Digital Commons Network^™

Participation, Deliberation, And Decision Making: The Dynamics Of Inclusion And Exclusion In Mixed-Income Developments, Amy T. Khare, Mark L. Joseph

Faculty Scholarship

This paper explores the mechanisms, processes, and dynamics of participation and deliberation in three newly created, mixed-income communities being built on the footprint of former public housing developments in Chicago. Our findings reflect enduring dilemmas about the challenge of democratic participation and representation for low-income citizens in the context of urban revitalization efforts. In the current case, a fundamental tension exists between two orientations to organizing participation, one (dominant) orientation that privileges “mainstreaming” public housing resident participation into collaborative governance structures and existing market and civil society mechanisms, and another that suggests the continuing need for dedicated mechanisms that maximize …

Youth In The Ghana Experiment: Characteristics And Living Conditions, Gina A. N. Chowa, Rainier Masa, Isaac Osei-Akoto

Center for Social Development Research

Youth in the Ghana Experiment: Characteristics and Living Conditions

Politics, Law & Social Service - New York Helps The United Way, Marita Begley

Syracuse University Magazine

No abstract provided.

Aging Out Of Foster Care: A Review Of Best Practices Towards Prevention And Amelioration, Katherine Lukov Stock

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Effects Of A Witnessing History On The Female Ability To Negotiate Romantic Relationships: A Retrospective Analysis, Kimberly Rodrigues

Social Work Theses

Research suggests that witnessing domestic violence (DV) in childhood may have long-term negative effects as a person enters adulthood. This exposure may hinder the ability for adults to build healthy romantic relationships. In an effort to better understand how a witnessing history affects adult romantic relationships, this study focused on the retrospective stories of women who were in recent domestically violent relationships and who also reveal witnessing DV as children. Participant’s narratives were analyzed for themes relating to their witnessing history, such as type of violence witnessed, frequency of violence witnessed, and whether or not participants felt their witnessing history …

Family Psychoeducation In Clinical High Risk And First- Episode Psychosis, William R. Mcfarlane, Sarah Lynch, Ryan P. Melton

Regional Research Institute for Human Services

Seventy percent of those who will have an episode of psychosis will have done so by age 25. Data from clinical trials of intervention during the clinical high risk period of psychosis have determined that the mean age is in mid-adolescence, 16-18 years of age. For those reasons, early intervention inherently involves adolescents, and by extension their parents and other family members and supports. Regarding the type of intervention, it is relevant that the current empirically-derived standard of treatment for schizophrenia, as concluded by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research survey of the treatment outcome literature, includes family …

Discerning Reported Suicide Attempts Within A Youthful Offender Population, Christopher A. Mallett, Leaanne Derigne, Linda M. Quinn, Patricia A. Stoddard Dare

Social Work Faculty Publications

With suicide being the third leading cause of death among young people, early identification of risk is critical, particularly for those involved with the juvenile courts. In this study of court-involved youth (N = 433) in two Midwest counties, logistic regression analysis identified some expected and unexpected findings of important demographic, educational, mental health, child welfare, and juvenile court-related variables that were linked to reported suicide attempts. Some of the expected suicide attempt risk factors for these youth included prior psychiatric hospitalization and related mental health services, residential placement, and diagnoses of depression and alcohol dependence. However, the most unexpected …

Education Professional's Perception Of Adolescent Self-Injury, Celeste Kathleen Stevens

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study is to examine education professional's perception of adolescent self-injury. This study focuses on discovering education professionals' perception of the relationship between self-injury and mental illness.

The Impact Wraparound Services Have On Riverside County Dependents Who Chronically Run Away, Angela Young Thornhill

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact wraparound services has on Riverside County dependents that have a history of running away. The wraparound process is characterized by planning and problem solving, respect for values, culture, and expertise. It includes collaboration and consists of family driven and youth guided goal structure and decisions. It focuses on individualization, opportunities for choice, evaluating strategies, and recognition. This research was conducted, studying six closed cases provided by Olive Crest, a non-profit agency. The results from this study can contribute to social work practice by enhancing social workers' knowledge and providing new …

Comparative Analysis Of Sexual Abuse Cases With And Without Substance Abuse, Courtney Kay Barzandeh

Theses Digitization Project

This study provided a statistical analysis of reunifications rates and treatments offered for sexually abused children and their parents. This study consisted of computer case files in Riverside Child Protective Services of foster children who had been sexually abused and will help in further research studies conducted in Riverside County and in various surrounding counties to understand the impact of child sexual abuse. Data was collected from fifty case files using computer databases and a data extraction tool.

Improving Community Adaptation Outcomes For Youth Graduating From Residential Mental Health Programs: A Synthesis Review (Executive Summary), Gary Cameron, T. Smit-Quosai, Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

Based on results from a synthesis review, this Executive Summary highlights elements of a proposed integrated program configuration that shows a demonstrated capacity to foster successful community adaptation for children and youth graduating from children's residential mental health programs. An expanded discussion of the synthesis review findings is available in both a full length synthesis report and summary version.

Child Sexual Abuse And Adult Attachment Styles, Carey Anne Soares

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study is to explore the association between child sexual abuse and the effects on adult attachment style to romantic partners. Because the effects of abuse can be carried into adulthood, this study evaluates whether or not being sexually abused as a child has long lasting effects on attachment styles in adulthood. Participants in this study included male and female students from California State University, San Bernardino. Questionaires related to child sexual abuse and adult attachment style to a romantic partner were administered.

The School Success Program: Improving Maltreated Children's Academic And School-Related Outcomes, Christopher A. Mallett

Social Work Faculty Publications

Many victims of childhood maltreatment experience difficulties in school and with academic performance. This article reviews the evidence on the connection between child- hood maltreatment and school performance and presents an evaluation of a unique program established by Children's Services in Lorain County, Ohio. Since 2001, the School Success Program, in collaboration with 18 Ohio public school districts, has provided individual tutoring and mentoring by certified teachers to 615 maltreated children and youths, working closely with the whole family in an in-home setting. Most children and youths in the program have progressed to their appropriate grade level while improving overall …

Improving Community Adaptation Outcomes For Youth Graduating From Residential Mental Health Programs: A Synthesis Review (Summary), Gary Cameron, T. Smit-Quosai, Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

The focus of this synthesis review was to understand the capacity of systems of care and integrated program models to foster successful community adaptation for children and youth graduating from children's residential mental health treatment.

Improving Community Adaptation Outcomes For Youth Graduating From Residential Mental Health Programs: A Synthesis Review (Full Report), Gary Cameron, T. Smit-Quosai, Karen Frensch

Partnerships for Children and Families Project

The focus of this synthesis review was to understand the capacity of systems of care and integrated program models to foster successful community adaptation for children and youth graduating from children's residential mental health treatment.

Dr. Alfred J. Kahn, Nancy V. Kahn

Social Service Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

More Than The Sum Of Its Parts: An Innovative Organizational Collaboration Model, Lauri Goldkind, Manoj Pardasani

Social Service Faculty Publications

For at least the past decade, the social service sector has been pressed by external forces to develop models of interagency collaboration. While many organizations use strategic partnerships, joint service delivery models, and even mergers to remain viable in climates of competition, few agencies have explored the possible rewards of sharing development and fundraising tasks. This article examines an innovative collaborative fundraising entity forged by three child welfare organizations in the New York City area. The authors conducted structured interviews with key stakeholders at each of the three agencies to describe the model as implemented by the agencies as well …

Services For Adults With An Autism Spectrum Disorder, Paul T. Shattuck, Anne M. Roux, Laura E. Hudson, Julie L. Taylor, Matthew J. Maenner, Jean-Francois Trani

Brown School Faculty Publications

Objective: The need for useful evidence about services is increasing as larger numbers of children identified with an autism spectrum disorder age toward adulthood. The objective of this review was to characterize the topical and methodological aspects of research on services for supporting success in work, education, and social participation among adults with an autism spectrum disorder and to propose recommendations for moving this area of research forward. Method: Review of literature published in English from 2000 to 2010.Results: We found that the evidence base about services for adults with an ASD is underdeveloped and can be considered a field …

The Latino Community In Multnomah County: An Unsettling Profile, Ann Curry-Stevens, Amanda Cross-Hemmer, Coalition Of Communities Of Color

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Our report, "The Latino Community in Multnomah County: An Unsettling Profile" uncovers an array of racial inequities across the systems of income, employment, education, juvenile justice, corrections, child welfare, philanthropic giving, housing, immigration, research practices (particularly population measurement), wealth, health, health insurance coverage, racial harassment, public service and voter registration. These systems maintain our second-class status and serve to limit our current well being and the prospects for a bright future for our children.

Louisiana Social Workers: A Study On Attitudes Toward Lgbt Youth, Rachel Kathleen O'Pry

LSU Master's Theses

Social workers in most professional practice settings will encounter young clients who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). It is therefore important that variables influencing levels of homophobia and transphobia among these workers be analyzed. In this study, the author sought to examine the attitudes and perceptions of social workers in Louisiana toward LGBT youth. These attitudes and perceptions were then compared to individual variables such as religion, previous training on sexual orientation and gender identity, and race. The Religious Commitment Inventory (RCI), Genderism and Transphobia Scale (GTS), and Heterosexual Attitudes Toward Homosexuals (HATH) scale were completed by …

Parental Problems, Case Plan Requirements, And Service Targeting In Child Welfare Reunification, Amy C. D’Andrade, R. Chambers

Faculty Publications

Only about half of parents attempting to reunify with their children in foster care succeed in their efforts. Parents are ordered by the court to use treatment services in order to resolve their problems. These treatment services thus play a critical role in reunification, and in fact the use of services appropriately matched to parents' problems has been found to be associated with a greater likelihood of reunification. However, there is little in the literature regarding the specific requirements of reunification case plans, and whether they are accurately targeted at reunifying parents' problems. This mostly descriptive study uses case file …

Exploring Support Network Structure, Content, And Stability As Youth Transition From Foster Care, Jennifer E. Blakeslee

Dissertations and Theses

Many older youth in foster care lack adequate resources and ongoing support in their social networks as they transition into young adulthood, while other youth in these circumstances experience stable social networks providing comprehensive support. Systematically measuring the supportive personal and service-oriented relationships in youth networks expands the scope of inquiry in this area by identifying patterns of social network structure, member composition, and relational qualities that are associated with more or less support provision through formal and informal relationships. These can also be measured over time to observe changes in network form and content and assess network stability. This …

The Power Of Protection: A Population-Based Comparison Of Native And Non-Native Youth Suicide Attempters, Juliette Mackin, Tamara Perkins, Carrie Jeanne Furrer

Center for Improvement of Child and Family Services Publications

This study provides actionable information about intervening with American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth to prevent suicide. Statewide school survey data were used to model the impact of risk and protective factors on self-reported suicide attempts (both AI/AN and non-AI/AN). The cumulative risk and protective model worked similarly for both groups. AI/AN youth had a higher threshold of risk before making a suicide attempt. Protective factors buffered the impact of risk, particularly for the higher risk youth.

Strategic Sharing Workbook: Youth Voice In Advocacy, Eric Lulow

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This workbook is for individuals who have experienced traumatic life experiences and are interested in sharing their stories in an effort to promote change. Training in Strategic Sharing is an important part of advocacy – we encourage anyone who has experienced traumatic life events and wishes to share those experiences in an effort to promote positive changes for yourself and/or others, to do so with the help of this guide.

As you will see mentioned several times in this workbook, it is really important that you take the time to take care of yourself. This training was not developed to …

Association Between Mental Health Disorders And Juveniles' Detention For A Personal Crime, Patricia A. Stoddard Dare, Christopher A. Mallett, Craig Boitel

Social Work Faculty Publications

Background: Youth involved with juvenile courts often suffer from mental health difficulties and disorders, and these mental health disorders have often been a factor leading to the youth’s delinquent behaviours and activities.

Method: The present study of a sample population (N= 341), randomly drawn from one urban US county’s juvenile court delinquent population, investigated which specific mental health disorders predicted detention for committing a personal crime.

Results: Youth with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorder diagnoses were significantly less likely to commit personal crimes and experience subsequent detention, while youth with bipolar diagnoses were significantly more likely.

Conclusion: Co-ordinated youth …

The Politics Of Data: Uncovering Whiteness In Conventional Social Policy And Social Work Research, Ann Curry-Stevens, Amanda Cross-Hemmer, Nichole Maher, Julia Meier

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The implementation of a robust community based participatory research (CBPR) study in Multnomah County, Oregon, has detailed broad and deep racial disparities across 27 institutions and systems. The process of this research has led to the identification of numerous practices that misrepresent and negate the experiences and very identity of communities of color. The research draws from engagement with numerous databases from the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and various administrative databases. The core issues at hand are population undercounts, understudy of the unique characteristics of these communities, inaccuracies in …

Building Relationships Across Systems To Enhance Resiliency And Improve Foster Care Outcomes, Karen Rice Phd, Lsw, Acsw, Heather Girvin Phd, Mss

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) of Lancaster County represents a collaborative, systemic response to gaps in current service systems in a largely rural/suburban area. This paper discusses strategies used to foster support for CASA and on-going efforts to develop, implement, and evaluate the CASA program. We share lessons learned related to the development of innovative systemic responses to service gaps in rural areas.

Explicating Correlates Of Juvenile Offender Detention Length: The Impact Of Race, Mental Health Difficulties, Maltreatment, Offense Type, And Court Dispositions, Christopher A. Mallett, Patricia A. Stoddard Dare, Mamadou M. Seck

Social Work Faculty Publications

Detention and confinement are widely acknowledged juvenile justice system problems which require further research to understand the explanations for these outcomes. Existing juvenile court, mental health, and child welfare histories were used to explicate factors which predict detention length in this random sample of 342 youth from one large, urban Midwestern county in the United States. Data from this sample revealed eight variables which predict detention length. Legitimate predictors of longer detention length such as committing a personal crime or violating a court order were nearly as likely in this sample to predict detention length as other extra-legal predictors such …

Evaluation Of Mentoring In Southern Nevada, Andrew Merz, Glen Leavitt

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coalition (SNRPC) is charged with the issuance of grants and funding to groups who provide and run mentoring programs in Southern Nevada (which is primarily composed of Clark County.) The SNRPC desires to streamline and regiment this process, as currently it is operated with minimal oversight and regulation. We designed a survey to ascertain what mentoring groups in Clark County consider to be central to mentoring; both within and without their own programs. It is our desire that the SNRPC be able to administer the newly created survey to groups who receive and groups who …

Innovation In Collaboration: The Summer Institute On Youth Mentoring As A University-Community Partnership, Kevin R. Jones, Thomas E. Keller, Marc E. Wheeler

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The article explores the utility and flexibility of one of the more comprehensive partnership frameworks by using it to a university-based summer institute designed to foster the exchange of knowledge between practitioners and researchers in the field of youth mentoring. It states that youth mentoring is a well-known and prevalent mode of intervention with youth and children across the U.S. The Summer Institute on Youth Mentoring at Portland State University was developed to provide a new and distinctive educational chance for experienced youth and mentoring experts. Portland State University became known as a pioneer in facilitating collaboration between youth mentoring …