Homelessness and Mental Disorder: Policy Considerations

Abstract

‘Photovoice’ is a photographic method that is used for several purposes (e.g. storytelling, building awareness, enhancing personal discovery), including conducting community-based participatory research (CBPR). Since its creation, photovoice has been used as a method for implementing health-related CBPR projects with people experiencing homelessness. As such, this article presents an overview of seven peer-reviewed publications regarding photovoice projects that were conducted with participants who are homeless. The goal of the review is to provide health professionals with a practical summary of the lessons learned from each photovoice project's methods and findings. Based on the literature, the review's major suggestion is that health professionals should plan and implement future projects according to the fundamental aspects of photovoice (e.g. empowerment of participants to document their community, facilitation of group discussions of photos, concerted efforts to reach policymakers).     

Latino youth participation in community-based participatory research to reduce teen pregnancy disparities

BackgroundCommunity-based participatory research can provide a framework to build community capacity to do health equity research, particularly from community members who may not typically participate in research design and intervention.PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe a community-based coalition's partnership and engagement with Latino youth throughout the research process addressing health disparities in unintended teen pregnancy rates in a local community. Israel and colleagues' components of CBPR provide a framework to develop youth participation throughout the research process.MethodHigh school and college Latino youth participated in health equity research from community assessments to design an intervention and dissemination of results.ResultsWorking with youth can improve the integrity and validity of the research process and can also provide benefits to the community and individual youth members, resulting in increased community capacity for health equity research.DiscussionLessons learned about the direct and indirect benefits and challenges are presented. Community-based partnerships working with youth should consider documenting the individual and collective impact of community engagement on the youth from the onset of participation.     

Exploring community stress and empowerment among stakeholders and youth in an urban community

ABSTRACT

Community-level stress, such as pervasive substance abuse and violence, can yield negative health and mental heath outcomes for youth from disadvantaged communities. Community empowerment is a process whereby community members work together to increase control in their community. This qualitative inquiry analyzed in-depth interviews with adult stakeholders (n = 17) as well as focus group interviews with token youth (n = 85) to explore perceptions of community stress and empowerment in one disadvantaged locale. Each of the 102 total participants helped interrogate the research questions: What does it mean to live in a stressed community? How might youth and adults perceive themselves capable of impacting a stressed community’s quality of life? Emergent themes, which include a nod to the utility of coalition building, are explored. Implications for policy, practice, and future research are also discussed.     

Activating adult allies from a rural community on lesbian,gay, bisexual,transgender, and queer student issues in school using photovoice

Purpose: Many students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) face hostile school environments that can negatively impact their mental health and education. This study involved a photovoice project where high school students from a gay-straight alliance in the rural southeastern United States took photographs that depicted the issues LGBTQ students were facing and then exhibited their photographs and stories to individuals from the school system and local community to promote awareness, dialogue, and action. Methods: Twenty adults who attended the photovoice exhibit responded to an online survey about their experiences with the intervention. Results: Eighty-five percent of adults reported that the intervention made them think about issues they had not previously considered, including the struggles LGBTQ youths face, gender issues, and living in a rural community. Common emotions experienced at the intervention included feeling excited, concern for the youths, and proud of the youths. Furthermore, 81% of the adults indicated that they would take action or behave differently as a result of the intervention, including supporting and affirming LGBTQ students, using gender-neutral and -inclusive language, and confronting bias in themselves and others. Conclusions: Photovoice is a promising strategy for LGBTQ students to activate adult allies in their community.     

Using Photovoice as a method to examine microaggressions: Conceptualizing culturally competent practice and curriculum with Asian Americans

ABSTRACT

In recent years, the racial microaggressions has increased significantly in the social work education and negative impact of racial microaggressions on individual’s family and group in their community well-being. Microaggressions can occur out of misunderstanding and lack of awareness of cultural differences and similarities. Microaggressions also are common everyday whether intentional or unintentional. The purpose of this study is to examine the evolving methodology, usage of photovoice, and conceptualizing culturally competent practice and curriculum with Asian Americans.     

Sariling Gawa Youth Council as a Case Study of Youth Leadership Development in Hawai'i

SUMMARY

This article describes Sariling Gawa Youth Council as a case study of youth leadership development in Hawai'i. Since 1980, thousands of young people-primarily Filipino youth-have participated in Sariling Gawa activities which have developed their leadership skills. Many of them have continued to lead the organization and utilize what they learned with numerous local organizations and state agencies. The authors examine Sariling Gawa's growth, structure, and other factors that contribute to its longevity. The model includes (1) youth empowerment through building their leadership skills, (2) fostering and strengthening peer social support and social networks, (3) promotion of positive ethnic identity, and (4) community capacity building by involving youth in civic and community affairs.     

Youth Organizing,Identity-Support,and Youth Development Agencies as Avenues for Involvement

SUMMARY

What are the differences in outcomes among youth organizing and other efforts to involve young people at the community level?

This paper examines differences in developmental outcomes among youth organizing, identity-support, and traditional youth development agencies, with the finding that there are significant differences in outcomes such as civic activism and identity development. It reports that youth organizing agencies show higher levels of youth leadership, decision making, and community involvement in comparison with other agencies, and concludes that deliberate approaches to staffing and decision-making can influence youth outcomes.     

“If Rainbows Were Everywhere”: Nonmetropolitan SGM Youth Identify Factors That Make Communities Supportive

ABSTRACT

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth in nonmetropolitan communities face marginalization due to their SGM identities. Community support may mitigate the negative outcomes associated with marginalization. Using the strengths perspective, this study investigated the factors SGM youth identify as making their communities supportive. Interviews were conducted with SGM youth to explore their perceptions of their community, community climate, and the factors that contribute to making communities supportive to SGM youth. Findings revealed four supportive community factors: supportive people, SGM visibility, SGM resources and education, and SGM-inclusive policies. Implications include creating SGM resources and providing professional training on SGM issues.     

Futures Festivals

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a special events strategy for mobilizing community residents of all ages to take part in a community visioning process. Through locally initiated special eventscalled “Futures Festivals”-community residents come together to share their concerns and hopes for their community. Planning for these events is driven by a collaborative process involving representatives of local community organizations and agencies. The rationale for this intergenerational model is twofold; people of different age groups often have limited opportunities to communicate with one another, and the viewpoints of youth and seniors are frequently overlooked in the community planning process. This paper profiles two Futures Festival events and other preliminary organizing taking place in western Pennsylvania communities during the summer of 2002. Findings suggest that Futures Festivals can be effective tools for broadening the circle of community residents and other stakeholders engaged in critical dialogue about community issues.     

Food Landscapes: Cooking,Community Service and Art-Making with Teens

ABSTRACT

In this article, we describe Food Landscapes, an interdisciplinary program involving youth who live in an urban community identified as a food desert. Food Landscapes combined socially engaged art-making, cooking, community engagement, and community service to open dialogue with youth about food justice and equity, the meaning of community, and the formation of meaningful relationships between youth and community members who have disabilities. We describe the program and discuss the theory and model bases for the program and lessons learned during program implementation.     

Visual methodologies for research with refugee youth

Abstract

In the current moment of social, political, economic and environmental disquiet, unprecedented numbers of children have been forced to leave their homes and settle in new communities. As schools worldwide receive increasing numbers of refugee youth, there is a pressing need for thoughtful educational research that inquires into the unique individual needs and experiences of displaced learners. Given that students’ journeys are shaped by movements across physical, cultural and linguistic spaces, we suggest that related scholarship might benefit from Third Space theory. Within this theoretical framework, neither language nor culture is static. Rather, both are continuously shaped through interactions – including those that are non-verbal. For students who may be learning in an unfamiliar language, visual methodologies offer a means and venue for communication. To explore how refugee youth might benefit from Third Space theory and visual methodologies, we first review scholarship that examines how children and schools negotiate educational space. We then describe a series of methodologies that scholars might consider when conducting research with refugee youth, including photovoice, fotonovela, digital storytelling and quilting. Significantly, pairing a Third Space theoretical framework with visual and participatory methodologies may address issues of language, power, vulnerability and ethics.     

Behavioral health correlates of exposure to community violence among African-American adolescents in Chicago

AimsThough public health researchers are more aware of behavioral health concerns among African American youth, few studies have explored how exposure to community violence may be related to adverse youth concerns. This study examines the relationship between exposure to community violence and mental health problems, substance use, school engagement, juvenile justice involvement, and STI risk behaviors.MethodsA total of 638 African American adolescents living in predominantly low-income, urban communities participated in the study by completing self-report measures on exposure to community violence, mental health, school engagement proxies, substance use, delinquency markers and sexual risk behaviors.ResultsAdolescents who reported higher rates of exposure to community violence were significantly more likely to report poorer mental health, delinquent behaviors, a history of juvenile justice involvement, lower school bonding and student-teacher connectedness. These youth were also significantly more likely to use alcohol, cigarettes, and illicit substances, and engage in sexual risk behaviors.ConclusionsFindings suggest that there is a critical need for culturally relevant prevention and intervention efforts for African American adolescents who are frequently exposed to community violence.     

The Growing Up in Cities Project

SUMMARY

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child contains a set of “participation clauses” which are leading members of development agencies, municipal offices, and community organizations to incorporate children and youth into community planning. The Growing Up in Cities project of UNESCO provides a model for doing this, with a focus on low-income areas of special concern for urban policy-makers. The authors describe a case study of this project in Bangalore, India, explore the complexities of implementation of youth participation, and discuss the lessons learned.     

Urban Community Action Planning Inspires Teenagers to Transform Their Community and Their Identity

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the way a participatory community development technique, Urban Community Action Planning (UCAP), transformed a group of city teenagers into community planners. This teen group, Teen Inspirators, On the Move, formed in response to a community need for more youth activities and programming. This need was identified during a Community Planning Initiative sponsored by the Oak Hill Community Development Corporation located in Worcester, Massachusetts. The Teen Inspirators committed themselves to revitalizing their community and changing their own image in the neighborhood. Participatory planning techniques gave youth the voice, power, and tools to accomplish these goals.     

Family-Based HIV Preventive Intervention

Summary

Social indicators suggest that African American adolescents are in the highest risk categories of those contracting HIV/AIDS (CDC, 2001). The dramatic impact of HIV/AIDS on urban African American youth have influenced community leaders and policy makers to place high priority on programming that can prevent youth's exposure to the virus (Pequegnat & Szapocznik, 2000). Program developers are encouraged to design programs that reflect the developmental ecology of urban youth (Tolan, Gorman-Smith, & Henry, 2003). This often translates into three concrete programmatic features: (1) Contextual relevance; (2) Developmental-groundedness; and (3) Systemic Delivery. Because families are considered to be urban youth's best hope to grow up and survive multiple dangers in urban neighborhoods (Pequegnat& Szapocznik, 2000), centering prevention within families may ensure that youth receive ongoing support, education, and messages that can increase their capacity to negotiate peer situations involving sex. This paper will present preliminary data from an HIV/AIDS prevention program that is contextually relevant, developmentally grounded and systematically-delivered. The collaborative HIV/AIDS Adolescent Mental Health Project (CHAMP) is aimed at decreasing HIV/AIDS risk exposure among a sample of African American youth living in a poverty-stricken, inner-city community in Chicago. This study describes results from this family-based HIV preventive intervention and involves 88 African American pre-adolescents and their primary caregivers. We present results for the intervention group at baseline and post intervention. We compare post test results to a community comparison group of youth. Suggestions for future research are provided.     

Building Community for Toronto's Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,Transsexual and Transgender Youth

SUMMARY

This paper describes the development of Supporting Our Youth, an innovative grassroots program that builds community for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and transgender youth in Toronto. Hundreds of adults and youth have worked together to develop a broad range of arts, cultural, recreational, and employment training activities, as well as a very popular mentoring and housing program. Initiated in 1997, Supporting Our Youth has been developed according to underlying principles of community development and community building which value broad participation, diverse skills, partnerships, coalition building, and grassroots ownership and direction. As a model, it is transferable to other queer and trans communities, as well as to other marginalized populations.     

Youth-Adult Partnership in Community Organizing

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of a campaign developed around sexuality education policy by a national youth-focused organization, Advocates for Youth, and its network of youth activists. The paper provides an overview of the national sexuality education debate and the specific strategies youth and adults use in partnership to advocate for a comprehensive approach to the education. The case study of the My Voice Counts!Campaign provides insight into the creation and evolution of a youth-adult partnership approach to community organizing, beginning with an online activism campaign and resulting in local youth-led projects to improve sex education policies and curricula. Following an analysis of the Campaign's accomplishments, the paper lays out recommendations for action and research to demonstrate the positive effects of this form of community practice.     

Using Concept Mapping to Promote Community Building: The African American Initiative at Roseland

ABSTRACT

While many organizations recognize the value of community building, they often encounter difficulty in actualizing projects and developing tangible results. This article presents how a planning and evaluation method known as concept mapping was used to drive a community building effort by a large not-for-profit organization in Chicago around the issue of at-risk African American male youth. This work grew out of a grant related to the needs of African American families, called the African American Initiative, which was funded by the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago. The article describes the first phase of the African American Initiative at Roseland, and lessons learned. Primarily, this study was able to generate a conceptual framework of problems facing African American male youth, which was used to revise previously defined outcomes and also create new ones. In addition, use of concept mapping to drive community building generated reflection on intended and unintended benefits. At the same time, challenges around this approach demonstrate the need for continued research.     

Examining Missing Person Police Reports to Identify the Service Needs of Runaway Youth and Their Families

Abstract

This study examined situational and demographic characteristics in a sample of 47 children missing person police reports obtained from a law enforcement agency to identify the service needs of runaway youth and their families. Results show that runaways represented the only category of missing children contained in the data. The present findings are consistent with national data which suggest that: a typical runaway youth is most likely engaging in acting out rebellious behavior; more girls than boys ran away; most were 14 or 15 years old and most had a prior history of running away. These results support the need for a comprehensive integration between social work research and practice and are used to provide recommendations for the service needs of runaway children and their families. Social work practice recommendations include: (1) community campaigns, (2) training, and (3) increased collaboration between law enforcement and child welfare agencies.     

Effects of parental monitoring on aggressive behavior among youth in the United States and South Korea: A cross-national study

ObjectiveThis cross-national study examined the direct and indirect effects of parental monitoring on aggressive behavior among separate samples of 10th grade youth in the US (N = 3784) and South Korea (N = 3079).MethodsData from two national probability studies—Monitoring the Future (MTF) for US youth and Korea Youth Panel Study (KYPS) for South Korean youth—were used. Both studies incorporated school-based, multi-stage, stratified, and randomized clustered sampling methods.ResultsPath analyses results indicated that while parental monitoring was directly and negatively related to aggressive behavior among US youth, it had no direct effect among South Korean youth. We also found significant indirect effects of parental monitoring on youth aggression through cigarette use, alcohol use, and self-esteem among both groups. Both US and South Korean youth who perceived increased monitoring from their parents reported less cigarette and alcohol use and higher self-esteem, which in turn reduced the likelihood of aggressive behavior.ConclusionsThis study serves as an example of conducting cross-national research using existing data to investigate significant issues related to youth well-being. Although there are cultural differences between US and South Korean youth, parental monitoring is still important in deterring both groups of youth from engaging in aggressive behavior.