Y. Paat, Jessica Morales, Aaron Escajeda, Ray Tullius
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引用次数: 5
Abstract
ABSTRACT Using in-depth face-to-face interviews, this study explored 34 homeless shelter workers’ perceptions of homelessness and working with the homeless. We asked the following questions: 1) What were the barriers that homeless shelter residents faced in combating homelessness, from the perspective of the homeless shelter workers? 2) What were the challenges that homeless shelter workers encountered in working with this at-risk population? Our findings shared the realities that the homeless population faced from the lens of shelter workers with different job responsibilities (ranging from customer service workers to case managers, program directors/coordinators, and shelter administrators). Overall, we found that working with the homeless community could present a challenge for shelter workers given the limited availability of funding, discrepancies in agreement of solutions, the lack of qualified helping professionals, the limits of service coordination, preconceived judgment/prejudice from the public, and a series of obstacles that the homeless population faces including barriers to accessing services, employability, personal hardship, and social stigma.
期刊介绍:
The only journal of its kind in the United States, the Journal of Progressive Human Services covers political, social, personal, and professional problems in human services from a progressive perspective. The journal stimulates debate about major social issues and contributes to the development of the analytical tools needed for building a caring society based on equality and justice. The journal"s contributors examine oppressed and vulnerable groups, struggles by workers and clients on the job and in the community, dilemmas of practice in conservative contexts, and strategies for ending racism, sexism, ageism, heterosexism, and discrimination of persons who are disabled and psychologically distressed.