Master of Regional and Community Planning / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Larry L. Lawhon / Homelessness is an issue facing numerous communities. Additionally, the increasing number of homeless youth is growing at an alarming rate. One potential solution to combating homelessness is transitional housing programs, and specifically programs aimed at assisting youth. The youth transitional housing program addressed in this research is the Crossroads program located in Lansing, Michigan, serving a tri-county area. This research study evaluates the Crossroads program’s success at preparing youth for independent living. The research questions posed for this study were: 1) What is the Crossroads program doing well to assist youth in transitioning into safe and stable housing? and 2) What does Crossroad’s need to improve upon in order to better help youth prepare for independent living? To answer these questions, data was collected through three one-on-one personal interviews with previous and current Crossroads clients to gather their perspective on the success of the program. Interview participants stated that Crossroads staff is the primary positive aspect of the program. Additionally, interview participants felt the program was good overall and had a positive impact on them, but gave a few suggestions for improvements. Interview responses are summarized and a series of conclusions and recommendations drawn to assist Crossroads in increasing their level of service to future program participants. Recommendations range from beginning the job search earlier, to increasing group activities among clients. Conclusions and recommendations are specifically for the Crossroads program and should not be inferred to be applicable to all youth transitional housing programs.

The aim of this study was to examine discourses of homelessness and how they were represented in Swedish news media. A total of 28 articles from various newspapers were analysed in the study. Eight of the articles were published 1994/1995 and 20 articles were published 2014/2015. Critical discourse analysis was chosen to be the theoretical and methodological framework of this study. The analysis indicates that there are four main discourses that can be seen in the news media regarding homelessness: alienation, homelessness, housing and responsibility.

An overview is presented of anthropology's interest in voluntary association, from the classical influences and studies to sociological and anthropological work that illustrate recent trends from the last decade. Information is presented from the author's fieldwork with the Tucson Homeless Union and the Southern Arizona Coalition for the Homeless that describes the homeless situation in Tucson and the efforts of these groups, whose members share a dedication to improving conditions for socioeconomically marginal people through activist means of protest and civil disobedience. Marked by fluidity of membership and unique internal dynamics, these groups present a special case-study of voluntary associations as a means of urban adaptation through self-help and as a vehicle for social change. It is demonstrated how and examination of the values expressed by the existence and actions of these associations is useful in understanding the nature of society and the stability of the political system.

The goal of this research is to explore the relationship between coercion and crime amongst street youths in Mexico. This research relies on Mark Colvin’s (2000) Differential Coercion Theory (DCT). Through semi-structured interviews with street youths in Mexico City, this research explores: (1) the various personal and structural factors that lead youths to the street; (2) the strategies of income generation used by the youths; (3) the youths experiences of victimization, substance use, criminal involvement and institutionalization; and finally, (4) the personal and structural reasons that contribute to youths’ inability to leave the street. Results indicate that in most cases youths experience some form of physical, sexual, verbal, and/or psychological abuse that prompts them to leave home. In other cases, youths simply witnessed the abuse of a significant other or become subject to neglect. Some youths are thrown out of the home due to familial conflict. Results also indicate that on the street, youths are encouraged to display violent behaviours to avoid victimization. Further, youths face a number of needs and are compelled to engage in legitimate or illegitimate sustenance practices. On the street, youths are subject to theft, as well as physical and sexual victimization from peers and police officers. The results also suggest that youths are dependent on various substances as a way to cope with difficult situations. Results also indicate that as a result of crime or drug use, youths are likely to experience institutionalization where physical, verbal, and psychological victimization is experienced. Finally, youths attribute the freedom provided by the street and substance dependency as reasons to stay on the streets. Overall, the results suggest that Mexican street youths experience coercion in various settings. However, to explain the relationship between coercion and crime more research is needed on other explanatory factors. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2013-10-28 16:29:18.922

INTRODUCTION: Street medicine programs utilize a nontraditional healthcare model to provide care to populations experiencing homelessness. Through street medicine programs, clinicians take to the streets to offer services to individuals who are living unsheltered. Many street medicine programs offer health professional students the opportunity to volunteer and provide care to this vulnerable population. AIM: This exploratory study aimed to answer the following question: what influence does volunteering with a street medicine program have on the career trajectories of student volunteers who ultimately choose to work with medically underserved populations (MUPs)? METHODS: This study used an exploratory mixed methods approach to answering the research question. The core ideas that emerged from the qualitative data collected from street medicine student volunteers were used to inform the development of a web-based survey administered to a broader, national sample of street medicine student volunteers. The survey included closed- and opened- ended questions, as well as demographic questions. The Health Professionals’ Attitude Towards the Homeless Inventory (HPATHI; Buck et al., 2005) questionnaire was embedded into the survey to measure students’ attitudes towards the population experiencing homelessness before and after volunteering with a street medicine program. RESULTS: The results suggested that 15 (65.22%) of the 23 participants who completed the web-based survey reported that volunteering with a street medicine program influenced their decision to ultimately work with MUPs. Of the 19 participants who provided qualitative feedback, 7 (36.84%) mentioned that their decision to work with MUPs was influenced by their increased exposure and awareness to the barriers and needs of MUPs while volunteering with a street medicine program. Additionally, 6 (31.58%) participants mentioned that their previous decision to work with MUPs was reinforced while volunteering with a street medicine program. CONCLUSION: Volunteering with a street medicine program appears to help motivate students to work with MUPs. Incorporating opportunities to volunteer with a street medicine program into current health professional school curriculum has the potential to impact a greater network of students, as well as influence decisions regarding the students’ careers.

TITLE: Vlastimila Hradecka and the way to Naděje AUTHOR: Bc. et Bc. Marie Jará DEPARMENT: Department of Special Education of Faculty of education Charles University in Prague SUPERVISOR: PhDr. Monika Mužáková, Ph.D. ABSTRACT: The thesis titled Vlastimila Hradecka and the path to NADĚJE aims to chart life of founder of civic association NADĚJE Vlastimila Hradecka and circumstances which contributed to creation of this organization. It also deals her's voluntary actions in refugee camps and activities during founding of individual centers of help at NADĚJE. Shows actual state of this association and programs which provide to clients with a view of the further development. As processing was used the method of qualitative research via of oral history on the basis of interview with family and former colleagues of Vlastimila Hradecka. The thesis includes photography. KEYWORDS: Vlastimila Hradecka, NADĚJE, refugee, social work, homelessness, poorness

In this paper, I will detail the process that went into the making of my thesis film, Out of True. The areas I will cover include Writing, Directing, Production Design, Cinematography, Editing, Sound, as well as Technology and Workflow. Special emphasis will be given to Directing and the new directing style I experimented with in an effort to create not only believable but engaging performances. I will then assess the success of this experiment through the use of audience questionnaires.

This exploratory study will examine how the Internet is used by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) youth to cope with homelessness. It will also examine what the potential risks and benefits of LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness using the Internet for support. Many marginalized groups, including homeless people, use the Internet as a resource, as well as a means of finding social acceptance (Berg 2012, ASA 2012). LGBTQ youth also use the Internet to connect with peers (Lever, Grove, Royce and Gillespie 2008). Using an extended case study research design, this work examines how homelessness is navigated by LGBTQ youth, primarily through the Internet, and how traditional means of support (i.e. shelters) can better meet the special needs of this population.

Research has shown that socially-focused partnerships that cross sectors (referred to as social partnerships within) are necessary in order to effectively address pressing societal issues such as poverty. Yet, in these complex organizational contexts, there is often variability within and between involved organizations as it relates to basic assumptions around work and the meanings given to practices at macro, meso and micro levels of analysis. Put differently, there are often a plurality of meaning systems at play in such multi-faceted organizational arrangements. Accordingly, the purpose of this dissertation was to understand to what extent multiple meaning systems exist in social partnerships focused on addressing multi-faceted societal challenges and, whether and how such differences in meaning systems are strategically negotiated over time. At a deeper theoretical level, this research was focused on illuminating the processes by which meaning systems are negotiated when organizational boundaries are blurred and when a plurality of meaning systems are at play, with a central focus on players that act as boundary spanners within these complex organizational contexts. To understand the complexities at play in social partnerships emanating from multiple meaning systems, I conducted a multi-site ethnographic study, involving in-depth interviews and participant observation, of the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness Society (Coalition) located in Victoria, British Columbia. In doing so, I utilized the principal literature streams that address multiple meaning systems at work: the culture literature in organization studies and the institutional logics perspective. As well, I incorporated other literatures based upon the emergent findings, namely organizational identity. Through this work I make a number of contributions within the area of sustainability, particularly the social partnership literature, as well as organizational theory. Empirically, I develop a process model that elucidates how players negotiate multiple meanings of organizational identity over time in a social partnership setting characterized by permeable boundaries and shared authority, at the group level of analysis. This is significant as we know little about how identity plays out in such multi-faceted organizational settings with continual blurred boundaries even as research has indicated that such arrangements are likely to surface identity issues among players (Maguire & Hardy, 2005). I also elucidate how individual players bridge across multiple meaning systems in a social partnership over time, answering the call for more research concerning the role of individuals and their interactions with organizations in the collaboration process over time (Manning & Roessler, 2014). To my knowledge, this work is one of the first of its kind to empirically explore tri-sector socially focused collaborations – involving players from the public, private and nonprofit sectors – that are more integrative and interconnected in nature (Austin & Seitanidi, 2012a) and that employs a process based perspective to understand how such collaborations unfold over time. In addition, I theoretically develop the link between institutional logics and organizational culture that emerged empirically via this study to guide future integrative work to holistically account for the multiplicity of meaning systems at work within and between such multi-faceted arrangements. / Graduate / 2020-04-01

The aim of this paper was to elucidate representations of how homelessness and interventions against homelessness is perceived in a Swedish municipality from socialconstructivistic perspective. The questions it aimed to answer were: How is homelessness represented in the municipality by participants of the local housing market and public and non-profit sectors? How can representations of homelessness from the participants be deconstructed and understood? Homelessness has been considered a social problem since the middle of the 18th century. The ways to explain why homelessness exists and how to rectify and define homelessness has been in continuously transformation in different extensions since then. Even so, some of these explanations, definitions and actions has returned or possess similarities across time. The used method of this paper was case study in order to concentrate on the municipality specifically. The analyzed material consisted of qualitative, semistructured interviews with seven participants. Public documents were also reviewed from the social service center in the municipality and reports from the county administrative board to understand the representations in its context. The participants that attended on interviews was one participant from a non-profit- organisation, one from the local housing market and five municipalityworkers. We found that some of the participants had both similarities and discrepancies in their representations but all of the participants had tendency to construct additional categories to deal with homeless persons divergent needs.