homelessness, Thomas Byrne, Jamison Fargo, Ann Elizabeth Montgomery, Ellen Munley, Dennis P. Culhane

Dennis P. Culhane

In recent years, permanent supportive housing PSH has emerged as the preferred intervention for addressing chronic homelessness in the United States. However, almost all prior studies examining the effectiveness of PSH have been conducted at the individual level, with only minimal attempts to empirically test the relationship between PSH and chronic homelessness at the community level. This study uses longitudinal data collected by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD and several other sources to model the relationship between measures of community investment in PSH and rates of chronic homelessness. The results show modest negative associations between increased ...

A Lost Generation, Christopher R. Fee

English Faculty Publications

America is in immediate danger of throwing away a vast number of our young people; these are kids who have fallen through the gaping holes in our social services net and have landed on our streets. They roam this country by the thousands in search of simple necessities such as food and a warm place to sleep, often trading their bodies in exchange for the most basic of human rights. In the words of Michael Stoops, Director of Community Organizing at the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, DC, "there is a dire need for more shelter beds for ...

Want To Honor Vets This Memorial Day? Help End Veterans' Homelessness, Christopher R. Fee

English Faculty Publications

Memorial Day is a day for remembering the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.

As we gather around the grill with loved ones, let's also remember veterans who survived their term of service only to find themselves without a place of their own to celebrate holidays.

When I first began grappling with homelessness in my local community years ago, Dave, then the director of the local homeless shelter in our small town, told me a story which illustrates some of the special circumstances faced by homeless veterans in America. [excerpt]

The Umoja Curriculum: Linking The African American Experience With Relationship Skills Building, Jamye Hardy

Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Literature on premarital counseling groups and five factors of the African American experience were researched to design a six-week premarital counseling group curriculum specifically for African American couples. The five researched factors of the African American experience were history, economics, education, structure of American society, and social life within the African American community. This program responds to the falling marriage rates within the African American community and the absence of services available to address the issue. The Umoja Curriculum was designed to equip participants of African descent with the skills necessary to build and sustain a healthy marriage utilizing psycho-educational ...

Exploring The Dynamics Of High-Challenge Encounters In Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Settings, Annapoorna Ayyagari

Doctorate in Social Work (DSW) Dissertations

In 2012, 4 million people aged 12 or older received help for alcohol and illicit drug use in the United States with approximately 2.5 million treated as inpatients (SAMHSA, 2012). Studies show the majority of women, men, and adolescents obtaining substance abuse residential treatment have been traumatized before entering treatment. Traumatic events span past sexual abuse, physical abuse and victimization from violence; trauma also include experiences from disasters and war. Yet, trauma-informed treatment is not mandated for substance abuse treatment facilities, and the manner in which clients are handled upon entering substance abuse residential treatment facilities is largely unknown ...

A Habitable Madness: Inclusion Of Feminist Thought In The Development Of Mad Theory, Casadi "Khaki" Marino

Student Research Symposium

Objectives: Mad theory is in the early stages of development. This paper draws on disability studies and feminist thought in theorizing models of madness.

Methods: This paper explores the available literature in order to explore the contribution of feminism to mad theory.

Results: Disability studies have challenged hegemonic concepts of normality and the definition of disability as individual deficit. Disability becomes framed as a social construction involving power relations. Feminist perspectives on disability honor lived experience and human variation. In feminist thought, different ways of being are valued and people are recognized as equal in terms of human rights. Citizenship ...

Parental Perceptions And Experiences Of Physical And Emotional Violence Between Siblings: A Mixed-Methods, Comparative Case Study, Nathan Perkins

Theses and Dissertations

Sibling violence is a common occurrence for many children yet this form of family violence has received minimal attention in research compared to other forms of child maltreatment. With parents as an integral component in the lives of many children, parental perceptions and experiences of violence between siblings are important to understand. Furthermore, with the increased variation in family structures within society, inclusion of multiple types of families in research is necessary to encompass a broad understanding of sibling violence. This case study included seven parents from four different family structures to examine their perceptions and experiences of physical and ...

Beating South Africa's Endless Plague: Making Life Easier For Hiv/Aids Orphans, Shannon Garrity

Honors Program Theses and Projects

There are many modern beauties on this earth, including the incredible power of twenty-first century science and technology. But, due to many socio-economic injustices and current wars, these modern ‘beauties’ do not reach everyone. The spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa is a pertinent example of a social and public health issue disabling millions of people from obtaining their basic necessities. Although South Africa is the richest country on the African continent, it continues to contain the highest number of people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS worldwide. One out of five adults is diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in South Africa; this ...

Impact And Performance Of The Supportive Services For Veteran Families (Ssvf) Program: Results From The Fy 2013 Program Year, Thomas Byrne, John Kuhn, Dennis P. Culhane, Susan Kane, Vincent Kane

Dennis P. Culhane

The Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program represents a crucial component of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) plan to prevent and end homelessness among Veterans. Operationalized in Federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2012, SSVF is the first and only VA program that provides services to Veterans and their families. SSVF is a community-based, competitive grant program that rapidly re-houses homeless Veteran families and prevents homelessness for those at imminent risk due to a housing crisis. The program focuses on achieving housing stability through a short-term, customized intervention using a time limited case management approach. Services include financial ...

Crossing Boundaries: Building A Model To Effectively Address Difference In Community Practice, Jason Sawyer

Theses and Dissertations

Community organizing has a rich tradition within the field of social work. Prevailing community practice models, approaches, and frameworks remain primarily based on practice wisdom, experience, and intuition. Difference, pervasive in various contemporary contexts of practice, largely mediates interactions at the community level. Although difference is addressed at various levels of the practice continuum and within the IFSW and NASW codes of ethics, few methodologically driven tools exist within the literature to guide practitioners. This grounded theory study initiates early development of a community practice model based on forging alliances across boundaries of difference. The Critical Difference Engagement model is ...