This exploratory study sought to understand the current lived experiences of shelter workers in the Province of Manitoba. Using Concept Mapping as the methodology, a map of their experiences was constructed. Four themes emerged: 1) Shelter worker's beliefs assist in navigating the territories; 2) Insufficient funding of shelters impacts shelter workers' personal and professional life; 3) Organizational culture and values present a vast array of challenges to shelter workers and lastly 4) External agencies and societal responses to domestic violence/women play a role in how shelter workers see themselves. Pattern matching revealed that previous counselling experience rather than age, length of employment and childhood history of trauma had the lowest level of agreement among participants. Findings also suggest that workers with a history of childhood trauma may be more aware of safety issues than workers without a trauma history. recommendations call for more research on shelter workers in Northern Manitoba as well as boards and management of shelters in all parts of the province. Safety issues of workers, organizational values and beliefs of shelters, worker's coping strategies, positive aspects of the profession, and the relationship between worker and client were other areas for future research

This exploratory study sought to understand the current lived experiences of shelter workers in the Province of Manitoba. Using Concept Mapping as the methodology, a map of their experiences was constructed. Four themes emerged: 1) Shelter worker's beliefs assist in navigating the territories; 2) Insufficient funding of shelters impacts shelter workers' personal and professional life; 3) Organizational culture and values present a vast array of challenges to shelter workers and lastly 4) External agencies and societal responses to domestic violence/women play a role in how shelter workers see themselves. Pattern matching revealed that previous counselling experience rather than age, length of employment and childhood history of trauma had the lowest level of agreement among participants. Findings also suggest that workers with a history of childhood trauma may be more aware of safety issues than workers without a trauma history. recommendations call for more research on shelter workers in Northern Manitoba as well as boards and management of shelters in all parts of the province. Safety issues of workers, organizational values and beliefs of shelters, worker's coping strategies, positive aspects of the profession, and the relationship between worker and client were other areas for future research

Background Shelter employees of the Victoria Cool Aid Society (VCAS) work with clients living with or at risk of contracting, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV). The purpose of this thesis is to assess whether the VCAS shelter staff need further HIV/AIDS and HCV education to support shelter clients. Methods A two-part (A and B) survey consisting of 70 questions asked 38 Emergency Support Workers to: A) rate their ability (expertise) to answer HIV/AIDS and HCV related questions, and B) identify which questions contain important knowledge to know for their work. Staff were recruited via Posters on bulletin boards around shelters sites as well as an email, and two follow up emails, informing staff about the survey. The survey explored the following subjects: 1) HIV/AIDS (12 questions), 2) Hep C (11 questions), 3) Health and Substance Use (3 questions), 4) Protocol (3 questions), and 5) Community Agencies (6 questions). From this format, it was possible to assess where staff felt their knowledge levels could use improvement (low and medium knowledge levels) and what topics they felt important to know for their work (high importance to know). These two parts of the survey, together, were then used to determine questions to include in a future training course i.e. questions were staff reported low or medium knowledge levels and high importance to know. Results Results for each of the five sections showing both lower levels of knowledge (expertise) and higher knowledge importance, were as follows: 1) HIV/AIDS: 8 out of 12 questions, 2) HCV: 10 out of 11 questions, 3) Health and Substance Use: 1 out of 3 questions, 4) Protocol: 3 out of 3 questions, and 5) Community Agencies: 3 out of 6 questions. Survey results were delivered via Power Point presentation to management of the Victoria Cool Aid Society using simple graphs and charts to describe easily the findings to stakeholders. The presentation emphasised that staff overall are in need of specific HIV/AIDS and HCV education. Conclusion Emergency shelter workers are in need of HIV/AIDS and HCV education. The results can inform a HIV/AIDS and HCV educational course for VCAS shelter staff. / Graduate

The aim of this study was to explore the emotional labour of domestic violence shelter workers. A qualitative approach was used and four professionals were interviewed. The interviewees described that they were expected to provide different types of services which include empowering their clients so that they can survive independently after leaving the shelter. The findings showed that the shelter workers hide or suppress different types of emotions, especially when they are frustrated or emotionally affected by the client's situation. According to the workers, they experienced stress as a consequence of the emotional labour, and they expressed that working in the field of domestic violence had made it difficult for them to trust men. Making a difference in the lives of the clients was described as a source of motivation and help them to cope with the negative aspects of the shelter work. Even though the findings cannot be generalised, the study provides comprehensive information about how emotional labour in this particular context can be perceived. The shelter workers described that the levels of satisfaction they get from helping clients resolve their problems were more significant than the negative consequences of emotional labour.

While researchers have identified the Housing First model of putting homeless persons into permanent housing as the best means of improving the quality of life for chronically homeless individuals, few studies have examined the perceptions of shelter staff workers on the barriers the homeless face in obtaining and maintaining long-term housing. This case study of 2 homeless shelters in New Jersey examined the relationship that fair and just democratic processes play in supporting or undermining Housing First. Data came from New Jersey's annual Point in Time counts of the number of homeless individuals and families and the causes and service needs of the homeless. Government reports were also analyzed, as well as from semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews with a purposive sample of 14 homeless shelter staff workers. The polarities of democracy model as described by Benet helped identify whether democracy was being served rightly and justly within these homeless communities. Information was analyzed by inductive coding and by identifying themes and patterns that emerged from the interviews. The primary finding of this study was that lack of available housing, lack of resources to gain access to housing, and lack of knowledge of resources that are available for housing acquisition and maintenance plays a role in causing individuals to become and remain chronically homeless. Social change implications include policy recommendations to local, state, and federal legislators to increase accountability in the allocation of funding for housing support and the development of a volunteer case management force to meet the service needs of the chronically homeless.

The Covid-19 pandemic has put Sweden in a new and challenging situation. Several of thewomen's shelters in Sweden have reported an alarming pressure as a result of increased casesof women and children in vulnerable situations. Based on a qualitative research strategy, thisstudy examines how women's shelter workers experience and handles the practical andemotional work due to the Covid-19 pandemic. To examine this study's purpose and researchquestions, five semi-structured interviews were conducted with women’s shelter workers fromvarious women's shelters in Sweden. During each interview, the study subjects were given theopportunity to share their own experiences regarding the work situation due to the Covid-19pandemic. The gathered empirical material was analyzed using Arlie Hochschild's theoryregarding emotional work. The results of the study show that the majority of the study subjectsexperience changes in the number of abused women in need of help and support and that thepractical work has been limited and challenged. Furthermore, the study subjects experiencetheir jobs as even more emotionally demanding during the Covid-19 pandemic, but this had noeffect on the way of dealing with the emotional work. Several different coping strategies couldbe identified in the way of handling the emotional work, including recovery, previousprofessional experience, surface or deep emotional acting and the support from colleagues.With the help of different approaches, the study subjects distinguish themselves from theirprofessional role in order to not identify themselves too strongly with the emotional work. Theresults of the study proved that different coping strategies are of importance to be able to handleand complete emotional work. / Coronapandemin har resulterat i en ny och utmanande situation för Sverige. Många av landetskvinnojourer har rapporterat om ett alarmerande tryck på sina verksamheter till följd av ökadefall av kvinnor och barn i utsatta situationer. Utifrån en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi undersökerdenna studie hur jourkvinnors praktiska respektive emotionella arbete upplevs och hanteras tillföljd av coronapandemin. För att besvara studiens syfte och frågeställningar genomfördes femsemistrukturerade intervjuer med jourkvinnor från olika kvinnojourer i Sverige. Underrespektive intervjutillfälle fick jourkvinnorna möjlighet att dela med sig av sina egnaupplevelser gällande arbetssituationen under coronapandemin. Det empiriska materialetanalyserades med hjälp av emotionssociologiska begrepp från Arlie Hochschilds teori somberör emotionellt arbete. Resultaten visar att majoriteten av jourkvinnorna uppleverförändringar i antalet stödsökande och att det praktiska arbetet kommit att resultera ibegränsningar och utmaningar. Vidare visade det sig att jourkvinnorna utför ett än meremotionellt krävande arbete under coronapandemin, detta hade däremot ingen påverkan påjourkvinnornas sätt att hantera de emotionella påfrestningar som uppstår i arbetet medvåldsutsatta kvinnor. Arbetet som jourkvinnorna utför kunde även liknas med etthärbergeringsarbete i takt med att de bär på både sina egna och andras känslor. Flera olikahanteringsstrategier kunde identifieras i jourkvinnornas sätt att hantera det emotionella arbetet,däribland återhämtning, tidigare yrkeserfarenhet, ytligt respektive djup emotionellt agerandesamt stödet som återfinns hos jourkvinnornas kollegor. Det framgick att jourkvinnorna medhjälp av olika förhållningssätt kan skilja på sig själva och sin yrkesroll för att inte identifierasig för starkt med det emotionella arbetet. Olika hanteringsstrategier visade sig således vara avstor vikt för att jourkvinnorna ska kunna hantera och fullfölja det emotionella arbetet.