Digital Commons Network^™

An Ecological Approach To Improving Reentry Programs For Justice-Involved African American Men, Precious Skinner-Osei, Peter Claudius Osei

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

This article is a re-analysis of a previous study (please see https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2017.1402724). Considering the previous findings, in addition to the recent discussions around criminal justice reform, race, policing, and mental health in the United States, the data were reanalyzed using an updated version of QSR NVivo. The new findings revealed that reintegrating justice-involved African American men back into society requires reentry programs to utilize a different approach. Reentry programs must be constructed under the notion that the process involves multiple interrelated components that interact with larger systems outside the individual or organization's immediate control or organization advocating for them. …

Cultural Identity Formation: A Personal Narrative, Jose Carbajal

Faculty Publications

This paper provides an autoethnography of personal experiences and perceptions of being a minoritized individual. This is the story of a professional social worker learning to adapt to social norms and expectations of self. I discuss the struggles I experienced as an adolescent and as a young adult attending college. This narrative highlights the intersection of faith and social work at moments in my professional development. It is at this intersection that this social worker learns to live a holistic life without feeling discriminated against or ashamed of his identity. I begin to actualize a reality with imperfect beings who …

Stopped Listening: Experiences Of Higher Education Refugee-Background Learners, Peggy Lynn Maclsaac, Staci B. Martin, Wilson Kubwayo, Chablue Wah, Salome Nanyenga

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper discusses the academic agency of refugee-background individuals who have resettled to the United States of America and the responsibility of higher education to value refugee-background learners as knowledge creators. Contrary to deficit thinking that views learners as unable to succeed due to their refugee background, this study explores how their experiences demonstrate their multiple capacities to succeed in higher education. The essence of these experiences is presented using self-reflexive collaborative speaking and writing inquiry. Three main themes drawn from the results were the capacities of refugee-background learners to adapt cultures, maintain multiple social connections, and exercise agency.

The Experience Of Friendship Between Individuals With And Without An Intellectual Disability., Rebecca Clark

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Practitioners and researchers are concerned about the limited social inclusion and social networks of individuals with an Intellectual Disability (ID) (Amado, 2014; Bigby & Craig, 2017; Hall, 2010; Hardman & Clark, 2006; Knox & Hickson, 2001; McConkey & Collins, 2010; Tipton, 2011). Friendships between those with and without an ID are viewed as opportunities for greater inclusiveness with and connection to the mainstream society (Amado, 2014; Bigby & Craig, 2017; McConkey & Collins, 2010). However, little is known about the development of friendships between those with and without an ID. The purpose of this study was to fully explore the …

How Peer Support Specialists Uniquely Initiate And Build Connection With Young People Experiencing Homelessness, James Erangey, Connor Marvin, Danielle Maude Littman, Meredith Mollica, Kimberly Bender, Tom Lucas, Tara Milligan

Graduate School of Social Work: Faculty Scholarship

Young people experiencing homelessness are often apprehensive to engage in conventional service systems due to prior mistreatment by providers and others in their lives, as well as stigma associated with accessing services. Even when relationships between service providers and young people are initiated, they often end prematurely. Mutual aid, or peer-to-peer support, has a long and promising history within the mental health field, yet has received little empirical attention in work with young people experiencing homelessness. The present study used participatory qualitative methods to understand how peers uniquely initiate and build connection with young people experiencing homelessness. Through interviews and …

Understanding Wellbeing And Caregiver Commitment After Adoption Or Guardianship From Foster Care, Nancy Rolock

Faculty Scholarship

This study explored data obtained from surveys of caregivers who had previously adopted or assumed guardianship of a child from foster care in two U.S. states (N= 937). Descriptive analyses summarized the demographic and wellbeing characteristics of children and families, and multivariate regression models estimated the association between these variables and caregiver commitment. Consistent with previous research, most caregivers (> 80%) reported positive adjustment across measures, but some caregivers indicated family struggles, such as caregiver strain, child behavior difficulties, and lack of access to adoption-competent services. Higher caregiver commitment was associated with higher family nurturing and attachment, lower caregiver strain, …

Disparities In Oral Health: Socioeconomic Status And Policies To Increase Access To Primary Dental Care, Mckenzie Nutter

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Primary dental care is a patient-centered service consisting of routine dental checkups. The oral cavity is the first point of entrance to the body for many harmful pathogens. Therefore, primary dental care is essential to not only prevent and treat conditions in the mouth, but to also reduce the number of systemic diseases in the rest of the body. However, people with higher incomes or wealth have increased access to primary dental care. People with low socioeconomic status have decreased access to primary dental care, at least in part due to difficulties in paying for separate dental insurance. Disparities in …

Positive Parenting As A Moderator For Reducing Depression In Inner-City Children Exposed To Contextual Risk Factors? A Longitudinal Multilevel Analysis Of A Family-Based Intervention Program., Donghang Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Depression in inner-city children is a serious social problem. Given the existing evidence supporting the links among neighborhood conditions, family functioning, parenting, and child outcome, this study expands the examination of the relationship among contextual factors and child depression from a longitudinal developmental perspective. This study also aims to examine how positive parenting as a protective factor moderates the effect of contextual risk factors on child depression in a sample of low-income, inner-city families. This present study used the secondary data from the Schools and Families Educating (SAFE) Children study (aka SAFE Children Project) with is a longitudinal panel study …

The Resilience Of Female Survivors Of Intimate Partner Violence In Southwest Nigeria: An Interdisciplinary Analysis, Tobi F. Oloyede

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Female survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Nigeria endure harsh and traumatic experiences that affect their rights as women and their well-being. As the phenomenon of IPV persists in Nigeria, it is not only a family problem but a critical social and psychological problem. This study examined Nigerian female survivors’ hidden strength, agency, and resilience, rather than their powerlessness and vulnerability. Analysis of survey questionnaires, interviews, and secondary scholarship reveals that some Nigerian female survivors of IPV are able to cope whilst navigating stressful and traumatic experiences. The results also show that survivors’ ability to thrive and cope under …

"My Head Was Like A Washing Machine On Spin": (Improving) Women’S Experiences Of Accessing Support, Jo Neale, Kathryn Hodges

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This paper draws on data collected as part of two larger studies to set out the differences, according to women seeking support, between the feminist responses of the specialist women’s sector and the issues-led responses of other agencies. The first study examined the processes by which women enter, endure, and exit relationships with abusive men. The second study explored the barriers to help-seeking for those accessing a service for women involved in prostitution. Taking a feminist poststructuralist approach, the authors point to the gendered nature, both of the experiences that propel women toward help-seeking and of the responses they receive …

A Mule For The Patriarchy: Waking Up To The Harm Of Prostitution To Wives And Families, Andrea Heinz

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

I exited from commercial sexual exploitation eight years ago. Here, I share my reflections on how my actions directly impacted other women. I describe how my participation in the sex trade adversely affected the wives and girlfriends of sex buyers. I posit that sex sellers negatively impact these vicarious victims by subscribing to and endorsing “sex work” ideology. I assert that the collective good of all women is diminished by viewing sexual services as a market commodity. I stress that the collective good of all women is enhanced by assuming responsibility and compassion for one another.

Women Exiting Prostitution: Reports Of Coercive Control In Intimate Relationships, Tammy Schultz, Aimee A. Callender, Sally Schwer Canning, Jacey Collins

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

There is burgeoning research on intimate partner violence (IPV) experiences among women globally. However, there is a dearth of research on IPV experiences among marginalized populations in Western countries. Over the past decade, IPV research has shifted from a focus only on physical and sexual violence to include coercive control experiences. These include a continuum of nonviolent behaviors centered on maintaining dominance over one’s partner. However, the empirical literature on examining coercive control among women in prostitution within non-commercial intimate partners is lacking. In this study, we analyzed interviews with 17 women exiting prostitution and examined reported IPV sexual, physical, …

Seeing The Shadow Women: The Hidden Victims Of Prostitution, Donna M. Hughes

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

A group of hidden victims of prostitution has been brought to light by Ingeborg Kraus, a trauma therapist in Germany, and Andrea Heinz, a woman with experience in the sex trade in Canada. Dignity has published four articles by these two writers in the last year. Their nascent body of work is uncovering important new information and perspectives on prostitution. Through their own experience and interviews with wives of sex buyers and women with sex trade experience they show us a more holistic view of the harm of prostitution. They write about the wives and families of men who are …

Shaping Identity: Older Adults’ Perceived Community Volunteering Experiences In Shanghai, Lin Chen, Minzhi Ye, Yilin Wu

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

This study explores elderly volunteers’ identity during their experiences volunteering in the community in Shanghai. Purposive and snowball sampling strategies were used to recruit elderly volunteers to participate in semi-structured, in-depth interviews (N = 40). Participants developed new identities during volunteering. Through volunteering, they also continued to sustain their professional identities and Chinese Communist Party identities. Volunteering had both positive and negative implications for participants’ identities. Our findings suggest that volunteering strengthened participants’ role identity and social identity to better adapt to life after retirement. Volunteering also helped participants achieve identity continuity. This study offers nuanced sociocultural context to …

For Advocates, Raquel Magadan-Sanchez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The mission of the Court Appointed Special Advocates of Santa Cruz (CASA) program is to provide children in the foster care system a volunteer advocate who spends time with the child to ensure they are receiving the services they need (CASA of Santa Cruz County, 2019). The problem addressed is the high volume of foster children in Santa Cruz county and the three causes of the problem are substance abuse, poverty, and abuse and neglect. The consequences are how abuse affects a foster child’s mental health, what it means to be a dual-status youth (a child involved in the welfare …

School Social Workers As Nepantleras In Equity Work For Immigrant Students: A Conceptual Exploration, Sophia Rodriguez, Benjamin Roth, Leticia Villarreal Sosa

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

This article investigates the critical role school social workers play in promoting equity and advocating for immigrant students in K–12 settings. We explore and conceptualize the notion of nepantlera from the work of Gloria Anzaldúa and draw from qualitative data to show how school social workers function as nepantleras in service and advocacy roles for immigrant students. We further argue that the school settings in which these services take place should be understood as borderlands. Throughout the article, we explore the following questions: What is a paradigm for school social worker practice with immigrant students that is informed by the …

Speaking Welcome: A Discursive Analysis Of An Immigrant Mentorship Event In Atlantic Canada, Kristi A. Allain, Rory Crath, Gül Çalışkan

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

This article offers an analysis of a business mentorship event in Fredericton, NB, which targeted immigrants sponsored through the New Brunswick Provincial Nominee Program (NBPNP)—an economic revitalization program designed to attract foreign business people and skilled workers to settle in the province. Applying Derrida’s concept of hospitality as a technology of whiteness, we examine the stated and implicitly understood expectations for the NBPNP, including the mechanisms at play for regulating newcomer’s behavior and comportment. We locate our analysis in the context of a regionally expressed Canadian multiculturalism, extending the relevance of our findings beyond Fredericton to Atlantic Canada. We ask: …

Lessons Learned While Conducting Utilization-Focused Workforce Evaluation, Robert Blagg, Michelle Graef, Cynthia F. Parry, Courtney L. Harrison

Other QIC-WD Products

The QIC-WD learned many lessons while conducting utilization-focused workforce research across eight diverse public child welfare agencies. In this brief we detail how we are chronicling natural variation (e.g., stay at home orders, hiring freezes, political will, and leadership changes), synthesizing existing data, conducting process evaluation (e.g., identifying implementation drivers), visualizing data to meet diverse stakeholder information needs, and building systems that are both flexible and sustainable.

Environmental Justice Organizing In A Gentrifying Community: Navigating Dilemmas Of Representation, Issue Selection, And Recruitment, Amy Krings, Colette Copic

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Environmental justice organizations aim to secure an equitable distribution of environmental resources through the participation and self-determination of affected people, particularly communities of color. Yet organizing in a market economy is complicated: As communities become greener, gentrification can follow, thereby inadvertently displacing low-income communities of color and reproducing environmental injustices. This study informs antiracist community practice methods by examining strategic and ethical dilemmas embedded within an environmental justice organization that is located in a gentrifying Mexican American neighborhood in Chicago. Drawing from interviews, we examine members’ perceptions relating to representation, recruitment, and issue selection. We reveal key considerations for community …

Conflicting Identities: The Lgbtq-Jewish Identity Conflict And How The Jewish Community Is Working To Fix It, Gavin Christy, Sam Crew, Molly Klimo, Peter Sparrow

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

This work studies the identities of Jewish people who are also a part of the LGBTQ community. It examines the conflict that many LGBTQ Jews feel between these two identities and how this conflict decreases these people's involvement in the Jewish community. Looking from the Jewish community side we examine how the Jewish community has responded to this problem and how they are working to better integrate their LGBTQ members into their community.

Springboro And West Carrollton School Districts, Alex Roberts

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

Poster describes my field experiences in the Dayton-area school districts of Springboro and West Carrollton. During my time at each school, I helped students with disabilities and observed a school resource officer and her duties.

Religion War: Judaism's Impact On The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Marissa Mark, Richard Morisette, Jennifer Rosio, Jack Willerton

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict has been a major issue since 1948 when the Israelis and Palestinians engaged in a Civil War. One of the driving factors in the conflict is the religious affiliation from each side, with Jewish Israelis clashing with Muslim Palestinians. While religion has been a driving force for hostility, religion can also be seen as a beacon of hope and peace. In our research, we have found that religious affiliation from the Israeli side tends to result in more positive attitudes towards their Palestinian counterparts. In our research, we investigated three major fields: Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology. By …

Religion And Racism In The United States, Sebastian Rawl, Kingsford Adjei

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

Through the literary analysis of eight scholarly writings, we sought to answer our research questions and were able to form hypothesis based on the evidence provided by the authors. From there, we formulated ideas on what we think can and should change in the relationship between religion and race relations.

The Political Dynamic Of The Separation Of The Islamic Church And State, Maya Drayton, Rachel Burton, Caroline Donnelly, Brianna Wolfe, Erika Cambron

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

In this project, we researched the relationship between Islam and the state. We conducted our research by using the University of Dayton databases to find different journals and articles analyzing our topic. We found that the relationship is constantly evolving and depends on where you are located. We also found that Islam has not always been properly investigated and is not as widely understood as it could be.

Hindu Views On The Environment, Katie Bardine, Sean Sullivan, Jonathan Sulzer

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

Poster explores five views that influence Hindu views on sustainability and the environment, the first of which is that the ecological consciousness is the way of living in which it respects the environment and the ecological world. A Hindu’s ecological consciousness is well constructed, as a main aspect of the religion is care for the Earth and respect for creation.

Islamophobia: An American Conundrum Spurred By Donald Trump’S Executive Order And Political Rhetoric, Mike Lawless

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

The negative rhetoric directed toward Muslims in the United States has largely been focused on Muslim refugees because it allows for a connotation that a radical group is entering the United States.

Economics And Development In Buddhism, Michaela Kendig, Elizabeth Kolb, Brett Heininger, Patrick Fath

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

Our research focused on the religious tradition, Buddhism and how the teachings and traditions of Buddhism affect work life, economics, and developmental aspects of society.

• How does Buddhism affect women’s careers?
• What developments both economic and other has Buddhism contributed?
• What’s going on in Bodh Gaya?

Religion And The Death Penalty In The United States, Isabel Neal

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

• Catholic Nations are the most likely to advocate for the abolishment the death penalty.
• Observed: Catholics Against Capital Punishment.
• Most religious groups prefer life in prison over the death penalty.
• More religions are now opposed to the death penalty than they were in the past.
• Church attendance may be a factor when it comes to support or opposition of the death penalty.
• Persons who view their deity as compassionate are more likely to be opposed to the death penalty.

4 Paws For Ability, Kathleen Schumacher

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

4 paws is a nonprofit organization that trains and places service dogs with children to increase the independence of the child and assist the families.

Why Does This Work Matter? Without volunteers, 4 Paws would be unable to operate as an organization. Kids like the boy to the left who at the age of three was diagnosed with autism and struggles with communication, anxiety, and wandering off would not be able to seek comfort in a service dog.

Coronavirus' Effect On American Christianity, Daniel Hughes

Content presented at the Roesch Social Sciences Symposium

The church has been losing members especially amongst its youth, but the Pew Research Center did a survey on practicing Christians and found that One-quarter of US adults overall (24%) say their faith has become stronger because of the coronavirus pandemic, while just 4% of people say their faith has become weaker. The majority has said their faith hasn’t changed much (67%) and 5% had no comment on the issue.