<p> The purpose of this policy analysis was to analyze California&rsquo;s implementation of CalFresh as a part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) using research articles and state and governmental documents. The analysis explored the amendment to CalFresh to student eligibility and the consequences of implementation. The amendment to the policy increased eligibility to students that were previously disqualified from receiving nutritional assistance on the basis that they were attending an institution of higher education. A thorough examination of the act provided an understanding of how benefits are distributed among qualifying college students. Though CalFresh is available to many low-income Californians, the information presented in this policy analysis focused on traditional college students and in detailing the benefits they are able to receive through the CalFresh Student Eligibility Amendment.</p>

<p> This paper explores the answers to two questions. The first question is, How and in what ways is Alaska providing adoption recruitment and matching services for children in foster care? The second is, Should Alaska pursue privatization of adoption recruitment and matching services as a means for increasing permanency outcomes for children in foster care? The qualitative study was conducted using both primary and secondary research. I accessed existing privatization studies in other states, Alaska child welfare records and research, and interviewed child welfare professionals. The findings showed that Alaska currently has some private adoption recruitment efforts but there are currently no private adoption matching efforts. The findings also showed that many states have privatized adoption recruitment and matching efforts, and that Alaska should pursue privatization as a means to achieve better permanency outcomes for children waiting in foster care.</p><p>

Today inner city neighborhoods seem more threatened by poverty and lack of civil order than at any time since the beginning of the century. Many families confront hunger, homelessness, sickness and a lack of support on a daily basis. For over a century, settlement houses or neighborhood centers have responded to these needs while, contending with funding, staffing, and changing urban landscapes. This study investigated the transition of one settlement house located in a New England city from 1965-1990. Specifically, this investigation describes the response, during this critical time, to these challenges by the staff and leadership of Friendly House, located in Worcester, Massachusetts. An ethnomethodological approach was adopted. The data provided the history and the achievements of Friendly House and the base for possible comparison and contrasts between the Agency and other similar neighborhood centers. This descriptive case study was written by the Director who has had close and prolonged contact with Friendly House. The research questions focus upon the central theme of agency responsiveness to multiple social service requests from a rapidly challenging urban clientele. The results of the study suggest that the most effective and efficient means of delivering services to individuals and families who reside in impoverished inner city neighborhoods is through the settlement house model. Friendly House provides appropriate neighborhood-based services in a nonformalized atmosphere. The Agency affords the opportunity for an individual to be seen and talked to about his or her entire life situation in a setting close to home. Moreover, Friendly House can support at-risk families and offer a secure environment for their vulnerable children. Strategically located in a diverse, low-income neighborhood, Friendly House linked residents with central and public agencies. By continually seeking new sources of funding, Friendly House has adjusted to needs while remaining true to its settlement house roots.

<p> Unaccompanied children arrive at the U.S. border in seek of refugee from the gang activity, abuse and/or poverty from their country of origin. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the values, intentions, objectives and effects of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 with connection to unaccompanied children. There will be an analysis of how the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and other related policies have affected the care, processing, treatment and apprehension of unaccompanied children.</p><p>

<p> The Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) of 2004 was analysed using David Gil&rsquo;s (1992) analytic framework. The strengths and weaknesses of the Act were assessed and special attention was placed on transitional age youth (TAY) who are consumers of Full Service Parternship (FSP) services in Los Angeles County. This analysis found that there have been some improvements in the provision of services to TAY as a result of the MHSA (2004). However, TAY continue to be a group that remains underserved despite the availability of MHSA (2004) funds. The lack of infrastructure of Department of Mental Health to oversee MHSA (2004) funded projects is likely one of the main reasons why new programs for TAY have not been developed. This analysis did find that TAY, who have been served under MHSA (2004) funded programs, have lower rates of incarceration and hospitalization. The recommendations for social work practice, policy and research are discussed.</p>

<p> In the early 2000s, Chicago emerged as an archetypal city in the broader movement to remake public housing. Chicago&rsquo;s Plan for Transformation committed upwards of $1.5 billion to demolish high-rise buildings, rehabilitate a portion of existing stock, and create 12 new mixed-income developments on the footprint of public housing sites. Policy incentives&mdash;such as financing for capital development, long-term rental subsidies, and public land transfers&mdash;aimed to encourage public-private partnerships. During the 2008 economic crisis and its aftermath, however, the promised transformation proved financially difficult&mdash;if not impossible in certain geographic areas&mdash;to complete at the scale intended. That shift in the economic context, along with subsequent political responses, thoroughly altered the policy strategy. To date few empirical investigations have analyzed how these changes restructured the very nature of public housing reforms, and what this restructuring means for policies that require market intervention for the provision of public goods. This dissertation performs just that empirical analysis. </p><p> <i>Privatizing Chicago</i> examines the city&rsquo;s public housing reforms as an example of &ldquo;actually existing&rdquo; (Brenner &amp; Theodore, 2002) neoliberal urbanism and explains how specific political actors, processes, and institutions altered market-based policies intended to reshape urban poor neighborhoods. Viewing Chicago as a neoliberal city requires both recognizing its political landscape as one where the primary aim of municipal government is to promote an entrepreneurial agenda that positions the economic success of the city above all other interests, as well as viewing the potential for progressive movements to contest this agenda. Prior to this study, Chicago&rsquo;s reforms had not been examined across time or geographic areas using critiques of neoliberal urbanism, nor through qualitative methods. This study fills that gap and uses the case of Chicago to improve the empirical understanding of neoliberal urbanism more generally. </p><p> The study accomplishes this through a case study of Chicago&rsquo;s public housing reforms between 2000 to 2016. It shows how government officials, real estate developers, bankers, lawyers, planners, grassroots activists, and others pursued policy strategies favorable to their interests over a 16-year period&mdash;a time marked by the economic recession. My methodological approach is a theory-driven form of ethnography, and my analysis draws from 61 in-depth interviews, field observations over 22 months, archival research of over 500 documents, and the analysis of financial data. This approach brought to light the multiple and contradictory visions at work within the neoliberal framework: competing ideas of the proper partnerships between the public and private sectors, shifting authority among local and national government agencies, and struggles for community redevelopment on the land where high-rises once stood. </p><p> In probing these conflicts and contradictions, I argue that the overall effect of the reforms was to burnish Chicago&rsquo;s status as a &ldquo;global city,&rdquo; but it also contributed to land appropriation, capital accumulation, and the displacement of thousands of low-income African-American residents. The cycle of government intervention into market failure will continue as long as the role of the state remains dominated by an agenda of capital expansion, rather than of equitable urban development that ensures a place for low-income, predominately racial minority communities to live. Theoretical contributions related to neoliberal urbanism align around four themes: (a) political agency and resistance; (b) privatization and financialization; (c) local state control, federal devolution, and global processes; and (d) the relevance of race. A set of policy implications drives towards recommendations regarding affordable housing policy, democratic governance arrangements, collective action focused on social justice, and market-based policy strategies.</p>

<p> The Regional Food Bank (RFB) serves one in five residents of a large northern California county by distributing free food, providing training, and supporting about 200 food pantries. Additionally, the RFB acts as a referral service to individuals needing food assistance through its Food Help Line. The purpose of this leadership project was to investigate how the RFB can better serve communities by examining the communities the pantries serve. Two RFB staff members, the director of a food pantry, and myself used action research method in four cycles as our learning process. The first cycle attempted to determine which people do not attend pantries although they are in need of food assistance. The second and third cycles focused on changes made by the pantries and/or in the demographics of pantry clients. The fourth cycle focused on the needs of pantries from the perspective of the pantries and the perspective of the RFB. This project can be best seen as the beginning of a longer study about how to best serve communities in need. </p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to write a grant proposal to fund a comprehensive mental health program for undocumented youth and young adults who qualified for DACA, and are residents of the City of Long Beach, and adjacent cities. Through receiving these direct services, the undocumented youth and young adults will gain skills to increase their overall well-being. </p><p> A literature review was conducted on the history of immigration in the United States, and policy as it relates to undocumented youth. Research was also conducted on evidence-based practices, with a focus on effectiveness in treating depression, anxiety, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). After conducting research for potential funding sources, the grant writer concluded that the California Wellness Foundation was the best potential funder. </p><p> The actual submission of the grant proposal is not a requirement for the completion of this thesis.</p><p>

This thesis examines the role and relationship of standardization and advocacy in humanitarian aid planning processes within the emergent field of education and instability. Standardization refers to the aid industry’s increasing emphasis on establishing ‘universal’ principles and normative frameworks. Advocacy refers to transnational-policy-network activities that move forward the global standardization agenda. The study focuses on the purposes and practices of knowledge creation by an education-and-instability ‘epistemic community’: the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE). Drawing on global-level interviews with key figures, participant observations, and documentary analysis, the research explores how this epistemic community promotes its core tenets: that education is an inherent human right and that educational provision should be a frontline humanitarian response on par with food distribution and shelter construction. The thesis analyzes the consensus-making process that resulted in the publication of the 2004 INEE Minimum Standards handbook, the then-epitome of the epistemic community’s knowledge. Next, the thesis examines the local application and adaptation of such global standardization processes in post-conflict Uganda. The case study presents the relationships among international and local ‘development partner’ institutions concerned with educational planning as a complex and contradictory story of power dynamics and knowledge circulation. These ‘partnerships’ are characterized by a shared quest for adherence to the knowledge encapsulated within standardized global frameworks and their normative principles. For Ugandan institutions, fluency in this discourse is a powerful tool to appropriate for their own ends. For international institutions, the knowledge is at once a technical resource and a means to bring ever more stakeholders into the wider epistemic community concerned with humanitarian aid. I argue that, through judicious use of standardization and advocacy mechanisms, INEE seeks to legitimize the education sector’s existence within the humanitarian aid industry and expand support for (or ‘conversion’ to) the education-and-instability epistemic community’s core beliefs.