Digital Commons Network^™

Belmont Council On Aging: Planning For The Future, Caitlin E. Coyle, Nancy Mazonson, Ceara Somerville

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

This report presents the results of a comprehensive needs assessment of Belmont’s older adult population. The study was conducted to support planning by the Belmont Council on Aging and Beech Street Senior Center, and it also provides valuable information for other town departments, community organizations, and residents. Specifically, this report aims to: *Describe Belmont’s current older adult population and their needs. *Assess the services and resources currently available. *Identify gaps and opportunities for improvement. *Provide recommendations to ensure Belmont remains a supportive, age-friendly community for years to come.

As the number of older residents grows, so too will the need …

Housing Options As We Age, Michele Dinman, Jeff Brandt, Logan Fox

Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging

Almost 75% of adults ages 50 and older want to stay in their homes and communities as they age. This is referred to as “aging in place.” Our homes and communities can help us feel safe and give us a sense of belonging and connection. Furthermore, our living situations effect our health and quality of life as well as our ability to live independently. Changes in our physical, psychological, social, and financial well-being later in life can affect our abilities to age in place. Finding the best housing based on our resources, interests, and needs is important for living well …

Job-Training Programs For Older Americans, Byeongju Ryu, Cal J. Halvorsen

Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging

The traditional notion of retirement—stopping work completely to focus on personal pursuits in one’s golden years—is not guaranteed. In the United States, three in four adults plan to work past age 65. Many older adults continue working due to financial necessity, including rising healthcare costs, insufficient retirement savings, and gaps in pension coverage. Low-wage workers, in particular, may struggle to retire at all, forced to keep working to afford basic necessities such as housing and food. Older adults also seek employment for their personal health and well-being, such as staying physically and mentally active, finding a sense of purpose, and …

Venezuelan Migrants In Prostitution: A Personal Decision?, Yazmin Maria Lucila Cadena Camargo, Izara Maite Mondragon Moreno, Isabela Osorio Jaramillo, Paula Angélica Suárez Álvarez, Andrés Duarte Osorio, Carlos Gómez-Restrepo

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This paper explores the multifaceted experiences of Venezuelan migrant women engaged in prostitution, framed through three critical moments: the “decision to enter in prostitution,” the unique abuses faced, and the resultant consequences on mental, physical, and social health. The study highlights how socioeconomic vulnerabilities—exacerbated by migration and poverty—significantly influence the likelihood of entering prostitution. It also shows how traumatic experiences, particularly in childhood and adolescence, coupled with a lack of support networks, contribute to a heightened risk of exploitation. Eleven life stories were collected through a phenomenological approach, revealing a common narrative of abuse, poverty, and the search for survival …

Ethnographic Dilemmas And Reflexive Thoughts Of A Contemplative Jewish Anthropologist, Elazar Ben-Lulu Dr.

The Qualitative Report

During ethnographic fieldwork, anthropologists of religion grapple with various dilemmas regarding their participation in the rituals they study. How do they make real-time decisions between full participation and observational distance? Do they manage to participate harmoniously in religious activities even during moments of doubt or questioning of their own faith? Based on my three-year fieldwork in Israeli Reform Jewish congregations, which included observations and in-depth interviews, I demonstrate how my reflexive experience which exposes my internal Jewish dialogue, shaped my patterns of participation and motivation in engaging with various rituals. This autoethnographic description illustrates that my deliberate abstention or avoidance …

A Not-Quite-Assessment Of Assessing Autoethnography: Ekphrastic Compositions On Quality, Clarity, And (Un)Certainty In Autoethnography, Aaron Hoy

The Qualitative Report

Taking an ekphrastic approach, this essay responds to and reflects on my reading of Assessing Autoethnography: Notes on Analysis, Evaluation, and Craft by Andrew F. Herrmann and Tony E. Adams. It has three parts. First, I summarize the book’s central chapters and discuss their practical uses, especially as prompts for in-progress autoethnographies. Second, using clarity as a point of entry, I explore a tension I felt while reading the book—between the comforting utility of specific criteria and the marginalizing power of criteria themselves. Finally, I share a found poem composed in response to the book and reflect on the impermanent …

Cultivating Community Resilience Through Youth Engagement, Elizabeth K. Anthony, Allison Mullady, Kendelle Brown, Michelle Blagg-Catone, Stephanie Castillo

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This article presents the impact of Arizona State University’s Design Studio for Community Solutions (DSCS) on youth engagement and community resilience. Through a mixed-methods approach, the study assesses the impact of DSCS programs on youth engagement and community resilience. The findings highlight best practices, underscoring the importance of consistent communication, trust-building, and community representation. Additionally, the research offers nuanced recommendations for future investigations, emphasizing the importance of continuous data collection and periodic assessments to drive ongoing improvement and address unmet community needs.

Gathering At The Table: Using Food To Heal On One’S Grief Journey, Jamie B. Daugherty, Jada Staat, Julie Rachford

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This research study explored the registered dietitian nutritionist’s (RDN) role and impact while supporting those on their grief journey. Data collection methods included a focus group, journaling, workshop evaluations, and photo elicitation. Qualitative data analysis highlighted three themes emerging from a six-week culinary nutrition education support workshop: providing intention, building community, and showcasing RDNs as encouraging companions, by contributing their skills of nutrition education and hands-on culinary applications, supporting individuals continuing to grieve.

The Impact And Strategies Utilized By College Students During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Kristi Lewis, Olivia Hansen, Amanda Kavaja

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

The COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated the growing mental health concerns seen on college campuses. A qualitative study was conducted to identify the impact and the strategies utilized by undergraduates during the pandemic. Semi-structured one-on-one interviews were conducted with 15 undergraduates. Findings suggest that college students encountered academic challenges and social struggles during COVID. The academic challenges and social struggles experienced during the pandemic have only added to the growing mental health concerns of college students.

Building Community One Structure At A Time: A Partnership Between Social Work And Landscape Architecture Students, Kenya M. Cistrunk, Elizabeth P. Tofte, Juriel A. Rogers

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Experiential learning is invaluable when promoting interdisciplinary approaches to teaching complex issues. This article reports on a five-week collaboration between undergraduate stu-dents in social work and landscape architecture courses, project impetus being a common-reading text. Students (n=54) constructed three-dimensional models of children’s playgrounds and prepared academic posters describing restorative interventions based on their service-learning experiences with community partners. Projects were displayed at university-sponsored workshops. Participation in common reading programs has promising implications for interdis-ciplinary collaboration.

Helping Persons Experiencing Homelessness Complete Advance Directives: A Model For Service Learning Within A Community-Academic Partnership, Woods Nash, Sandra J. Mixer, Polly M. Mcarthur, Annette Mendola, Kylie Jackson, Caroline Darlington, Bruce Spangler, Merrell Pressley, Erin Conley

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Despite their interest in completing advance directives (ADs), persons experiencing homeless-ness (PEH) appear to have fewer surrogate decision-makers and limited opportunities for ad-vance care planning (ACP). Nursing students and faculty, a hospital bioethicist, and social ser-vice agency staff formed a community-academic partnership that helps PEH complete advance directives. This unique service-learning opportunity offers a model for assisting vulnerable pop-ulations with advance care planning. Model effectiveness and limitations are described from each partner’s perspective in their own words.

Urban University Community Engagement: Questions Of Commitment To Democratic Ethics And Social Change, Khaula Murtadha

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This paper examines ethical issues underpinning urban university engagement in community spaces. The intent is to encourage an evaluation stance and consider how university representatives and community representatives might justly approach and develop partnerships. The paper questions whether faculty, staff, and community partners take action to cultivate public dialogue, or what might be called democratic voice, to bring about social change. Social change organizations unambiguously try to affect and reshape public and environmental affairs, group dynamics, processes, and outcomes. Are the university administration and faculty, in partnership with community stakeholders, ready to take on the charge of social change organization?

Community Engagement: It Is All About Relationships!, Jennifer June Anderson

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

The ability to generate sustainable, mutually beneficial, interprofessional teams becomes a critical skill for today’s emerging professionals. Interprofessional teams can be developed among community-university partners to bridge the intellectual resources of academe through a model of scaffolding interrelated paradigms. This work will provide a conceptual framework for enhancing community engagement through interprofessional collaborative practices for continuing education programs.

Student Reflections On Service‐Learning: Cognitive, Affective, And Behavioral Lessons, Maria L. Claver, Lisa A. Lares, Lauren Gelgur

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Service-learning is an educational experience that allows students meaningful interaction with older adults. Students in a gerontology course completed service-learning and recorded their experiences in weekly journals. This study explored student-reported reflections, which indicated cognitive, affective, and behavioral lessons. Future research should include the perspectives of faculty members, agencies, and older adults; long-term influences of service; and approaches to facilitating service-learning for hybrid and online courses.

The 505 Initiative: Service Learning And Student Philanthropy In Graduate Social Work, Jessica Averitt Taylor, Caroline Macke, James E. Taylor

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This case study describes a community engagement project involving graduate social work students. The project centered on a specific area in Northern Kentucky: the Westside neighborhood of Newport. Efforts included a student philanthropy component that fostered community exploration, an assessment of strengths and challenges, service learning and an involved grants process, and student-initiated volunteer hours. The students demonstrated increased commitment to community and connected community engagement with student philanthropy and course concepts.

Social Action, Service Learning, And Youth Development, Joan Arches

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

University service-learning students worked with middle school youth in a social change project addressing positive youth development and civic engagement. Based on their knowledge of positive youth development theory and British Social Action, they facilitated a weekly group in which the youth identified combatting oppression by teachers (adultism) for their project. They discussed the problem, designed surveys, analyzed the data, and presented their findings. The youth demonstrated individual competencies and connected with adults while they learned to work collectively in a community change project.

Mentoring Incarcerated Youth: A Community-Based Learning Experience, Mitzi Lowe, Nancy Nisbett

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Recognizing the importance of university and community partnerships to address social issues, a mentoring program was implemented on a juvenile justice campus (JJC). A collaborative effort between a regional Hispanic-serving university, the county probation department, and a non-profit agency resulted in the development and implementation of a mentoring program with incarcerated youth. Students assisted in the development and implementation of the mentoring program, which incorporated life skills development, violence prevention, financial planning, parenting groups, needs assessments, and meditation. Student perceptions of their experience were explored using qualitative research methods. Educational benefits, the importance of collaboration, and the relationship between self-efficacy …

A User-Friendly Guide To Intergenerational Service Learning, Denise C. Lewis, Desiree M. Seponski

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This article describes and provides a timeline for establishing an intergenerational service learning (ISL) program, the Friendly Visitors Program (FVP). The nationally recognized FVP has grown to about 100 students visiting approximately 200 elders each semester in more than 10 different facilities ranging from an adult day center to a small, rural assisted living facility. This article provides a timeline, textbooks, forms, and journal questions so that other scholars can replicate the FVP with ease.

Safer Spaces: Creating A Supportive Rehabilitation Environment For Gay, Transgender And Questioning Youth, Corey W. Johnson, Edward A. Delgado-Romero

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This manuscript describes Safer Spaces, a semester-long outreach program between faculty, students and the Augusta Youth Detention Center Campus (AYDC). The purpose of the project was two-fold: (a) to meet an expressed need of a state agency and (b) to create a unique opportunity for university outreach and service learning. Safer Spaces centered on assessing and meeting the needs of staff and adjudicated youth with resources about gay and transgender identity development in a predominantly African American facility with a group of interdisciplinary service-learning students in Counseling-Psychology, Recreation and Leisure Studies, and Women’s Studies.

Community-Based Learning And Social Capital: Exploring Student Attitudes And Perceptions Of Connectedness To Campus And Diverse Communities, August John Hoffman

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Community service activities, civic engagement, and volunteer services have been identified as key elements in improving how individuals relate and communicate with each other in society. Social capital also has been described as a highly useful form of social networking that empowers community members to collectively use each other as potential resources. The current study explored how participants from non-traditional backgrounds (i.e., ethnicity, culture, and age) completed a variety of interethnic community service activities. We hypothesized that increased exposure with members of diverse ethnic groups through community service activities would show reductions in ethnocentric attitudes and also show increases in …

Consortium, University, And Program Impact On Regional Economy And Community, Sean Creighton, Robert J. Sweeney, Katherine Cauley

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Community engagement in higher education has become increasingly widespread. As a consequence, universities find themselves learning how to integrate community engagement on their own, from each other, and, hopefully, from their community partners. This article discusses three distinct cases–a consortium, university, and program–and their impacts on a regional economy and community. In addition to illustrating intentional macro to micro community engagement practices, the article notes key findings from regional institutional collaborations. Further, the article recommends benchmarks for evaluating the quality and effective practice of community engagement.

Serve At Your Own Risk?: Service-Learning In The Promotion And Tenure Process, Jacquelyn B. Frank, Mark Malaby, Laura Raidonis Bates, Marcie Coulter-Kern, Sheron Fraser-Burgess, J. R. Jamison, Linda Stalker Prokopy, Nathan A. Schaumleffel

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Pre-tenure faculty integrating service-learning into their professional roles are often uncertain about its position in the faculty reward system. This study gathered data from administrators at five institutions of higher education in Indiana to learn if and how service-learning is credited toward tenure and promotion at their institutions. The results point to the need for junior faculty members and administrators to be cautious when implementing and evaluating service-learning initiatives.

Evaluating The Impact Of Seed Money Grants In Stimulating Growth Of Community-Based Research And Service-Learning At A Major Public Research University, Judith A. Jetson, Mary E. Evans, Wendy Hathaway

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

At a major research university, community engagement must intersect with research productivity and attract external funding to be well-regarded. At USF, community engagement increased its value to the institution by using seed grants for community-based research and service-learning projects. Between 1998 and 2006, 132 projects received $1.65 million in seed money from general revenue and local government funds, bringing over $9 million in grants to USF, a return on investment of approximately 6-to-1.

Democracy, Rights, Historical Memory, And Interfaith Relations In The Works Of Fatima Mernissi And Asma Uddin, Jon Armajani

The Journal of Social Encounters

The works of Moroccan-born Muslim scholar Fatima Mernissi (1940-2015) and United States-born Muslim scholar Asma T. Uddin (b. 1980) are distinctive contributions in modern conversations about the intersections of Islam, law, human and civil rights as well as historical memory and interfaith relations (AncestryLibrary, n.d.; Fox, 2015; Florida Bar, n.d.; Justia Lawyers, n.d.; Rodoski, 2011; Sadiqi, 2018).[i] Mernissi, who was a professor of sociology at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, and Uddin, who is an attorney and scholar based in the United States, are influential and delve into the intricate relationships between Islamic ideas and modern legal frameworks, …

Practitioners’ Perspectives On Preventing Environmental Gentrification In Chicago, Illinois, Usa, Tania Schusler, Amy Krings

School of Environmental Sustainability: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Pollution cleanup, green space creation, and other improvements to environmental quality in cities are important to urban sustainability. However, because they occur within a political economic context characterized by structural racism, urban greening initiatives can intentionally or unintentionally reproduce racial, economic, and social inequities through environmental gentrification. We explored possibilities for improving environmental quality without displacing or excluding long-term residents including people of color, the poor, and members of other marginalized groups. We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with community organizers, environmental justice advocates, urban planners, housing specialists, and others who held deep expertise through their lived and professional experience in …

Communication Inhibitors: Dilemmas In Community Partnerships Amidst Mental Health Crises In Texas, Alessa Juarez, Kendra N. Bowen, Johnny Nhan

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Community partnerships between police departments, social services, and healthcare providers continue to struggle in various ways, with mental health crisis response remaining a primary yet fragmented service delivery. Using the nodal governance perspective, this paper provides qualitative insight into the existing communication and resource barriers between law enforcement personnel and social service providers in a large urban county in Texas. Four key themes are presented: staff and resource availability, continuity of care, staff personnel and characteristics, and communication efficiency. Policy implications are also discussed, with the study’s findings supporting the prioritization of building stronger communication between existing social service providers, …

Ageism In Employment, Aaron Li, Natalie Galucia, Cal J. Halvorsen

Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging

The World Health Organization defines ageism as stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination directed at individuals based on their age. As people remain in the labor force longer, they are increasingly exposed to ageist attitudes and discrimination. Ageism often manifests through negative assumptions about older workers’ abilities, adaptability, and value in the workplace. Older workers are frequently perceived as less competent, resistant to new technology, inflexible, or physically and mentally less capable.

How Do Self-Employment Rates Change Across The Lifespan?, Cal J. Halvorsen, Bruna C. Lopez

Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging

People pursue self-employment for a variety of reasons, including autonomy, the ability to pursue their own goals, and income. Yet for many older people who are not yet eligible for Social Security retirement benefits, which can begin at age 62, or Medicare, the U.S. health insurance program that generally begins at age 65, self-employment is also associated with less health insurance and retirement savings program coverage. 1,2 3,4

This research brief asks, What is the proportion of Americans who are self-employed, and how do these rates change throughout the life course?

Older Adults And Financial Exploitation, Aaron Li, Natalie Galucia, Cal J. Halvorsen

Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging

The National Adult Protective Services Association defines elder financial exploitation as misuse, mishandling, or exploitation of an older adult’s property, possession, or assets. These actions often occur without consent and are typically carried out through false pretense, undue influence, coercion, or manipulation.

Supporting Employed Informal Caregivers, Michele Dinman, Natalie Galucia, Cal J. Halvorsen

Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging

More than 53 million Americans are informal caregivers. These family members, friends, and acquaintances provide social, medical, transportation, and other support to individuals because of illness or disability without getting paid. Additionally, at least 2 million grandparents, not counting other kinship caregivers, provide care for children who cannot remain with their parents.1