Social Work Commons^™

Repatriation Of Afghan Refugees From Iran: A Shelter Profile Study, Mitra Naseh, Miriam Potocky, Paul Stuart, Sara Pezeshk

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

One in every nine refugees worldwide is from Afghanistan, and Iran is one of main host countries for these refugees. Close to 40 years of hosting Afghan refugees have depleted resources in Iran and resulted in promoting and sometimes forcing repatriation. Repatriation of Afghan refugees from Iran to Afghanistan has been long facilitated by humanitarian organizations with the premise that it will end prolonged displacement. However, lack of minimum standards of living, among other factors such as private covered living area, can make repatriation far from a durable solution. This study aims to highlight the value of access to shelter …

Acknowledging Native American History In Missouri, Molly Tovar, Chris Leiker

Buder Center for American Indian Studies Research

Histories typically omit or downplay the seizure of Native lands and attending harms, but ancestral ties persist, and the losses remain vivid in the hearts of Native peoples.

Creating An Organizational Self-Assessment Tool To Evaluate Progress Toward System Change, Karen Cellarius

Regional Research Institute for Human Services

Studies have shown that programs with higher fidelity to certain evidence-based practices have better treatment outcomes than programs with lower fidelity. The clinical assessment method outlined in this poster can be adapted to create a tool for measuring how closely an organization is implementing system change and maintaining it over time, while also educating program staff on what optimal implementation looks like.

Lifelong Wellbeing For Survivors Of Sex Trafficking: Collaborative Perspectives From Survivors, Researchers, And Service Providers, Amy Vatne Bintliff, Christine Stark, Lori Diprete Brown, Araceli Alonso

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This article summarizes a collaborative effort by researchers, service providers, and women who have experienced exploitation and trafficking for sex, to inform policy and practice related to care for survivors. The effort brought together current research program experience from around the world, and survivor perspectives, in a 2015 interactive forum entitled “STREETS of Hope: Listening to and Supporting Survivors of Human Trafficking.” A participatory approach to defining wellbeing, designed especially for use with vulnerable or highly marginalized populations of women and girls, provided the framework for the discussions. In addition, attempts were made to use principles of trauma-informed care during …

Counting Every Blessing, Ingrid Slikkers

Lake Union Herald

No abstract provided.

Social Work Support For Families In Crisis At Our Southern Border, Gil Villagran

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

"What the hell is going on at the U.S.-Mexico border?"Knowing of my 35 years of Child Welfare direct practice social work for the Santa Clara Social Services Agency, and 20 years of teaching social work at San Jose State University, as well as my study of human rights and Latin American history, many of my friends have been asking me, about as our president might ask: "What the hell is going on at the U.S.-Mexico border?"

Tweeting Social Justice: How Social Work Faculty Use Twitter, Johanna K.P. Greeson, Seongho An, Jia Xue, Allison E. Thompson, Chao Guo

Johanna K.P. Greeson, PhD, MSS, MLSP

Resiliency And Adolescent Motherhood In The Context Of Residential Foster Care, Autumn M. Bermea, Brad Forenxa, Heidi Adams Rueda, Michelle L. Toews

Social Work Faculty Publications

The purpose of the current study was to explore how adolescent mothers experienced pregnancy and parenthood within the context of residential foster care. Adolescent mothers in foster care are a vulnerable population although little research has explored their experiences, particularly from a resiliency framework. The present study begins to fill this gap by conducting focus group interviews with 39 adolescent mothers living in residential foster care. Using thematic analytic methodology, we uncovered themes that highlighted not only the mothers’ struggles, but also their capacities for resilience. Specifically, the mothers experienced societal stigma, parenting judgment, and challenging relationships with their child(ren)’s …

The University Of Texas Of The Permian Basin Groundbreaking Ceremony - Kinesiology Building, Utpb Communications And Marketing

UTPB Administration

Groundbreaking Ceremony for Kinesiology Building Program

Designed by SmithGroup Architects of Dallas and Vandergriff Group of Midland, the Kinesiology Building contains 63,000 gross square feet. The one-story steel frame structure will have exterior cladding of masonry veneers, aluminum curtain wall, and roof panels. The new facility will provide the campus with classrooms, biomechanics and exercise physiology labs, offices, lecture spaces, a weight room, and athletic training space - including hydrotherapy pools - for clinical activities and support spaces. The athletic portion of the building will house an equipment room, locker rooms for football and women's soccer, and coaches' offices.

The Battle Over Fracking: The Mobilization Of Local Residents, Mehmet Soyer, Sebahattin Ziyanak

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

In the last decade, the natural gas industry has grown rapidly, and North Texas has become a major shale gas-producing area. This paper studies the power struggle of two rival groups (Frack Free Denton and Denton Tax Payers for a Strong Economy) over fracking in Denton. How did each of these groups challenge the claims-making activities and goals of their adversaries?” We conducted data from ten in-depth interviews from each side to compare concerns about fracking. This study focuses on the campaign of the two groups on each side of the debate. We developed the model of merging the theoretical …

Strengths And Coping Strategies In The Life Narratives Of Sexual Minority Women, Laurie Drabble, Karen F. Trocki, Brenda Salcedo, Bobbi R. Morales, Rachael Korcha

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This study explored self-described strengths and strategies for coping with stress among sexual minority women (SMW), drawing on qualitative narratives of sexual minority and heterosexual women who were recruited from a population-based sample. In-depth follow-up qualitative telephone interviews were conducted with 48 women who had participated in the National Alcohol Survey, a U.S. population-based survey. Participants included 25 SMW and 16 matched exclusively heterosexual women. Narrative data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis and constant comparison to explore the study aim, with an emphasis on themes that diverged or that were particularly salient for SMW relative to heterosexual women. Strengths …

Incorporating Social System Dynamics In The Columbia River Basin: Food-Energy-Water Resilience And Sustainability Modeling In The Yakima River Basin, Jennifer E. Givens, Julie Padowski, Christian D. Guzman, Keyvan Malek, Rebecca Witinok-Huber, Barbara Cosens, Michael Briscoe, Jan Boll, Jennifer Adam

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

In the face of climate change, achieving resilience of desirable aspects of food-energy-water (FEW) systems already strained by competing multi-scalar social objectives requires interdisciplinary approaches. This study is part of a larger effort exploring “Innovations in the Food-Energy-Water Nexus (INFEWS)” in the Columbia River Basin (CRB) through coordinated modeling and simulated management scenarios. Here, we focus on a case study and conceptual mapping of the Yakima River Basin (YRB), a sub-basin of the CRB. Previous research on FEW system management and resilience includes some attention to social dynamics (e.g., economic and governance systems); however, more attention to social drivers and …

Demystifying The Construction Of Qualitative Research Methodology: An Approachable Text For Doctoral Students, Stephanie A. Bluestein Ed.D.

The Qualitative Report

Durdella’s text, Qualitative Dissertation Methodology: A Guide for Research Design and Methods, breaks down the steps for conducting qualitative research in applied programs of study and social behavioral science fields. The book, also useful to department chairs and program directors, focuses on designing a qualitative study, conducting the study and analyzing the data. Useful advice drawn from Durdella’s experience as a dissertation committee chair, in addition to introspective questions for the student, help to demystify the methodology chapter and, thus, could have a positive impact on programs.

Shared Gold: Mapping Of Community Engagement, Brian Gogan, Jennifer Harrison

Academic Leadership Academy

Engaged universities and communities are a key focus for meaningful social transformation and addressing complex educational issues including access, research ethics, and business development (Cherrington et al., 2018).

Universities throughout the nation are called not only to serve their academic community, but also the communities in which they are situated. In fact, ongoing revisions to the Higher Learning Commission’s accreditation criteria suggest that community engagement will serve as a primary means by which institutions of higher education will demonstrate their publicly oriented missions and fulfill accreditation criterion number one (Higher Learning Commission, 2018).

Community engagement can be defined as “the …

Using Implementation Science To Strengthen The Child Welfare Workforce, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

The QIC-WD is using implementation science to strengthen the child welfare workforce in eight child welfare agencies across the U.S. According to a synthesis of the literature, implementation can be defined as a specified set of activities designed to put into practice and activity or program of known dimensions. The QIC-WD is using the implementation science framework developed by NIRN and the guide created by the Permanency Innovations Initiative to support our sites through the stages of implementation: Exploration, Installation, Initial Implementation, and Full Implementation as described below. The QIC-WD knows that high quality implementation of a selected intervention is …

It Seems Rational: A Contemporary Review Of Decision-Making Models Convergence With Addiction In The 21st Century, Justin Mckinley Flint

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Caudill College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts by Justin McKinley Flint on September 12, 2018.

Introduction To Sociology Zero-Cost Syllabus, Mateo Sancho Cardiel

Open Educational Resources

This syllabus will help you to create your OER Introduction to Sociology course. The course is designed in order to create connections with the news, with classic and contemporary cinema and with hot topics in our everchanging society, making it a useful tool to engage students beyond the conventional approach to the content.

Immigration And Environment In The U.S.: A Spatial Study Of Air Quality, Guizhen Ma, Erin Trouth Hofmann

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Environmental consequences are frequently cited as a justification for restricting immigration to the United States, but there is little empirical research on the environmental consequences of immigration to support such arguments. The research that does exist shows immigration to be less environmentally harmful than native population growth, but is hampered by small samples and fails to account for spatial autocorrelation of air quality. We use the air quality domain of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Quality Index (EQI) to examine the association between immigrant and native populations and local air quality across all counties in the continental U.S. We employ …

Life Review In Aging: A Primer, Thomas M. Meuser

Social Work Faculty Publications

Humans are narrative beings. We understand and speak of ourselves and the events of our lives in the context of stories. The stories we tell are influenced by our lived experiences, the quality of our memories (what’s recalled and forgotten), relationships, personality styles, values, accomplishments, regrets, spiritual beliefs, and a host of other factors. Telling our stories from the vantage point of old age is reflective of a maturational process of introspection and discovery called life review.

Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment: A Primer, Thomas M. Meuser

Social Work Faculty Publications

Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment is an integrative approach to diagnosis, treatment and management of older adults that takes the whole person into account. While deficits may be a primary focus, strengths are also considered.