Community-Based Research Commons^™

Law In Inaction: The Origins And Implications Of Chronic Drug Law Underenforcement In One Southern County, Kay L. Levine, Elizabeth Griffiths, Joshua M. Hinkle, Volkan Topalli

Faculty Articles

Common accounts of police and prosecutorial nonenforcement discretion tend to valorize individual declination choices as demonstrations of mercy and resource constraint. Simultaneously, these accounts critique blanket nonenforcement policies as being outside the bounds of executive authority. Both accounts fail to consider the origins and implications of nonenforcement decisions made by police officers and prosecutors in individual cases that, when taken together, amount to significant underenforcement of an otherwise valid law.

This Article fills the gap between these differing perspectives by empirically examining the hidden and habitual underenforcement of technically valid drug-free-zone (DFZ) laws in one Southern county. Data matching the …

Democratically Engaged Assessment On Civic Learning For Bonner Scholars, Lesley Boadu, Meredith Bacon

Other Publications

This report will cover the multi-step process to identify and define the most critical civic learning outcomes for Bonner Scholars at the University of Richmond (UR). We will detail a democratically engaged assessment (DEA) involving diverse stakeholders to gather perspectives and insights. We do this by highlighting the work that has taken place and then making suggestions to improve the overall process. Some of this work includes using surveys to capture community experiences, involving students in creating definitions and implementing reflective journaling. We will also discuss the revision of reflection essay assignments to align with the identified outcomes and the …

Analyzing The Impact Of United Against Poverty Food Centers On Individuals Affected By Food Insecurity Throughout Florida, Aidan Cadiz, Amy Donley Phd

Institute for Social and Behavioral Science (ISBS)

Food Insecurity is often overlooked by those who are fortunate enough to afford and sustain an abundance of products for themselves and their family. Despite lack of awareness, there are programs such as the "Membership Share Grocery Program" by United Against Poverty that seek to alleviate this problem. The program utilizes donated goods and sells the products based only on their shipping costs. Program Membership requires a family income that is below the Area Median Income to gain access to the discounted prices. The current study utilized both quantitative and qualitative techniques to identify the impact this program has on …

Terminological (In)Justice: Terminology And Reality In A Coordinated Community Response To Intimate Partner Violence, Julio Montanez Ma, Amy Donley Phd

Institute for Social and Behavioral Science (ISBS)

Definitions and terminologies are paramount for operationalizing the community-wide effort against intimate partner violence (IPV). However, definitions and terms that do not reflect reality are of little use. This is particularly true in IPV coordinated community responses that attempt to harmonize data collection and legal apparatuses at the federal, state, and local levels. Using qualitative (e.g., focus group and interview data from survivors, interviews with system actors) and quantitative data (e.g., Uniform Crime Reports) from a year-long study in a large southeastern county, the current study aims to answer the following research question: Do IPV-related terms (in data collection and …

Communicating Climate Change: Adaptive Silviculture In Central Appalachian Kentucky, Logan Baker

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

Climate change communication is an emerging field that requires a multidisciplinary understanding of both climate and social science. Communicating with underrepresented woodland owners about climate change, specifically climate change adaptation in forestry applications, necessitates appropriately adjusted approaches. In Central Appalachian Kentucky, outreach with underrepresented woodland owners on forest adaptation topics has not been examined in depth. The recent establishment of an Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change research site in the University of Kentucky’s Robinson Forest has created an opportunity to generate regionally specific climate adaptation information for Appalachian Kentucky forests. It is imperative to investigate how best to approach communicating …

"We Are The Mycelium" Exploring Mutual Aid Networks And Food System Resilience In Eastern Kentucky, Lindsey A. Windland

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

The effects of climate change are predicted to have a widespread impact on numerous aspects of the U.S. food system. Industrialization and consolidation within the U.S. food system have decreased the food system’s capacity for adaptation to external stressors. In recent years local food systems have demonstrated a potential for adaptation during and after disasters. More research is needed to better understand local food systems and their adaptative innovations, as a better understanding of these innovations is important for developing local food systems with strong adaptative capacities. This exploratory study examines how the local food systems of Eastern Kentucky pivoted …

Looking At The Past To Change The Future: Showcasing Featured Collections, Building Communities, And Co-Creating, Sherry Buchanan

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Academic libraries have the opportunity and the responsibility to promote and advance content that creates transformative and iterative learning opportunities. To that end, and in an effort to build communities and facilitate co-creation, Portland State University showcases three main Featured Collections in our open access repository, PDXScholar: Climate Justice, COVID-19, and Racial and Gender Equity, with a fourth pilot collection—Student Work: An Open Showcase of Outstanding Student-Created Research & Creative Work—under development. The collections include a broad range of audiovisual materials, such as podcasts and webinar series, as well as sustainability and equity work, student-created content, and numerous future-focused multidisciplinary …

I Am Not A Hero: Heroic Action Divorces The Hero From The Political Community, Ari Kohen, Brian Riches, Andre Sólo

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Most people who perform a heroic act will, afterward, deny that their actions were heroic and claim that anyone would have done the same, even though that is demonstrably false (and, often, others were present who failed to act heroically at all). The literature on the psychology of heroism has never investigated why this is. This theoretical paper proposes an answer and seeks to provoke exploration of a previously unexplored topic. We note that people who undertake heroic action face a unique conflict: they embody their community’s highest values, while simultaneously breaking norms to stand apart from that community. We …

Characterizing The Beneficial Uses Of The Arcata Marsh Constructed Wetland Treatment System And Wildlife Sanctuary, Andrew S. Wolff

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The Arcata Marsh Constructed Wetland Treatment System and Wildlife Sanctuary, located in Arcata California, has been in operation since 1986. Not only has it served as the wastewater treatment facility for the city, it has also provided other beneficial uses such as acting as a sanctuary for bird, mammal, amphibian, and macroinvertebrate species. With facility upgrades currently underway, it has become important to revisit the beneficial uses of the Arcata Marsh. This project aimed to identify and characterize these beneficial uses. Literature review was conducted, and eleven beneficial uses were identified. Existing and newly obtained data were analyzed to characterize …

The Unequal Distribution Of Social Risk For Black Men Across The Life-Span. A Novel Framework., Waleed Y. Sami

Adultspan Journal

This conceptual overview offers a comprehensive overview of systemic pathways that negatively impact the mental health of Black Men throughout their lives. Our argument highlights the importance for counselors and mental health professionals to utilize a thorough social risk assessment that considers these pathways in order to effectively address the mental health needs of Black Men while fostering positive working relationships. This overview strongly advocates for the use of context and structural determinants when evaluating mental health symptoms. Without an appropriate understanding of social risk and determinants, counselors may inadvertently perpetuate disparities by decontextualizing symptomology, and reproducing racist discourse.

Leadership Challenges With Mental Health Literacy And Cultural Stigma In The Hmong Community, Yeng J. Vang

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

It has been nearly 50 years since Hmong refugees started arriving here in the United States, as a result of the Vietnam War. Currently, the Minneapolis-St. Paul area is home to the largest concentration of Hmong Americans here in the states, approximately 81,000 (Pew Research, 2019). Because of the war atrocities that many Hmong refugees experienced, scholars and researchers conducted diagnostic assessments during early resettlement, but the data was disaggregated and combined all Southeast Asian refugees together. This made it difficult to determine mental health needs among the different Southeast Asian ethnicities, specifically Hmong Americans. Many years later, the Wilder …

Listening To The Voices Of America, Kathryn J. Edin, Corey D. Fields, David B. Grusky, Jure Leskovec, Marybeth J. Mattingly, Kristen M. Olson, Charles Varner

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

We make the case for building a permanent public-use platform for conducting and analyzing immersive interviews on the everyday lives of Americans. The American Voices Project (AVP)—a widely watched experiment with this new platform—provides important early evidence on its promise. The articles in this issue reveal that, although public-use interview datasets obviously cannot meet all research needs, they do provide new opportunities to study small or hidden populations, new or emerging social problems, reactions to ongoing social crises, submerged values and attitudes, and many other aspects of American life. We conclude that a permanent AVP platform would help build an …

Envisioning Futures: A Photovoice Study On How An Urban Afterschool Program Empowers Caregivers To Be Agents Of Change In Their Community, Ellen Mays

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

As part of comprehensive whole-family out-of-school-time programming, parent engagement and education play an important role in addressing achievement and opportunity gaps in low-income neighborhoods. Parent groups have the potential to be a unique space of social justice work by creating supportive, innovative spaces to build social capital and organize around common action goals. This photovoice study looks specifically at “Parent University,” a parent out-of-school-time meeting group that focuses on empowerment education by providing opportunities for parents to meet, engage in rich consciousness raising dialogue, identify areas in need of change, and create and implement action for social change. This study …

Mental Health Practitioners’ Trauma Knowledge And Self-Efficacy Post-Emdr Training, Christy R. Collins, Shelby L. Dean, Jose Carbajal

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

This research study examines mental health practitioners’ level of trauma knowledge and trauma treatment self-efficacy pre- and post-EMDR therapy training in Texas. The purpose is to determine if practitioners' self-perception of efficacy in treating trauma and trauma knowledge will improve after completing EMDR training. The practitioner sample (N = 113) is from an EMDR trainer who conducted six EMDR trainings in Texas. Descriptive, correlational, and paired t-test statistical procedures were implemented to analyze the data for the study. The results show that practitioners’ self-perception of competence and knowledge could be attributed to their years of clinical experience treating clients with …

Describing The Experiences Of Fulfillment And Stress In Coptic Orthodox Priests, Dr. Martha Salama

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

This qualitative study was conducted to understand how Coptic Orthodox priests describe their experiences of fulfillment and/or stress with their work. While many Christian leaders such as pastors, reverends, and clergy helping to serve their church members are represented in the literature, there is limited research on the roles and experiences of the Coptic Orthodox priesthood serving their communities. The Coptic church has been around for centuries, and the church has a history of religious persecution. The research question was “how do Coptic Orthodox priests describe their experiences of fulfillment and/or stress with their work?” The research methodology used in …

Understanding The Addiction Recovery Experience: The Use Of Experiential Learning In Undergraduate Human Services, Chaniece J. Winfield, Jason M. Sawyer

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

Since 2020, the steady rise of overdose and substance use related deaths has created an ongoing need for a greater addiction workforce. Responding to this need, Human Service education programs are strongly encouraged to prepare competent professionals to work in recovery-oriented treatment settings. Research supports experiential learning to foster clinical competency, however its application toward SAMSHA transdisciplinary foundations in human service education is limited or unknown. The authors present an exploration of the use of experiential learning as a teaching tool to foster student competency toward the SAMSHA core transdisciplinary foundations of application to practice and professional readiness.

Energy And Empowerment In The High Arctic, Alyssa Pantaleo

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

National governments continue to depend on fossil fuels for electricity and heat generation in Arctic communities. This dependence threatens the economic, environmental, and cultural sustainability of Arctic communities and subjects them to future volatility and uncertainty. In Greenland, the centralized government structure creates additional challenges for northern communities by limiting the inclusion of local knowledge and priorities in favor of national, standardized solutions. This research identifies pathways towards fossil fuel reduction in northern Greenlandic communities via 1.) analyzing the potential for renewable energy inclusion in grid-scale or residential energy generation and 2.) analysis of the potential for energy reduction in …

Nebraska Snapshot #24-001: Is Nebraska Heading In The Right Direction?, Bureau Of Sociological Research

Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS)

No abstract provided.

Coalescence: A Carnivore Coexistence Curriculum That Braids Indigenous & Western Ecological Knowledge Into A Relevant And Experiential Learning Opportunity For Youth, Stephanie Anne Barron

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horriblis) begin to reoccupy more of their historic range, and as humans and large carnivore populations continue to increase, incidences of human carnivore conflict are on the rise. A decolonial curriculum designed in collaboration with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe’s wildlife biologists stands to increase awareness of Indigenous ecological knowledge and teach youth about the importance of coexistence with carnivores. Additionally, this project could greatly influence youth perceptions of grizzly bears and other large carnivores. This research project examines the development and implementation of a carnivore coexistence curriculum for youth that is guided by …

Alternative Shelter Evaluation Report, Jacen Greene, Todd Ferry, Emily Leickly, Franklin H. Spurbeck

Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative Publications and Presentations

This report summarizes research by Portland State University’s Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative for the Joint Office of Homeless Services on the cost, participant experiences, and client outcomes in village-style and motel shelters as compared to each other and to traditional, congregate shelters.