Faith-based community organizing groups (FBCOs) have a well-established record of engaging citizens on issues of local concern. These groups increasingly recognize the need to engage with political structures beyond the local level, a process most often accomplished by forming federations of individual organizing groups. The geographic distances which separate groups within a federation present a formidable challenge to building solidarity and thus political power. This study examines participation data from two FBCO federations which reflect patterns of interorganizational collaboration at the scale of the metropolitan area. Using a set of longitudinal network analytic techniques, this study seeks to determine the relative impact of geographic distance on the likelihood of interorganizational collaboration. After controlling for such factors as denominational homophily, racial/ethnic homophily, and the overall activity level of each congregation this study finds that distance has a differential impact on relationship formation depending on the strength of relationship. For lower-intensity collaboration, distance plays only a very minor role in determining which groups work together; denominational and racial/ethnic homophily each have a large and positive impact on these sorts of relations. For higher-intensity collaborations, race and denomination appear to be insignificant while geographic distance plays a very strong (and negative) role in shaping which groups tend to work together.

Sociopolitical development (SPD) offers a promising approach to work with marginalized youth to help them negotiate ecological factors in their development. SPD refers to ones consciousness of and engagement in action to change inequitable structures, and consciousness and engagement are often theorized to develop dialectically. However, research suggests that there is not a natural relationship between them. The present study draws on several empirical antecedents of SPD to examine how they affect the likelihood of an individual having high sociopolitical consciousness and a high level of sociopolitical engagement. Results corroborate the disconnect between consciousness and engagement found in previous studies. However, a multinomial logistic regression model shows that sense of community, psychological empowerment, and social attribution all increase the likelihood that one simultaneously possesses high levels of both.

Every week in America thousands of children who are at risk of suffering abuse and/or neglect are removed from the homes of their caregivers and placed into their states foster care system. The individuals responsible for investigating the allegations of abuse and/or neglect to these children, and for ensuring they are kept safe, work for local Child Protective Services (CPS) units, or their states equivalent. Unfortunately, an examination of CPS units today reveals notoriously high employee turnover. This lack of continuity among caseworkers puts additional strain on the minority of employees who remain on the job and, most importantly, places already traumatized children at risk of suffering further harm. This study examines this issue in-depth. We begin with a consideration of the historical evolution of CPS in America, its federal legal parameters, a procedural description of how children today become wards of the State, the potential harm high CPS turnover poses, and prior research on the issue. We conclude with an in-depth, qualitative examination of the lives of CPS employees within a state urban unit.

Prostitution, drug addiction, and their surrounding issues have long been topics of political, theoretical, and practical import. Furthermore, they offer a particularly insightful lens through which to interrogate concepts of freedom and justice. This paper is a qualitative ethnographic study that examines the experiences of women previously involved in drug addiction and street prostitution, who are now living and working in a recovery community. In this dissertation, I discuss some of the many material, social, and political conditions that influence womens freedom. Furthermore, I explore community members understandings of the concept of freedom, and the ways in which their freedom is affected by the recovery community of which they are a part.

This thesis ethnographically documents the politics of hidden waterways in the city of Nashville, Tennessee using multiple methods, including ethnographic observation, photography, mapping, and the collection of documents and media reports. First, I investigate the relationship between temporality and corporeality through the lens of feminist philosophy to explore the ways in which the design of urban water infrastructures (and the values embedded within these systems) mediates the relationship between people and water. Then I illustrate the ways in which the Cumberland River is both reproduced and recreated through citizens writing and the role of the physical environment in creating social meanings and experiences of residents. In the final chapter, I investigate the formation of community identity following the widespread flooding that occurred in Nashville in May 2010. I illustrate how flooding events can function as sites for the revisibilization of hydrologic processes that reveal an underlying logic of inequality reflective of broader social and political rationalities.

As systems of care become more prevalent for children and adolescents with mental health needs, there are an increasing number of peer support programs available for their family caregivers. Though these programs have shown some success, further research is warranted in determining how these programs can best serve families. Specifically, there is a lack of research on such programs in the area of barriers and challenges to program success and implementation. This thesis is a qualitative study using interviews with family caregivers (n=13)and peer supporters (n=8) in two peer support program for families of children with serious emotional disorders. Barriers and challenges (from the point of view of both family caregivers and peer supporters) were coded first by theme and then by ecological level. Implications of these findings include a better understanding of these programs' general functioning as well as specific recommendations for program improvement. Additionally, there are broader implications surrounding systems of care.

Stigma related to mental health issues can pose a barrier to help seeking for children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). The goals of this study are threefold: 1) to examine and compare levels of stigma towards children with EPB and their families specific to certain community settings, 2) to examine the factor structure of an existing measure of stigma related to service seeking, and 3) to examine the relationship between child and family characteristics, mental health stigma related to community settings, and stigma related to service seeking in order to identify significant predictors of parents perceived stigma related to seeking service for a child with EBP. Results 1) indicate that community-setting-specific stigma is present at significantly different levels, 2) confirm the factor structure of an existing measure of stigma related to service seeking, and 3) identify significant predictors of service-seeking stigma.

Since the mid-1980s families have been the fastest growing segment of the homeless population in the United States. Homeless programs were not designed for families, but rather as rehabilitative institutions for individuals. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 supported efforts to reduce the number of families in homeless shelters and transitional housing programs, but families experience of these programs are not yet understood. This paper presents analysis of 80 interviews with family caregivers experiencing housing instability and homelessness to examine the effects of various housing interventions (i.e., homeless shelters, transitional housing programs, short-term housing subsidies through Community-Based Rapid Rehousing programs, and long-term housing choice vouchers) on family processes and caregiver well-being. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were used to address the following questions about families experiences with the housing service system: (a) How do various living situations affect family routines and rituals? (b) How do service intensive housing programs and independent living situations affect parents support networks? (c) What challenges do parents encounter as they attempt to obtain stable housing through the housing service system, and what strategies do they use to address these challenges? Findings support the de-institutionalization of homeless programs, and the implementation of a community-based service approach for families experiencing homelessness.

This paper provides an examination of the foreclosure crisis from the perspective of community-based organizations (CBOs), aspiring low-income homeowners, and very low-income households. It looks backward to examine the long-term success of low-income homeowners who purchased a home from a CBO, comparing foreclosure outcomes with a random community sample. It also explores two current populationsaspiring homeowners and very low-income rentersto understand how neighborhood foreclosures affect psychological and social processes and overall neighborhood confidence. Results indicated that CBO home purchasers were less likely to experience a foreclosure and more likely to still be living in their home. Results of analyses with aspiring homeowners found that sense of community was the strongest predictor of neighborhood confidence. However, perceptions that neighborhood crime and foreclosures were worsening negatively predicted sense of community. Therefore, sense of community was shown to partially mediate the relationship between perceptions about foreclosures and neighborhood confidence. Hierarchical linear models (HLM) also confirmed a negative relationship between the actual neighborhood foreclosure rate and sense of community. Thus, concentrated foreclosures appear to reduce confidence in a neighborhood by negatively impacting sense of community. In addition, analyses of very low-income households found perceptions that crime was worsening to negatively predict general well-being. Overall, findings indicate that neighborhood foreclosures have a negative impact on psycho-social processes associated with healthy, stable neighborhoods. This suggests that future CBO neighborhood stabilization efforts should also include deliberate community-building strategies in addition to property rehabilitation.

This work reflects an exploratory ecological study of a charter school (CDS) serving refugee, immigrant, and native-born American students in kindergarten through sixth grade. Bronfrenbrenner's (1977; 1986) ecology of human development, Berrys (2009) acculturative taxonomy theory, and Rudmins (2009) secondary culture acquisition hypothesis are used to explore how CDS constructs their highly diverse educational environment. A triangulation of methods is used to assess the physical, social, programmatic, and pedagogic environment of CDS. Findings suggest that CDS is a multicultural acculturative environment as described in Berrys (2009) model. Multiculturalism, as practiced at CDS, lays the foundation for the values the school aims to transmit to its students to shape their perceptions of themselves and others. The schools main curriculum conveys a worldview that closely resembles Bronfenbrenners (1977; 1986) ecology of human development. Thus elementary school students are taught from a young age how structural forces contextualize their experiences, as well as how individual agency and collective action can result in social change. For refugee and minority students, such perspectives are likely to empower them to recognize and confront discrimination, as well as resist pressures to internalize derogatory perceptions of themselves or their efficacy that they are likely to encounter in mainstream culture.