Social Work Commons^™

Homelessness Count Methodologies Literature Review, Jennifer Lee-Anderson

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

This literature review on homeless count methods provides a brief history of homelessness in the U.S., an account of count efforts, and an overview of methods used. It illustrates that no method is capable of providing a comprehensive count of the homeless, and all methods have inherent disadvantages that often rely upon flawed assumptions. The practical impact of these counts on policy is substantial. Therefore, this review should encourage discussion as to what data communities need for policy and program development and implementation, and whether homeless counts actually fulfill this need.

Housing And Food Insecurity At Portland State Study, Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative, Portland State University

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

Students helped develop the Housing and Food Insecurity at Portland State study to better understand the scope of homelessness, housing and food insecurity on campus. The survey went out to approximately 3,000 employees and 23,400 students at Portland State University in fall of 2019. The center will develop a set of recommendations for the university based on the results. It is the first step to help students and employees overcome challenges and meet their basic needs.

Innovations In Leadership Development: Centering Communities Of Color, Ann Curry-Stevens

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

With innovative funding from a large local foundation, communities of color in Portland, Oregon developed an array of leadership programs to serve communities of color. This article shares the models they developed, including overviews of curriculum, theories of change, and concrete evidence-based gains achieved by the programs. Innovations include a leadership model that is rooted in community leadership, and the emergence of community priorities to guide the programs, alongside culturally-specific programs that are effective in reaching and supporting the participation of emerging and existing leaders of color. Community priorities included advocacy engagement that resulted in achieving real gains during the …

Is Online Training An Effective Workforce Development Strategy For Transition Service Providers? Results Of A Comparative Study, Eileen Brennan, Claudia Sellmaier, Pauline Jivanjee, Leigh Grover

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Service providers working with transition-aged young people with mental health disorders require specialized research-based training to better meet their needs. A 10-module interactive online training program, Promoting Positive Pathways to Adulthood (PPPA), was developed to build service provider competencies to improve outcomes for the youth with whom they work. In total, 19 organizations participated in a longitudinal quasi-experimental study that compared training outcomes for participants receiving PPPA online training only (Group 1) with those receiving PPPA online training with team-based practice activities (Group 2). Most of the 63 service providers participating in the training were females, below 40 years, had …

Investigating Time During Residential Program Until Transition For Adjudicated Youth: A Mixed Methods Study Using Event History Analysis With Follow-Up Interviews, Emily Carol Lott

Dissertations and Theses

Residential placement is considered the most severe sanction for adjudicated youth, yet there is little consensus on best practices and interventions in residential settings. Demographic trends in the juvenile justice system further exacerbate challenges in studying residential placements. Disparities among minority youth, diverging state definitions of juvenile sex offenses, discrepancies in recidivism measures, and variations in local and state juvenile courts have contributed to a convoluted system that has struggled to identify the meaning of "success" in residential settings.

Building on theories of engagement in residential care and program theory of change, this mixed methods study explores how various components …

Development And Testing Of An Assessment Of Youth/Young Adult Voice In Agency-Level Advising And Decision Making, Janet S. Walker, Brie Masselli, Jennifer E. Blakeslee, Caitlin Baird, Kristin Thorp

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

There is a range of stakeholder benefits when youth- and young adult-serving agencies include service recipient “voice” in advising and decision making regarding agency policies and programming. Yet many agency stakeholders lack awareness of strategic best practices to ensure the consistent and meaningful participation of young people in decision-making processes, and few tools exist to evaluate agency efforts. This paper describes the development and validation of the Youth/Young Adult Voice at the Agency Level (Y-VAL), an assessment of the extent to which agencies have implemented best practices for supporting meaningful participation. The Y-VAL is intended for research purposes, as well …

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.

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 …

Lifetime Economic Burden Of Intimate Partner Violence Among U.S. Adults, Cora Peterson, Megan C. Kearns, Wendy Likamwa Mcintosh, Lianne Fuino Estefen, Christina Nicolaidis, Kathryn E. Mccollister, Amy Gordon, Curtis Florence

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Introduction: This study estimated the U.S. lifetime per-victim cost and economic burden of intimate partner violence.

Methods: Data from previous studies were combined with 2012 U.S. National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey data in a mathematical model. Intimate partner violence was defined as contact sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking victimization with related impact (e.g., missed work days). Costs included attributable impaired health, lost productivity, and criminal justice costs from the societal perspective. Mean age at first victimization was assessed as 25 years. Future costs were discounted by 3%. The main outcome measures were the mean per-victim (female and …

Assessing Refugee Poverty Using Capabilities Versus Commodities: The Case Of Afghans In Iran, Mitra Naseh, Miriam Potocky, Shanna L. Burke, Paul H. Stuart

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study is among the first to calculate poverty among one of the world’s largest refugee populations, Afghans in Iran. More importantly, it is one of the first to use capability and monetary approaches to provide a comprehensive perspective on Afghan refugees’ poverty. We estimated poverty using data collected from a sample of 2,034 refugee households in 2011 in Iran. We utilized basic needs poverty lines and the World Bank’s absolute international poverty line for our monetary poverty analyses and the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for our capability analyses of poverty. Findings show that nearly half of the Afghan …

Building Successful P-3 Initiatives: Foundations And Catalysts For Systems Change, Lindsey Brianna Patterson, Beth L. Green, Callie H. Lambarth, Mackenzie Burton, Diane Reid

Early Childhood

Across the United States, there is a growing recognition that early education and K-12 systems require transformative changes to address racial, ethnic, linguistic and economic disparities in school readiness and success.

Prenatal-through-Grade-3 (P-3) initiatives address these disparities by coordinating, strengthening and aligning fragmented support systems for families and children from birth through third grade.

These increasingly popular initiatives:

• Are based on accumulating evidence that standalone early childhood and school-based programs are not sufficient to sustain long-term success for children facing early childhood inequities
• Take a collective impact approach that brings families, early childhood providers, K-12 staff and other partners together …

What’S Happening During Home Visits? Exploring The Relationship Of Home Visiting Content And Dosage To Parenting Outcomes, Peggy Nygren, Beth Green, Katie Winters, Anna Rockhill

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research has documented modest positive impacts of early childhood home visiting programs. However, understanding more about what home visitors do during visits and how much time they spend on specific topics may provide insight into the variability in effectiveness of services. Methods Outcome data were collected via parent survey at program enrollment and 12 months from 123 women in three MIECHV-funded home visiting models. Home visitors completed weekly home visit content and activity logs. Results Families received an average of 28 visits during the study (3.1 visits per month). Of ten content areas, the three most often discussed were early …

The Intersections Of Good Intentions, Criminality, And Anti-Carceral Feminist Logic: A Qualitative Study That Explores Sex Trades Content In Social Work Education, Meg Rose Panichelli

Dissertations and Theses

This study uses anti-carceral feminist logic to explore the cultural meanings, criminal implications, and neoliberal influence that shape the landscape of social work education about the sex trades in the United States and transnationally. "What are social work instructors teaching students about the sex trades in coursework?" is the question that directs the study, which uses a feminist qualitative methodology inclusive of intersectional feminist epistemology as well as direct content analysis. To answer this question, I analyzed 20 social work course syllabi from sex trade related courses across the contiguous United States and interviewed 20 social work instructors from 14 …

A Foucaultian Discourse Analysis Of Person-Centered Practice Using A Genealogical Framework Of Intellectual Disability, Nick Winges-Yanez

Dissertations and Theses

A genealogical framework highlights the important role sexuality has played in constructing the current label of intellectual disability (ID). The genealogical framework is meant to replace the social, medical, and/or rights-based model(s) that have dominated social work and social services working in the disability field. With this framework, or perspective, I use a Foucaultian discourse analysis to read through seminal texts regarding person-centered practice.

Person-centered practice is the foremost intervention used in social work, and other disciplines, to work with people labeled with intellectual disability. My research questions focus on what is revealed about ID in PCP through a genealogical …

The Role Of Caregiver Disruption In The Development Of Juvenile Sexual Offenders, Miranda Sitney

Dissertations and Theses

In the last decade, it has been recognized that juveniles commit as much as 20% of all sexual offenses in the United States (DOJ, 2004). Research that attempts to understand why young people commit sex crimes points to an array of family factors that may uniquely contribute to the development of sexual offending over and above general juvenile delinquency. This study specifically examines disrupted caregiving, or receiving insufficient or substitute care, as a potential moderator in the relationship between offense status and caregiver-child relationship quality. Four distinct moderators were tested: gender of caregiver, biological relationship between caregiver and child, number …

Focal Point, Volume 32, Portland State University. Regional Research Institute

Research and Training Center - Focal Point

This issue of Focal Point includes a series of research summaries that reflect the state of the science and project descriptions focused on the theme of community integration for youth and young adults who experience serious mental health conditions. Space in Focal Point is limited, and this has meant that we are only able to include short versions of each of these articles. However, more detailed versions of most of the articles – including extensive reference lists – are available on the Pathways RTC website. We encourage you to take a look at these longer versions for further detail and …

Storying Experience: Young Children's Early Use Of Story Genres, Erin Elizabeth Flynn

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The purpose of this study is to support early childhood teachers’ understanding of the diversity and sophistication present in young children’s storytelling to counteract singular and tacit conceptualizations of story. Drawing on the notion of genre, this study uses systemic functional linguistics to examine rhetorical patterns in the storytelling of a group of children in multilingual and multicultural classrooms. Stories were collected in the context of a small group storytelling activity called story circles. Participation in story circles resulted in 176 stories. Children’s stories were parsed into story stages and story genres based on functional purpose and known patterns in …

The Lived Experiences Of Student Parents At A 4-Year Institution Of Higher Education, Nancy Dayne

National Student Parent Success Symposium: Lifting Generations Together

College students who are parents are a unique population whose voices are not often represented. This session will look at the research results on the childcare needs of over 750 college students who are parents at a large 4-year Hispanic Serving Institution, on the West-Coast. This presentation will present the voices of student parents and their struggle with support services needed to succeed at an institution of higher education.

Dr. Nancy Dayne- Nancy is an assistant professor at California State University Long Beach (CSULB), in the area of Child Development and Family Studies. She has a BA in Child Development …

Student Legal Services, Richard Slottee, April Kuster

National Student Parent Success Symposium: Lifting Generations Together

Student Legal Services offices across the country provide free legal assistance to students. This presentation will highlight typical legal issues faced by families, the applicable resolution processes, including the judicial system, and the challenges faced by many SLS offices.

Richard graduated from the University of Oregon Law School in 1972 and joined Multnomah County Legal Aid Services as a staff attorney. In 1978 he went to work at Lewis and Clark Law School as a professor and Director of the Lewis and Clark Legal Clinic. The Legal Clinic taught practical lawyering skills to law students through the pro bono representation …

Full Access: A Barrier Removal Approach To Accommodating Student Parents, Michelle Marie

National Student Parent Success Symposium: Lifting Generations Together

This presentation suggests a barrier removal perspective for student parent advocacy which recognizes that colleges are designed to accommodate students whose family cultures reflect the expectations, values, and norms of dominant groups and to exclude students whose family cultures do not. Participants will be invited to explore ways that their campuses can move towards providing full access to ALL students.

Michelle Marie PhD- Michelle is a veteran student parent and student parent advocate who is celebrating her daughter's 18th year by learning to play roller derby. When she's not on skates, she can often be found asking facilitative, design-process-based, problem-solving …

Intersecting Identities And Resiliency: Sharing Stories Of Student Mothers In Community College, Kamisha Sullivan

National Student Parent Success Symposium: Lifting Generations Together

This presentation will share the stories of 23 student mothers enrolled in two community colleges. In their own words student mothers described their intersecting identities as both invisible and empowering. Findings from the study point to the resiliency of student mothers who utilized personal assets and institutional resources. Recommendations for community colleges include developing a strategic method to gather data to better serve this student population. Further, institutions are encouraged to re-examine child care services and supports on campus.

Kamisha Sullivan- Kamisha recently completed an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from CSU Long Beach. Dr. Sullivan has many years of teaching …

Aloha Fridays With Sp@M: Cultivating Social Capital And Fostering Peer Support Lifting Generations Together, Angie Solomon

National Student Parent Success Symposium: Lifting Generations Together

The University of Hawaii-Mānoa (UHM) is a predominately commuter campus lacking dedicated family friendly spaces for student parents to gather hindering opportunities to connect, foster friendships, and cultivate social capital. Aloha Fridays with the Student Parents At Mānoa (SP@M) program is a successful engagement and retention activity providing student parents a supportive space on campus to engage and foster friendships.

Angelique Kealani Siga SolomonAngie is the coordinator for the Student Parents At Manoa (SP@M) program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Ms. Solomon is a proud mother of two young toddlers and holds a B.A. from UH-Hilo, in History …

Breaking Away From Poverty- One Kentucky Communities Partnerships, Robyn Moreland, Melissa Gross

National Student Parent Success Symposium: Lifting Generations Together

Barriers to higher education are plentiful for low income single parents. This workshop will explore how one Kentucky community uses partnerships to reduce barriers to education through housing, child care and employment.

Robyn Johnson Moreland- Robyn is the Director of Eastern Kentucky University’s Education Pays Program. Education Pays is a grant funded program through the state of Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Families Services that provides TANF recipients with work study placements, career development, academic support and supportive services to help meet personal and professional goals. The program is celebrating the 20th year on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University. …

Buidling A #2gen Approach To State Policy: Georgia's Story, Kristin Bernhard

National Student Parent Success Symposium: Lifting Generations Together

Over the past two years, senior leaders of Georgia's Department of Early Care and Learning, Technical College System, and University System have developed a unique partnership to implement a statewide two-gen approach for state policy to better coordinate service delivery for student parents. This session will explore the tactics, strategies, and approach Georgia's state agency leadership have used to connect child and parent outcomes.

Kristin Bernhard- Kristin is the Deputy Commissioner for System Reform at the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL), the state's stand-alone education agency for children from birth through age five. At DECAL, she leads …

The Life Impact Program: Supporting Student Parents Striving For Success, Natalie Reinbold

National Student Parent Success Symposium: Lifting Generations Together

The innovative, comprehensive Life Impact Program provides substantial social and financial support to low-income student parents at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. Using data from a recent program evaluation, we describe Scholars’ strong academic performance and graduation rates, and, drawing from in-depth interviews, we illustrate the lived experiences of Scholars as they navigate raising children while striving to complete college.

Natalie Reinbold-Natalie has 20+ years experience serving disadvantaged families in the Milwaukee area. She received her undergraduate degree from UW - Milwaukee in Psychology and her Master's degree in Community Counseling from UW - Whitewater. As the Life Coach …

Diapers To Degrees: Higher Education's Contribution To The Imposter Syndrome, Caroline Sanders, Shelley Wilson

National Student Parent Success Symposium: Lifting Generations Together

Panel discussion with audience participation will focus on the barriers student-parents continue to encounter, despite the increasing number of their population, and how the often institutionally imposed imposter syndrome hinders and often discourages access to and success in obtaining a college degree. Participants will be encouraged to share best practices and improvement strategies.

Shelley Wilson Gentile- Shelly is the Program Manager for the Institute for Water and Environmental Resilience at Stetson University in Florida. She has more than 30 years of experience in higher education that includes service to five very different campuses. Her longest tenure was at Eastern Michigan …

Building A Village: Developing A Student Parent Support Program, Amanda Wilcox-Herzig

National Student Parent Success Symposium: Lifting Generations Together

In an effort to provide parents with social support and parenting skills, college students were provided with parenting workshops, a resource library, and online discussions. Initially, these endeavors were grant supported and participation was mandatory. Recently, services have been offered as a voluntary activity. Data from each time period will be compared to demonstrate the importance of funded student participation.

Amanda Wilcox Herzog, Ph.D. has taught at California State University Santa Barbara for the last 16 years. Dr. Wilcox Herzog is a Professor in the Psychology Department, where they offer a BA in Human Development and an MA in Child …

The Two-Generation Classroom: Learning Together In The Gen Ed Core, Autumn Green

National Student Parent Success Symposium: Lifting Generations Together

This workshop presents a new approach to post-secondary pedagogy referred to as, The Two Generation Classroom. The Two-Generation Classroom offers curricula for the general education core that facilitate parent/child inter-generational learning. Using hybrid online/in-person strategies, and a learning-buddy approach to integrated arts teaching/learning activities, the Two-Generation Classroom approach aims to address and reduce inequity in college access and success for student parents, while ensuring academic excellence and rigor.

Dr. Autumn R. Green is Founding Director of the National Center for Student Parent Programs, and is currently transitioning from Endicott College to join Wellesley Centers for Women as a Visiting Scholar …

Latinas And Sexual Health: Correlates Of Sexual Satisfaction, Christine Marie Velez

Dissertations and Theses

Latinas/os are one of the fastest growing and most heterogeneous minority ethnic groups in the US. One in 5 women in the US are Latina; by 2060, it is projected that Latinas will compose 1/3 of the female population. Latinas continue to experience disparities in sexual and reproductive health outcomes compared to non-Hispanic whites. While factors impacting undesirable consequences of sexual activity for Latinas have been well documented, Latinas' experiences with sexual satisfaction in the broader context of sexual health remains understudied, despite sexual satisfaction having been identified as an integral component of sexual health. A focus on positive sexual …

Role Of Spouse/Partner In Fertility Preservation Decision Making By Young Women With Cancer, Aakrati Mathur

Dissertations and Theses

Partners play a critical role in making decisions about fertility preservation among young patients with cancer, yet little is known about these dyadic decisions when planning cancer treatment. Fertility preservation entails helping cancer patients preserve fertility after cancer treatment. This qualitative study investigated: 1) Heterosexual couples' responses to potential fertility loss; 2) their process in making fertility preservation decisions; 3) their ethical and legal concerns, and 4) recommendations for other couples undergoing similar treatment.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 heterosexual couples whose female partners were diagnosed with cancer and had received fertility preservation consultations within the past 5 years. …