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Civic and Community Engagement Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Civic and Community Engagement

Liminal Living At An Extended Stay Hotel: Feeling "Stuck" In A Housing Solution, Terri Wingate-Lewinson, June Gary Hopps, Patricia Reeves Jun 2010

Liminal Living At An Extended Stay Hotel: Feeling "Stuck" In A Housing Solution, Terri Wingate-Lewinson, June Gary Hopps, Patricia Reeves

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

As a result of unaffordable housing, many of America's working poor are forced to seek shelter in hotels to avoid homelessness. The concept of liminality has been used in discussions of place to describe the subjective experience of feeling in-between two states of being. Research is scant on the liminal experiences of low-income hotel residents, who are culturally invisible in society. This paper draws from data qualitatively collected via semi-structured interviews from ten low-income residents living in an extended-stay hotel. Descriptions of these residential experiences are presented along with recommendations for social workers practicing with families in this liminal situation.


Leadership As Legacy, Elias Sussan Mar 2010

Leadership As Legacy, Elias Sussan

New England Journal of Public Policy

I joined the House of Grace twenty-three years ago when I was looking for a job as a social worker and, very soon after, I found myself taking part in important and fulfilling social and community work, in an ever-renewing and developing institute — a house that is a home for people in distress. I chose social work and not one of the professions because I had a strong desire and a need to do something for the community: to work with prisoners, women survivors of violence, the homeless — with underprivileged and disadvantaged people. In my childhood and youth, …