Social Welfare Commons^™

Home And Healing In The In-Between: Migrant And Refugee Mental Health In Tunisia, Donia Torabian

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research is a study of migrant conceptions of home and healing in Tunisia. It seeks to understand the ways in which migration, trauma, and healing interact as lived experiences for people who migrate for various reasons to Tunisia. Using past research from Terre d’Asile and Médecins du Monde, the research seeks to understand the main risk and protective factors of migrant mental health. The research is a qualitative study of the ways in which migrants identify with having experienced trauma and the healing practices they may have brought to or learned in Tunisia. It also hopes to build connections …

Youth Empowerment Programs In Jordan: Access And Equality, Mingyang (Linda) Zhang

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The research question for this study is to investigate the role of youth empowerment programs in providing equitable access for students at public and private schools in Jordan. Given the differences in education cost, quality, and outcomes between public and private schools; students are exposed to different levels of engagement opportunities within school systems. At the same time, the youth population is the engine of Jordan’s future growth. Understanding the role of external youth empowerment program providers is important to further education quality and equity.

The research includes six interviews with program providers and survey results from University of Jordan. …

Refuge In A Place Without Refugees, Jane Roarty

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The question of who should be given legal status as a refugee has consistently been veiled in discussions of ‘practicality,’ political motives, and inaction. Centered in these discussions tend to be state officials, international organization officials, and academics. More importantly, typically excluded from this assembly of decision makers and the thinkers are those actually and personally affected by the specifics of the term. In Jordan, this discussion is particularly interesting because the government does not legally recognize refugees since the United Nations refused to recognize Palestinians under the 1951 Convention definition. This paper aims to unpack the term refugee: both …

Conditionality, Rationale, And Implications Of Eu Aid For Migration: The Case Of Morocco, Miranda Macaulay Miller

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Morocco has a long history as a sending country. However, in recent years, as civil, political, and economic unrest has uprooted many people, Morocco has emerged as a transit country for migrants attempting to reach Europe. Additionally, as borders have become tighter and as migration has become more financially burdensome, many have permanently settled in Morocco. In response to the relationship between Morocco and Europe, many instruments have been developed between the EU and Morocco to manage migration and mobility. In this study, using policy analysis and a semi-structured interview approach, I will examine the motives of the EU for …

Health On The Move: Health-Seeking Behavior Of Changpa Nomads In Ladakh, India, Maya Lubeck-Schricker

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The goal of this study is to understand the health-seeking behavior of Changpa nomads in the Changthang region of Ladakh, India including what health issues these communities face, what they do when they fall sick, any preventative health behavior they implement, as well as the health infrastructure available to them. Very little literature exists on the health seeking-behavior of people in South Asia in general, much less among nondominant lifestyles such as that of nomadic or semi-nomadic people. As such, this research hopes to move towards closing that knowledge gap by conducting and analyzing 26 in depth semi-structured interviews and …

Stigma Mitigation Through Fine Arts, Kendall Owens

Honors Theses

Social stigma has plagued our society for centuries. It isolates groups of people based on erroneously defined characteristics causing stigmatized persons to be viewed as socially “abnormal”. This debarment from full social acceptance results in poor population health and well-being. Fine arts have been an integral component of society since the beginning of civilization; current and past research have found involvement in fine arts to improve health and well-being in many ways. In this project, relevant studies related to stigma, fine arts, and population health will be reviewed to support the argument that “fine arts combat and mitigate the …

Homelessness In London, Ontario: Assessing The Sustainability Of Housing First In Light Of A Shift To Models Of Prevention, Kayla May

Western Research Forum

Background: Housing First (HF) is internationally recognized as an evidence-based model for the development of programs that target homelessness. In London, Ontario, there are a handful of HF programs and research has investigated their efficacy. However, HF is only effective for "managing" homelessness, whereas prevention is also needed. Through a recent update of Canada’s national funding for homelessness, municipalities are seeing an increase in resources to prevent homelessness. With additional funding on offer, research needs to move beyond questions of HF efficacy and instead ask how to fully evolve a system of both responsive and preventative models.

Objectives: (1) Assess …

Oklahoma Selects And Designs A Selection Intervention, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Oklahoma’s Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development Steering Committee has decided to refine the selection process for new child welfare workers as part of their ongoing commitment to hiring a dedicated, talented workforce and supporting that workforce in practice with children, youth, and families. The committee spent much of 2018 doing a thorough needs assessment and exploration of their child welfare recruitment and retention challenges. Through this process they recognized that interviewing strategies and hiring decisions are made inconsistently across the state. The team acknowledged that this could result in the selection of individuals who are not the best fit …

Louisiana Selects A Workforce Intervention: Job Redesign & Teaming, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

For several years prior to the current Administration, Louisiana suffered through an unstated policy of “Do More with Less”: Fewer employees, higher caseloads, less resources, and high employee turnover. In 2016, the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) leadership determined that supporting and stabilizing the child welfare workforce was a high priority. To strengthen its workforce, Louisiana will implement “Job Redesign and Teaming” as its QIC-WD intervention. The job redesign aspect of the intervention includes a comprehensive job analysis and process mapping to determine which tasks needed to be retained by the child welfare worker and which tasks …

Eastern Band Of Cherokee Indians Selects A Workforce Intervention: Onboarding, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

The Family Safety Program (FSP) serves the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) to provide high quality and innovative care, utilizing an integrated model to ensure client access to behavioral health services and targeted case management. To retain a competent and committed workforce and best serve children and families, FSP partnered with the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD) to be one of eight national project sites to test child welfare workforce interventions. In 2018, FSP conducted a workforce needs assessment, which revealed that staff had inconsistent job expectations for their own role and lacked understanding of the roles …

Milwaukee Selects A Workforce Intervention: Organizational Culture & Climate, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

The Division of Milwaukee Child Protective Services (DMCPS) of the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) will be implementing and testing an organizational culture and climate intervention called ARC, which stands for Availability, Responsiveness, & Continuity. ARC is an organizational change process that has improved outcomes in mental health settings by: 1) introducing core principles to guide service improvement efforts, 2) embedding research-based organizational components for service improvement, and 3) fostering attitudes necessary for ongoing service improvement. DMCPS employs approximately 185 State employees. These employees conduct initial child protective service assessments, oversee ongoing case management services delivered by private …

Towards Quantifiable Metrics Warranting Industry-Wide Corporate Death Penalties, Joshua M. Pearce

Department of Materials Science and Engineering Publications

In the singular search for profits, some corporations inadvertently kill humans. If this routinely occurs throughout an industry, it may no longer serve a net positive social purpose for society and should be eliminated. This article provides a path to an objective quantifiable metric for determining when an entire industry warrants the corporate death penalty. First, a theoretical foundation is developed with minimum assumptions necessary to provide evidence for corporate public purposes. This is formed into an objective quantifiable metric with publicly-available data and applied to two case studies in the U.S.: the tobacco and coal mining industries. The results …

Sr. Jay: Social Justice, Shayna Smith

Ask a Sister: Interview Wisdom from Catholic Women Religious

I interviewed Sr. Jay in January 2019 regarding her path to becoming a woman religious, and her experiences within her chosen order. This segment of the paper details her order’s partaking in social justice oriented activities, and how that connected to course content.

State Roles In Promoting Community Life Engagement: Themes From The State Employment Leadership Network’S Working Group, Jennifer Sullivan Sulewski, Jaimie Ciulla Timmons, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

ThinkWork! Publications

As states focus on expanding integrated employment opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and phasing out sheltered work, they are finding a need to concurrently examine Community Life Engagement (CLE) supports as a wrap-around to ensure individuals’ engagement in the community is maintained and they continue to receive sufficient levels of support, despite fluctuations in job status and hours. In January through June of 2017, the State Employment Leadership Network (SELN) hosted a working group of member states to discuss ideas and share strategies for encouraging quality CLE supports while maintaining a focus on Employment First (see …

Bodies Of Work: Skilling At The Bottom Of The Global Nursing Care Chain, Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Jenica Ana Rivero

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In the midst of a growing global market for migrant care work, there is a need to investigate not only how such labour is consumed but how ‘ideal’ care workers are also produced. This paper investigates how schools within migrant-sending countries produce nurse labour through body work or the testing and honing of hospital procedures on patients’ bodies. Focusing on the case of the Philippines, this paper shows how the education of nurses for export creates a paradoxical impact on care work within local healthcare institutions. Aspiring nurse migrants provide much-needed manpower to understaffed public hospitals yet, treat poor patients …

"All The Flowers May Die, But The Thistles Will Live": Sex Trafficking Through The Eyes Of A Police Officer-Researcher, Robert Chrismas

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This article is a description of the research I conducted on the sex industry in Manitoba, Canada, from 2016-2017. I interviewed 61 people, of which six were political leaders, 23 were social workers, 24 were police officers, and eight were sex industry survivors. About half of the practitioners I interviewed are also sex industry survivors. As a veteran police officer with 35 years of law enforcement experience, my research journey was unique from conducting the interviews to reporting my findings. These are some of my experiences and the lessons I learned about gathering and sharing the stories of sex industry …

Why Is The Black Population Of Central Brooklyn, The Mecca Of Black Nyc, Diminishing?, Jamell N.A. Henderson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research looks at three possible reasons that might help to explain this unfortunate exodus. The first approach is through health and examines trends in environmental, mental and physical (general) health. I will explore statistics involving the health and well-being of Central Brooklyn, how the environment plays a disparate role in the poor health and lack of access to services of its African-American residents in comparison to other regions in Brooklyn. The second task is to ask how economics or “racial capitalism” plays a role by looking at gentrification, cooperative economics, and the income inequality in Black Central Brooklyn. The …

Slogans Appropriate To The Legacy Of Martin Luther King Jr., Theodore Walker

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

For printing signs, banners, posters, tee shirts, and bumper stickers (and for preaching sermons) that are appropriate to the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., please consider the following slogans: ABOLISH WAR, ABOLISH POVERTY, AMEND THE CONSTITUTION, SUPPORT AN ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS, JOBS FOR ALL, GUARANTEED INCOME FOR ALL, SUPPORT UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME, and GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR - Luke 4:14-19.

Washington Selects A Workforce Intervention: Telework, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

The Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) will be implementing and testing the effectiveness of telework for child welfare field operations staff and their supervisors. DYCF is a stateadministered system with a total of 3,075 employees. There are approximately 1,600 field operation staff and 260 field operation supervisors that make up the majority of the child welfare workforce in the agency. A comprehensive workforce needs assessment showed a strong desire among employees to be able to work from home or an alternate work site. A telework policy existed but was inconsistently implemented, and the majority of employees …

Nebraska Selects A Workforce Intervention: Addressing Secondary Traumatic Stress, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) workforce intervention will address secondary traumatic stress (STS) among frontline staff and supervisors. Nebraska is a state-run child welfare system with about 400 Child and Family Service Specialists (CFSS) organized into five service areas across the state. Currently, the annual CFSS turnover rate in Nebraska is about 30%, but DCFS is committed to retaining and supporting high quality CFSS. Over the last year, DCFS has worked with the QIC-WD to review human resources (HR) data, feedback from the field (e.g., CFSS, supervisors, and administrators), and …