Social Work Commons^™

Upstream, Gail Folkins

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Poem.

Who Am I? Who Do You Think I Am? Stability Of Racial/Ethnic Self-Identification Among Youth In Foster Care And Concordance With Agency Categorization, Jessica Schmidt, Shanti Dubey, Larry Dalton, May Nelson, Junghee Lee, Molly Oberweiser Kennedy, Connie Kim-Gervey, Laurie E. Powers, Sarah Geenen, The Research Consortium To Increase The Success Of Youth In Foster Care

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

While it has been well documented that racial and ethnic disparities exist for children of color in child welfare, the accuracy of the race and ethnicity information collected by agencies has not been examined, nor has the concordance of this information with youth self-report. This article addresses a major gap in the literature by examining 1) the racial and ethnic self-identification of youth in foster care, and the rate of agreement with child welfare and school categorizations; 2) the level of concordance between different agencies (school and child welfare); and 3) the stability of racial and ethnic self-identification among youth …

Supported Housing Experiences Of People With Serious Mental Illness, Troy Mondragon

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of people living with serious mental illness (SMI) receiving housing assistance. A qualitative method was used to interview five adults with SMI living in a supported housing model. An Ecological Systems Theory (EST) was used as the theoretical orientation for the study. The major themes related to success of the supported housing that emerged were independence, involvement of owners, bonds with tenants, having access and means to resources, and positive engagement in well-being. No themes of unmet needs were presented.

The study concluded people with SMI in need …

How To Confront A Bully?, Jan Kircher

Social and Behavioral Sciences Faculty Research

Common pitfalls of confronting bullies in the workplace are discussed. A scenario for workplace aggression is presented. Strategies for successful confrontations are presented in terms of the scenario.

Impacts Of Financial Inclusion On Youth Development: Findings From The Ghana Youthsave Experiment, Gina Chowa, Rainier Masa, David Ansong, Mat Despard, Shiyou Wu, Deborah Hughes, Isaac Osei-Akoto, Stephanie Afranie, Naa Adjorkor Mark-Sowah, Charles Ofori-Acquah, Yungsoo Lee, Lissa Johnson, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

The Ghana YouthSave Experiment investigated whether and how youth savings accounts affect financial capability; psychosocial, education, and health outcomes; and economic well-being of Ghanaian youth and their households. The research rigor in the Ghana experiment is unprecedented in resource-limited countries; therefore, it offers an opportunity to posit causal relationships between savings and youth development. This endline report, which comes three years after the baseline report, describes the Ghana experiment and presents experimental findings of YouthSave. The key research questions this report aims to answer is whether the Ghana experiment improved (1) savings patterns and performance for low-income youth; (2) low-income …

The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Social Work, Fall 2015, Carrie Moran

Libraries' Newsletters

No abstract provided.

The Stephen Klein Wellness Center As A Community-Centered Health Home - A Partnership Between Jefferson And Project Home, James D. Plumb Md, Mph, Lara Weinstein Md, Mph, Monica Mccurdy Pa-C, Mhs

Population Health Matters (Formerly Health Policy Newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Strategic Directions For Global Research On Volunteering For Peace And Sustainable Development, Vera J. Seelig, Benjamin J. Lough

Center for Social Development Research

This workshop report is a co-creation of the United Nations Volunteers, the International Forum on Volunteering for International Development, and the Center for Social Development. It summarizes the workshop on strategic directions for global research for sustainable development that took place in Bonn, Germany, on July 6 through 7, 2015.

The Adaptation Needs Of International Social Work Students: A Proposed Mentoring Approach, Hyun-A Song, Helen E. Petracchi

Journal of Social Work in the Global Community

Given the increasing numbers of international social work students in the United States, it is incumbent upon social work faculty to understand their needs for appropriate support as they adjust to life as foreign-born students. This paper has two main goals. First, we discuss contributions and challenges faced by international social work students. Second, as a form of support, we propose a mentoring approach pairing retired social work professionals with international social work students and argue that this may provide a mutually beneficial experience for both. That is, this study identifies adaptation needs specific to international social work students, describes …

Construct Validation Of The Psychosocial Costs Of Racism To Whites Scale For Ashkenazic Jews In The United States, Emile Tobias Berk

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This study is a construct validation of the Psychosocial Costs of Racism to Whites Scale (Spanierman & Heppner, 2004) with Orthodox and non-Orthodox Ashkenazic (of European descent) American Jews. While Jewish-American biculturalism has been explored at length, there is a dearth of psychological research on Jewish-White biculturalism (Langman, 1999). Furthermore, the literature has yet to explore the impact of Jewish religious diversity on Ashkenazic-American self-perception as racially White beneficiaries of unearned privilege.

The Psychosocial Costs of Racism to Whites Scale (PCRW) measures three dimensions of White racial attitudes: White Empathic Reactions Towards Racism, White Guilt, and White Fear of Others. …

Parent Involvement In Education And College Planning For African American High School Students, Jennifer Threlfall

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Parent involvement is critical for students’ success in high school and in accessing college, especially in low-income and minority families. However, many schools have failed to engage low-income African American parents, thereby contributing to a popular narrative of uninvolved and uninterested parents. Traditional models of parent involvement have favored a narrow range of activities undertaken by white and middle class families and do not account for the wider social and cultural context in which parenting occurs. The purpose of this qualitative study was therefore to investigate (1) caregiver and adolescent perceptions of parent involvement in education and college planning for …

Differential Response With Lower Risk And Foreign-Born Families: Understanding Risks, Services And Outcomes, Lina Millett

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Child abuse and neglect is a serious public health problem, whose prevention efforts are much needed to avoid a number of serious and irrevocable negative consequences. Currently, the majority of early prevention approaches are community based with fairly strict eligibility criteria. Public child welfare system has yet to settle on a clear paradigm for early prevention. As many states are considering extending their services to reports screened out of Child Protective Services (CPS), there is a need to better understand the utilization and effectiveness of such early preventative services. Additionally, changing American cultural landscape has presented challenges to the field …

Shared Prosperity Initiative As A Solution To The City Of Kalamazoo's Impoverished, Maurice Washington

Honors Theses

The Shared Prosperity Kalamazoo Initiative acts a combatant to reducing poverty for the City of Kalamazoo rather than a solution. Combining micro social work training of treatment plans for clients and its incorporated methodologies to the macro problem of poverty for the City’s constituents emphasizes a unique but valuable perspective to have as a potential policy maker. The question is whether such a perspective is truly applicable and such was the goal of the nearly year-long research. Data obtained from interviews, meetings, focus groups and interviews were reviewed from a prior initiative to formulate much of the research and analysis. …

Assessing The Impact Of Restrictiveness And Placement Type On Transition-Related Outcomes For Youth With And Without Disabilities Aging Out Of Foster Care, Jessica Danielle Schmidt

Dissertations and Theses

Nearly 23,000 youth age out of the foster care system between the ages of 18 and 21 each year in a transition fraught with challenges and barriers. These young people often lack developmentally appropriate experiences and exposure to necessary knowledge, role modeling, skill building, and long-term social support to promote positive transitions to adulthood while in foster care. As a result, young people who exit care face an array of poor adult outcomes. Nearly 60% of transition-aged foster youth experience a disability, and as such, face compounded challenges exiting foster care. While the examination of young adult outcomes for youth …

A Queer Liberation Movement? A Qualitative Content Analysis Of Queer Liberation Organizations, Investigating Whether They Are Building A Separate Social Movement, Joseph Nicholas Defilippis

Dissertations and Theses

In the last forty years, U.S. national and statewide LGBT organizations, in pursuit of "equality" through a limited and focused agenda, have made remarkably swift progress moving that agenda forward. However, their agenda has been frequently criticized as prioritizing the interests of White, middle-class gay men and lesbians and ignoring the needs of other LGBT people. In their shadows have emerged numerous grassroots organizations led by queer people of color, transgender people, and low-income LGBT people. These "queer liberation" groups have often been viewed as the left wing of the GRM, but have not been extensively studied. My research investigated …

"Taking The Bank To The Youth:" Impacts On Saving And Asset Building From The Ghana Youthsave Experiment, Yungsoo Lee, Lissa Johnson, Michael Sherraden, David Ansong, Isaac Osei-Akoto, Gina Chowa

Center for Social Development Research

This working paper explores the experimental impact of in-school banking and financial marketing outreach on the savings performance of youth in schools across eight geographic regions in Ghana (i.e., “taking the bank to the youth”). The researchers found significant and sizable effects of the Ghana YouthSave experiment on savings performance. Youth in treatment schools performed better in terms of account opening, depositing, and savings than those in control schools. Between the two treatment conditions, in-school banking was more effective than marketing outreach in promoting account uptake and savings but the differences were marginally significant. Overall, the findings of the Ghana …

Social Identities Of Clients And Therapists During The Mental Health Intake Predict Diagnostic Accuracy, Ora Nakash, Tamar Saguy

School for Social Work: Faculty Publications

Across countries, common mental disorders are often more prevalent and/or more persistent among disadvantaged members (e.g., ethnic minorities) compared with advantaged group members. Although these disparities constitute a heavy challenge to national health organizations, there is little empirical evidence to help account for the mechanism underlying them. In this study, conducted in clinics across Israel, we investigated processes, rooted in the clinical encounter that may contribute to mental health disparities. We focused on the accuracy of diagnostic decisions, which are likely to substantially impact the client’s prognosis. Therapists’ diagnostic decisions following the initial intake with their client were compared with …

Policy Recommendations For Alleviating Homelessness In Chittenden County, Vermont, Brittany E. Nevins

Capstone Collection

Chittenden County, Vermont is suffering from increasing homelessness and poverty among both individuals and families. Residents of Chittenden County face an urban rental vacancy rate of less than .5% in Burlington, VT where the majority of jobs are located and only a 3% vacancy in suburban towns. Residents face waiting lists for rental subsidies of up to 8 years, and decreasing access to services for working class populations who are facing rent to income ratios of nearly 70% and utility costs of 30% of their income. The market rent is increasing and the state budget faces deep cuts to services. …

Sustainable Social Work: An Environmental Justice Framework For Social Work Education, Samantha Teixeira, Amy Krings

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Environmental degradation is not experienced by all populations equally; hazardous and toxic waste sites, resource contamination (e.g., exposure to pesticides), air pollution, and numerous other forms of environmental degradation disproportionately affect low income and minority communities. The communities most affected by environmental injustices are often the same communities where social workers are entrenched in service provision at the individual, family, and community level. In this article, we use a global social work paradigm to describe practical ways in which environmental justice content can be infused in the training and education of social workers across contexts in order to prepare professionals …

The Comparative Impacts Of Social Justice Educational Methods On Political Participation, Civic Engagement, And Multicultural Activism, Amy Krings, Elizabeth A. Austic, Lorraine M. Gutierrez, Kaleigh E. Dirksen

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

This cross-sectional, repeated measures, quasi-experimental study evaluates changes in college stu- dents’ commitment toward, and confidence in, political participation, civic engagement, and multi- cultural activism. Our sample (n = 653) consisted of college students in a Midwestern university who participated in one of three social justice education course types (service learning, intergroup dialogue, or lecture-based diversity classes) or in an “introduction to psychology” course (the non-intervention group). After completion of a social justice education course, students reported an increase in politi- cal participation and multicultural activism, whereas students enrolled in the non-intervention group reported no changes in these measures. Service …