Public library support of families experiencing homelessness

While public libraries are often used by people experiencing homelessness, the value of libraries for homeless children and families has been understudied. This brief explores how public libraries can support families experiencing homelessness and how they can engage with other service providers and agencies as part of a collective impact model to support a wide array of families’ needs. Since homelessness is the result of many interconnected social and economic conditions, this paper also examines how awareness and a lack of knowledge of these factors can impact service delivery and expectations. Finally, a case study of how the Queens Library in New York City engages with family shelters to support children’s learning and exploration is included to provide best practice examples.     

Claimsmakers and Contexts in Early Constructions of Homelessness: A Comparison of New York City and Washington,D.C.

This study compares the emergence of homelessness as a “new” social problem from 1977 through 1981 in New York City and Washington, D.C. The two cases illustrate a comparative constructionist method that analyzes evolving claimsmaking activities, the context in which they were embedded, and the interplay between claimsmaking and context. The method aided in identifying why homelessness became primarily a problem of deficient and pathological individuals requiring rehabilitation rather than a problem of poverty and inadequate housing. Resources at stake in New York caused city‐ and state‐level government officials, who advocated a medicalized view, to become central claimsmakers. This typification eventually became dominant nationally. Washington's lack of similar resources allowed advocates framing homelessness as a problem of social justice to take the lead. This proved to be a less durable typification. Both groups were also embedded in different relevant histories and cultures, which also influenced claims‐making and its resonance with the public.     

Homeless families today: Our challenge tomorrow

Family homelessness continues to be one of the most misunderstood and inadequately addressed public policy issues in America today. One reason is the scarcity of quantitative data available on the subject. In response, Columbia Universitys Graduate School of International and Public Affairs and the Institute for Children and Poverty designed and implemented an extensive survey on the demographics of homeless families in the New York City region. Data on more than 140 variables was collected from 743 homeless heads-of-household during the spring of 1997. The parents who were interviewed resided in fourteen emergency and transitional family shelters located throughout New York City and northern New Jersey. The following report summarizes the key elements of this research.     

Child welfare involvement among children in homeless families

An analysis of 8251 homeless children in New York City found that 18% of them received child welfare services over the five-year period following their first shelter admission, and an additional 6% had a history of having received such services before their first shelter admission. Recurrent use of public shelters, exposure to domestic violence, older age at first episode of homelessness, and larger number of children in a household were associated with an increased risk of child welfare involvement. The high rate of crossover between homelessness and the child welfare system suggests the need for service coordination for children in homeless families.     

Perspective-taking and memory capacity predict social network size

Human social networks typically consist of a hierarchically organized series of grouping levels. There is, however, considerable variation between individuals in the sizes of any given network layer. We test between two possible factors (memory capacity and theory of mind) that might limit the size of two different levels within human social networks (support cliques and sympathy groups). We show that the size of an individual's support clique (the number of individual's in the innermost circle of friends) is better explained by individual differences in social cognition (mentalising skills). However, the size of the sympathy group (the most frequent social partners) is better explained by individual's performance on memory tasks.     

A Preliminary Analysis of Associations Among Ethnic–Racial Socialization,Ethnic Discrimination,and Ethnic Identity Among Urban Sixth Graders

Drawing from cultural ecological models of adolescent development, the present research investigates how early adolescents received ethnic–racial socialization from parents as well as how experiences of ethnic and racial discrimination are associated with their ethnic identity (i.e., centrality, private regard, and public regard). Data for this study were drawn from a multimethod study of ethnically and socioeconomically diverse early adolescents in three mid‐ to high‐achieving schools in New York City. After accounting for the influences of race/ethnicity, social class, gender, immigrant status, and self‐esteem, parental ethnic–racial socialization was associated with higher levels of ethnic centrality (i.e., the extent to which youth identify themselves in terms of their group), more positive private regard (i.e., feelings about one's own ethnic group), and public regard (i.e., perceptions of other people's perceptions of their ethnic group). Ethnic discrimination from adults at school and from peers was associated with more negative perceptions of one's ethnic group (i.e., public regard). In addition, the association of ethnic–racial parent socialization and ethnic identity beliefs was stronger for those who reported higher levels of adult discrimination. Results highlight key ways in which ethnic identity may be shaped by the social ecologies in which adolescents are embedded.     

Orphan Trains: Teaching about an Early Twentieth-Century Social Experiment

Between 1854 and 1930, over 200,000 children left New York City, as well as other major east coast cities, bound for families in rural areas. They traveled to towns in New England, the Midwest, the South, and even as far west as Texas, California, Oregon, and Washington. These orphans were the children of immigrant families who were pouring into the United States in search of a better life. Many of these children were abandoned, or their parents had died and they were left to fend for themselves. To address this growing social problem, the process of placing out, or Orphan Trains, was developed by Charles Loring Brace, the director of the Children's Aid Society in New York City. This article summarizes the implementation of the placing-out process, including the social conditions, the underlying philosophy, the basic components, and the public perceptions. A lesson plan, teaching strategies, and materials are provided for teachers who want to explore this social practice when studying the rise of industrialization, immigration, and social change during the beginning of the twentieth century in American History.     

Emerging adult homelessness in geographic perspective: A view from the Rust Belt

This study provides a place-centered analysis of homelessness among emerging adults (age 18–24) by examining this issue in the context of the U.S. Rust Belt. In-depth interviews were conducted with a diverse sample of 30 homeless young adults in the small post-industrial city of Buffalo, New York. Our qualitative analysis focused on how place intersects with other factors to shape participants' experiences of homelessness and their views of the city and local social services. Participants described a sense of limited opportunity in Buffalo as well as the frustration that the service spectrum was too small, yet confusing to navigate. These findings point to directions for expanding employment prospects and housing and service options for homeless young adults in small cities.     

The definition,dimensions, and domain of public relations

By not developing a widely accepted definition and a central organizing principle or paradigm, the field of public relations has left itself vulnerable (1) to other fields that are making inroads into public relations' traditional domain, and (2) to critics who are filling in their own definitions of public relations. While opportunities abound, public relations is unlikely to fulfill its promise until it is willing and able to identify its fundamental nature and scope. This article proposes a definition (“managing strategic relationships”), along with a three-dimensional framework, with which to compare competing philosophies of public relations and from which to build a paradigm for the field.Dr. James G. Hutton teaches marketing and public relations at Fairleigh Dickinson University in northern New Jersey, just outside New York City.     

Identity and everyday experiences of homelessness: Some implications for social work

It is important for the complexities of homelessness to be considered when constructing policy or practice relating to people who are without safe and stable accommodation. These complexities can be loosely categorised around the definitions, causes and experiences of homelessness. While definitions and causes are topics of current debates, study of the lived-experiences of homelessness remains an area that is largely under-researched. This paper explores some of the implications for social work and social workers when the individual's understanding and experience of her/his identity as a ‘homeless person’ and consequent relationships with service providers are not factored into policy and practice. This article draws on the findings of a study of homeless adults in inner city Adelaide to illustrate the author's arguments. It outlines the importance of listening to service users' perspectives in order to assess whether dominant constructions of social work, homelessness and ‘homeless people’ are meeting the needs of and improving outcomes for individual clients. More broadly, it is hoped that making these perspectives visible will assist in the development of ‘client-focused’ practice and policy.     

Meeting immigrant health challenges: An integrated model in New York City

New York City has traditionally been the portal to America for millions of foreign‐born immigrants. Current immigration echoes this past. Each year, tens of thousands of immigrants and migrants enter New York City. These individuals and families come from diverse cultures and health care systems which continue to impact on their health care needs. How can New York's health care system provide culturally sensitive and epidemiologically informed health services to these immigrants? In 1990, with a grant from the Aaron Diamond Foundation, an interdisciplinary group of professionals established the New York Task Force on Immigrant Health. This paper will describe the work of this unique multi‐disciplinary organisation as it seeks to address issues of health status and service delivery to immigrant populations. The paper will discuss specific issues and strategies with respect to a) the development of data bases, b) ethnographic investigations, c) cross‐cultural and structural barriers to care, d) the creation and analysis of models to integrate traditional and Western bio‐technical health care, and e) the informing and transforming of public policy and programs to result in more linguistically appropriate, culturally sensitive and effective health and social services. The successes of the New York Task Force on Immigrant Health, in a relatively brief period of time, provide both a model and a stimulus for other localities and nation‐states interested in preventing illness and improving the health status of their diverse populations.     

‘Bringing coals to Newcastle’? Human rights,civil rights and social movements in New York City

In this article we examine the encounter between global human rights ideas and domestic discourses of civil rights and social justice, focusing on processes of translation and adaptation of women's human rights in two ethnographic sites in New York City. The first site is a citywide coalition working for the adoption of a New York City human rights ordinance. The second site is an advocacy organization working on domestic violence issues. We find that the local adoption of human rights in New York City – the ‘domestication’ of human rights – takes place in two central sites: law and social movement. We further find that the process of translation takes place unevenly in the two sites, and it is driven primarily by the actors, mechanisms and technologies in the social movement arena. Overall, we witness the emergence of a domestic human rights movement as a new counter‐hegemonic space, characterized by multiplicity in meanings, ideological heterogeneity and ambivalence from those engaged in its construction.     

A Joint Legal/Social Work Services Program Helps Working Women Through the Divorce Process

Abstract

This study examined the effect of divorce on working class women and the effects of social work services of these women's experiences. The study was based on women who were members of a New York City Labor Union.     

A Second Look: Is There a Latina/o Gender Gap?

SUMMARY

This research builds upon and updates Montoya's 1996 study of the Latina/o gender gap through the use of the 1999 Harvard Kennedy School/Kaiser Family Foundation/Washington Post Latino Survey. Not only do we find a gender gap across six questions related to the use of force, social compassion, and women's social roles, we also find that the size and significance of the gap varies across Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban origin respondents. Our findings challenge past research that found limited evidence of a gender gap in public opinion among Latinos and Latinas nationally, and suggest that more research is needed in order to understand how gendered experiences help to frame public opinion within different racial/ethnic groups in the United States.     

Violence Against Homeless Women: Safety and Social Policy

Abstract

Over the past 20 years there has been increasing understanding of the gendered nature of homelessness in Australia. Most significantly, this gendering has occurred through the acknowledgement of the links between domestic violence and homelessness and this has played out in Australian social policy through the funding of specialist domestic violence services. However, not all women are assisted by these specialist services—either because they are not homeless due to domestic violence, or because they fall through the gaps in the service system. Homelessness exposes these women to heightened vulnerability to violence. This article considers homeless women's experiences of violence and their implications for homelessness policy. Framed by Australian and Victorian social policy and drawing on a qualitative study of 29 women, all of whom had experienced violence during homelessness, the article argues that greater policy attention needs to be paid to ensuring homeless women's safety.     

A Feminist Analysis of Flight of Abused Women,Plight of Canadian Shelters: Another Road to Homelessness

The paper explores the link between women abuse and homelessness. Although the examples are drawn from Canada, the argument is that the plight of abused women is similar throughout North America. First, I discuss the stereotypes about homelessness and the conservative governments' stance toward the homeless. Second, I introduce abuse of women as another road to homelessness. Third, I review the literature on dependent children from abusive homes as victims and witnesses who need social protection. Fourth, I establish the important role shelters play for women fleeing abusive relationships, by tracing the history of shelters. The tenuous position of the shelters in relation to conservative governments is emphasized. The paper ends with the consequences offear of homelessness for women and their children, and the public policy implications of the close link between abuse and homelessness.     

The Occupy Movement and the Politics of Vulnerability

The Occupy movement has generated a significant amount of scholarly literature, most of which has focused on the movement's tactics or goals, or sought to explain its emergence. Nevertheless, we lack an explanation for the movement's broad appeal and mass support. In this article we present original research on Occupy in New York City, Detroit, and Berlin, which demonstrates that the movement's heterogeneous participants coalesced around the concept of vulnerability. Vulnerability is an inability to adapt to shocks and stresses, and it inhibits social reproduction and prohibits social mobility. Rather than specifically discussing the wealth of elites per se, Occupy participants consistently expressed the feeling that the current political economic system safeguards elites and increases the vulnerability of everyone else. We argue that the Occupy movement has reworked the relationship among a range of political struggles that were hitherto disconnected (i.e. ‘old’ and ‘new’ social movements) and rendered them complementary through the politics of vulnerability.     

From Vagrancy Heterotopias to the Proximity of Homelessness. A Historical Ethnography of the State's Moral Dilemmas in the Management of Unease

This paper discusses the tension between the criminal justice system and the welfare state as expressed through practices focused on populations who are perceived as being ‘at risk’ and constituting ‘a danger’ to society, therefore challenging the national governance of social precariousness and public (in)security. The analysis of a paradigmatic institution of Portuguese Fascism has brought to light how the contradictions between the long‐term subjectivation of vagrancy processes and the uses of anti‐vagrancy policies promoted by the dictatorial state to arrest and punish a significant part of his citizens may justify the moral dilemmas underlying the current Portuguese State's response to homelessness and urban marginality.     

When tourists are your “friends”: Exploring the brand personality of Mexico and Brazil on Facebook

Adopting Aaker's (1997) framework, this study explored how popular tourist destinations, Mexico and Brazil, communicate their brand personality through Facebook, and which personality traits their Facebook “friends” associate with them. Results of computer-aided content analysis indicated that both countries’ tourism promotion messages emphasize distinct brand personality traits. However, Mexico's public relations efforts were more successful than Brazil's in transferring projected brand personality to its Facebook “friends”.