Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community最新文献

Evidence-informed trauma interventions developed specifically by and for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) that address racial, historical, and intergenerational trauma are sparse, particularly for youth. To meet this need, the current study developed and piloted a new intervention - Trauma and Racism Addressed by Navigating Systemic Forms of Oppression using Resistance Methods (TRANSFORM) - using a and community-engaged research-to-practice approach. Across two phases, we documented the community-participatory development of TRANSFORM and analyzed preliminarily quantitative data collected in a pilot study with N = 19 BIPOC youth. Phase 1 reports on the process and lessons learned from the community centered co-development. The phase 2 pilot study results revealed statistically significant pretest-to-posttest reductions in racial discrimination stress as well as trauma-related symptoms interfering with daily functioning for youth. Implications for community-based approaches to disrupting and healing racial stress and trauma within and across youth-serving systems are discussed.

In assessing leverage points to promote educational equality, this paper examines Freire's concept of education as oppression to highlight the potential of reclaiming resources currently dedicated to oppressive education. Harel Ben-Shahar's concepts of education as a positional good as well as the potential lack of instrumental value in contributing to students' social, health, relational, and other holistic aspects of wellbeing are mobilized to disentangle varying forms of education. Practitioner experience with students living with disabilities in a postcolonial global south establishes the foundational context to consider how education has capacity to challenge the following: economic domination; restraint on traditional Indigenous knowledge; limited basic livelihood; and media stereotypes on effort committed by the marginalized-yet often chooses not to. Disentangling what precisely constitutes education as oppression emerges as a challenging task, since Freire's conceptualization of conformity is often required of students if they wish to meet essential survival needs. Lisu case studies in rural agricultural economies, traditional ecological knowledge, and postcolonial curriculum demonstrate that education as oppression can emerge naturally with or without intent, and that education mobilized to gatekeep social resources or justify the inequitable distribution of life opportunities can reinforce existing systematic inequalities. Notably, resources and opportunities in disadvantaged communities can already be stratified by preexisting racist; sexist; ableist; classist; or colonial discrimination, and suggest that the intersection between education and basic survival of students should not be viewed as too tangential or basic for future policy discourse. Four forms of education as oppression are preliminarily considered, toward supporting future discourse on eliminating inadvertent oppressive impacts via funded pedagogy.

Research indicates that financial and housing insecurity challenges are widespread on most college campuses throughout the U.S. However, there is wide variability in how campuses address these challenges. This study reports on a three-year implementation of the College-Focused Rapid Rehousing pilot; an initiative in California by which universities commissioned community providers to assist students in need via a modified Rapid Rehousing (RRH) intervention. RRH is a widely implemented intervention that combines move-in assistance, short-term rental subsidies, and ongoing case management, to help individuals quickly transition into stable housing. The mixed-methods evaluation included analyses of online surveys (n = 141), administrative records (n = 368), and focus groups conducted with staff across eight campuses (n = 35). Survey findings indicate that CFRR programs assisted a diverse group of students with similar histories of housing insecurity. Quantitative analyses also show that most participants experienced the intervention as designed, though with some inconsistencies in how quickly some were assisted. Qualitative findings highlight contextual factors that affected the consistency of the intervention, including tight rental markets and philosophical disagreements among administrators about the intervention's scope. Despite study limitations, findings provide insights into the applicability of the RRH model on campus settings and directions for future research.

Building Resilience through Intervention, Direct Guidance, and Empowerment (BRIDGE) is an innovative program designed to prevent homelessness and other negative outcomes among youth aging out of foster care. BRIDGE was pilot-tested on youth aging out of two orphanages in a city in southern Poland in 2009-2012. Youth were recruited at age 17, before aging out at age 18. Quasi-experimental methods were used to evaluate program outcomes among nine BRIDGE clients compared to two matched groups (n = 9 and n = 18) of youth who had recently aged out of orphanages in the same Polish region. Consistent with Hypothesis 1, results of chi-square tests showed that, over an 18-month follow-up period, BRIDGE clients experienced superior housing outcomes relative to both matched groups. Consistent with Hypothesis 2, the results of a between-subjects ANOVA showed that BRIDGE clients received significantly greater income relative to the matched groups. Within-subjects effects of BRIDGE from baseline across 6-, 12-, and 18-month follow-ups were examined with repeated-measures ANOVAs. Consistent with Hypotheses 3-5, results showed that across time BRIDGE clients experienced a general increase in income and decrease in psychological distress (i.e., total distress, obsessive-compulsiveness, interpersonal sensitivity, and paranoia). The study's findings support the further development of BRIDGE and similar programs.

Homelessness is often assumed to be mostly confined to urban spaces, leaving experiences of homelessness in rural contexts largely unexamined. The present study aims to understand the discursive context, or public understanding, of homelessness in rural communities. We examined community narratives related to the idea of "homelessness" in rural spaces. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 70 key stakeholders from four rural communities in the U.S. State of Maine. Participants were asked to give their impressions related to homelessness in their community. We conducted a systematic qualitative analysis of these interviews and our analysis was grounded in a critical discourse analysis perspective. Using Rappaport's framework for understanding helpful and harmful community narratives, we identified three community narratives that harm by stereotyping or erasing homelessness in rural communities: Not Here, That One Guy, and Mainly Outsiders. We also examined counter-narratives that worked against each of the three primary narratives: It Looks Different, It's More Hidden, and Local Struggle and Lack of Resources. The counter-narratives tell a different, more compassionate, story of homelessness in rural spaces. Our main goal was to analyze the "work" that each of these narratives were doing in terms of constructing different understandings of "rural homelessness." The implications for policy and practice are discussed.

The article reports empirical outcomes of an ongoing transdisciplinary participatory community action research project that implements behavioral activation in homeless shelters. The overall goal of this Project is twofold: (1) to improve psychosocial functioning of shelter residents and enhance their opportunities to overcome homelessness; and (2) to enhance civic development of service-learning students who assist in Project implementation. Two studies are reported, representing these goals. Study 1 found that residents of a men's shelter (n = 892), women's shelter (n = 433), and transitional housing (n = 40) perceived behavioral activation sessions as immediately beneficial (i.e., important, meaningful, worthy of repeating, and enjoyable), and over the course of shelter stay, they perceived behavioral activation as contributing to their hope, empowerment/self-sufficiency, quality of life, purpose/meaning in life, wellbeing, social support, shelter social climate, and relationships with staff. Quantitative findings are supported by qualitative data (comments by residents on forms). Study 2, which replicates and extends past research on civic-development in service-learning students, used a new quasi-experimental design to compare service-learning students (n = 41) in an interdisciplinary course on homelessness versus non-service-learning students (n = 16) in a psychology course. Service-learning students showed pre- to post-semester improvements in community service self-efficacy, decreases in stigmatizing attitudes, and increases in awareness of privilege and oppression, but students not engaged in service-learning did not show these civic-related changes. These quantitative results are supported by qualitative data (written reflections by students). Results and implications are discussed within the context of the concept of psychopolitical validity.

Youth experiencing homelessness (YEH) are infrequently included in the development, organization, and provision of homelessness-related services. This lack of youth voice and services tailored for their expressed needs can lead to underutilization of services, dissatisfaction, and poor outcomes. Photovoice, a participatory research method, has been used to empower persons from marginalized populations and to provide a platform for them to share their voices. This photovoice project partnered with six YEH (18-20 years old). Participants worked together, with the support of two group facilitators, to take photographs, identify themes, write narratives that best represented their lived experience, and share their concerns and ideas for the community. Photos and narratives were shared with decisionmakers at community-based showings. Attendees of the showings anecdotally reported having an increased awareness of YEH issues. The showings served as a catalyst in the community to address the challenges of YEH. Recommendations for research and practice are provided.

Despite a great need for healthcare, unhoused individuals encounter significant barriers to utilizing public healthcare systems. Given the inequities in access to healthcare, accompanied by disabilities and health risks associated with homelessness, self-efficacy for self-care is particularly critical. As a primary purpose of this article, we describe a self-care intervention (Health Advocacy Behavioral Activation), which was implemented within a long-standing participatory community action research project for homeless shelters, and report evidence of the intervention's effectiveness in enhancing self-efficacy for self-care. Participants included 62 residents of the St. Vincent de Paul Gateway Shelter for Men (Dayton, Ohio). Shelter residents with disabilities and those without disability benefited approximately equally from the intervention and both showed statistically significant pre- to post-intervention improvements in self-efficacy for self-care. Recommendations for future research examining the effectiveness of the intervention are provided. As a secondary (supplementary) purpose, we report preliminary evidence of psychometric validation for a new instrument (Scale of Self-Efficacy for Self-Care), which was developed in service of our primary purpose (i.e., to examine the effects of intervention on self-efficacy for self-care) because a literature search did not identify an appropriate measure. Because this new instrument fills a void in the literature, we anticipate that it will be useful in practice and research, and so we delineate research recommendations for additional psychometric validation of this measure. Because of the barriers that unhoused people encounter with regard to access to healthcare in the community, self-care interventions provided (and evaluated) on-site (e.g., in homeless shelters) are necessary.

No published studies have examined the community service priorities and harm reduction perspectives of unhoused people in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We conducted a mixed methods pilot study of 56 unhoused people at community locations in Santa Fe to: (1) assess the current prevalence of chronic medical conditions and substance use; (2) highlight community service priorities; and (3) explore views of innovative community harm reduction programs. Our first hypothesis was there would be high prevalence of chronic medical conditions, for which we found high prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression, substance use disorders, chronic pain, and hypertension. Our second hypothesis was that we would find top community service priorities of housing, food, and health care. We found long- and short-term housing and food, but not healthcare, top priorities. Our third hypothesis was that we would find mixed support for community harm reduction initiatives like managed alcohol programs and overdose prevention centers. We found positive, not mixed, support for these community harm reduction programs among Santa Fe's unhoused. Unhoused study participants ranged in age 27-77 years, with lifetime years unhoused from less than one year to 63 years. Study limitations included small sample size, convenience sampling, and descriptive results. Policies and program initiatives supporting additional Housing First options, managed alcohol programs, and overdose prevention centers in the Santa Fe community are clearly indicated to increase engagement with this vulnerable population. Future research should focus on inclusion of the perspectives of the unhoused in the design, conduct, evaluation, and dissemination of community programs to meet the needs of the unhoused, with re-defined outcomes to include changes in quality of life, program engagement, demarginalization, and future goals and plans, beyond currently utilized health and social service program outcome measures.

Preparing for the future is a major developmental task during adolescence and early adulthood. However, youth experiencing homelessness face additional challenges relating to economic instability, housing insecurity, and a lack of social support. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 38 youth, from Ottawa and Toronto, who were experiencing homelessness and participating in a randomized controlled trial of Housing First for Youth (HF4Y). This qualitative study explores youths' visions for the future, including their goals, aspirations, plans, and barriers to achieving them. Overall, findings demonstrated that youth had positive visions of the future and strove to reach developmentally appropriate goals and responsibilities. Compared to youth receiving HF4Y, the future expectations of those receiving treatment as usual (TAU) were characterized by uncertainty and lacked clear direction. Additionally, they emphasized self-reliance and autonomy, while HF4Y prioritized forming relationships and reconnection. Findings highlight the importance of stable housing intervention, and social, community, and financial support in planning for the future and transitioning out of homelessness. Implications for intervention, directions for future research, and limitations are provided.