Social Spheres (Asynchronous Session)
An Examination of the Results of Utilizing a Collective Impact-Housing First Model to End Chronic Homelessness: The Successes and Challenges of the Collective Impact-Housing First Model in a Rural Area View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Robin Weinstein
The Cumberland County Housing First Collaborative (CCHFC) is a unique consortium of social service organizations, faith-based institutions, and government officials committed to tackling the problem of chronic homelessness in Cumberland County through a collective impact model utilizing a Housing First philosophy. Collective impact, as a model, has its successes and short-comings documented in various projects. This paper gives an overview of the collective impact process, procedures, successes, and impediments in this collaboration to end chronic homelessness by 2020 in Cumberland County, New Jersey. It will also examine the preliminary data that supports previous studies that Housing First models save public and private money, while improving health and wellness outcomes for clients.
The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Student Health Behavior and Mental Health: How Living with Restrictions Changed Students' Health View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Peter Reuter
The paper reports on how the changes necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic changed students’ health behaviors and mental health at a university in the southern United States. Our research project collected data during the two years prior to the pandemic and will continue during Fall semester 2020 and Spring semester 2021. Among the data collected is information on living arrangements; eating, sleep, working and physical activity habits; time spent watching/reading on a TV/computer and playing video/computer games; socializing outside the home (going out); vaping, alcohol and drug consumption. Prior to Covid-19, four out of ten students in our study responded with ‘yes’ to the question ‘During the past 12 months, did you ever feel so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that you stopped doing some usual activities?. One in seven responding students indicated that they had seriously considered committing suicide over the last 12 months; forty students actually planned the act and seven attempted suicide. The data from Fall 2020/Spring 2021 will show how much students’ mental health was affected by having to live with the restrictions and dangers of Covid-19.
Not Strong Enough to Protect Children: Systems Risks Identified Among Youth who Have Been Orphaned due to HIV/AIDS in Vietnam - a Photovoice Project View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Lesley Harris
Within a month long camp for adolescents who have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS and raised by their grandparents in Northern Vietnam, a Photovoice group for was developed to create support and provide a space to voice their experiences. Due to circumstances that challenge health equity, HIV stigma continues to create barriers in the everyday lives of families affected by HIV/AIDS, such as poverty, food insecurity, and barriers to education. Twenty five adolescents, between the ages of twelve and nineteen, participated in a group in July 2019. Group sessions and journals were analyzed on the youth-identified topics of HIV/AIDS, child labor, reproductive health, substance abuse, childhood sexual abuse and “Our City.” The research team identified seven themes that cut across all topics, and culminated into a context specific framework which included: (a) corruption in the system, (b) laws and law enforcement, (c) lack of child protection, (d) exploitation, (e) views of adults, (f) ineffective community responses and (g) youth’s ideas for interventions. Existing challenges facing Vietnamese adolescents, combined with stigma may increase HIV risk factors such as marginalization, and may push adolescents into behavior that can increase HIV risk. Adolescents identified serious risks within their “system” which included community, government, law enforcement and adults that compound existing risk factors in their lives. Photovoice proved to be effective in eliciting valuable information and generating multi-faceted discussions. This process not only enabled the youth to relate to and learn from one another, but generated ideas for community responses to create social change.
Covid-19 Impact on Society : A Case Study of Pakistan
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Farah Naz
This paper investigates Covid-19 from the lens of society and extremism. The study highlights that the world has never witnessed a pandemic like Covid-19 before. It brings along unique challenges. The extreme uncertainty of the pandemic’s scale and pace creates confusion among the masses and states. Societies are posed and pushed to the four walls while economies are split. These extreme circumstances need extreme measures. But, the state policies regarding changes in the lifestyle needs to be precise keeping in mind the vulnerable communities. This study investigates how confused policies during the pandemic can potentially leave the Pakistani population at the verge of extremism. This paper considers the Government of Pakistan lock-down measures, educational policy and immigration policy to examine its impacts on society. This paper reviews how different classes reacted to the state’s measures to deal with the issue of coronavirus and its standard operating procedure. This study examines the strict lock-down measures impact on the masses under strong religious pressure. Then it discusses in detail the Covid-19 educational arrangements and impact on the primary, secondary, higher secondary and tertiary education level students. It highlights how students from a particular group are affected by the Covid-19 education policy measures. Then it shines light on the new immigration policy arrangements and impact on various classes in Pakistani society. This research reveals which particular groups are most affected by rigid Covid-19 arrangements, leaving masses vulnerable to extremism.
Effects of Covid-19 on the Performance of Youth-owned Small Businesses in Zimbabwe
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tendai Chimucheka
Zimbabwe is currently experiencing economic challenges and a high unemployment rate, and as is the case with most developing countries. These challenges are expected to be reduced by promoting entrepreneurship and self-employment. The study investigated the effects of Covid-19 and the related lockdown on the performance of youth-owned small businesses in Zimbabwe. Challenges faced by these youth-owned businesses and the strategies they adopted to survive the effects of Covid-19 were investigated. Qualitative research design was adopted and a questionnaire with open-ended questions was used to collect data online from a platform made available by an organization that supports youth entrepreneurship in Zimbabwe. The findings of the study showed that youth in Zimbabwe face a number of challenges and Covid-19 added to these challenges. It was revealed that Covid-19 had negative effects on the performance of youth-owned businesses. These businesses lost revenue, stock went obsolete, and some businesses had to close completely. Recommendations were provided to youth operating businesses in Zimbabwe and also to organizations that support youth-owned businesses and youth entrepreneurs.
Featured An Ally or an Enemy? : Developing a Trusting Relationship Between Supervisor and Supervisee View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Priscalia Khosa
Social work supervision has evolved worldwide. Central to this evolution is a supervisory relationship which is essential for effective social work supervision. However, most supervisees experience the supervisory relationship as an unsafe practice context, influenced by power relations. The requirement for effective supervision is thus the maintenance of a safe supervisory relationship that is based on trust, collaboration, joint accountability, honesty, openness and a non-judgmental approach. Often, such a relationship is subverted by the need to comply with a neoliberal agenda that promotes a ‘tick-box approach’ to supervision rather than a relationship-based one. This conceptual paper questions whether such an agenda fosters an alliance or rivalry between the supervisor and supervisee. The paper discusses strategies that the supervisor and supervisee can adopt to prioritise relationship-based supervisory practices. It concludes that in order to foster trusting supervisory relationships, it is necessary to acknowledge the diverse cultures, work settings, and needs of both supervisors and supervisees.
You Are What You Eat: Food and Popular Culture View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anindita Chatterjee
Food is much more than just the source of nourishment. While food is essential for survival, the range of what peoples of the world judge as edible is enormous. Anthropologists call attention to the fact that cooking is peculiar to humans in the same manner as language. Food habits are a language through which a society expresses itself. Claude Lévi-Strauss’s tripolar gastronomic system defines raw, cooked, and rotten as categories basic to all human cuisines. The idea of feasting is closely associated with food. The act of eating and drinking together is seen as a symbol of harmony and a confirmation of fellowship and mutual social obligation. The pandemic, has had a dramatic impact on the food system, eating habits with direct and indirect consequences on lives and livelihoods of people, plants, and animals. Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic there has been a growing concern about the ideas of feasting and food security. Covid-19 has been identified as a zoonotic respiratory epidemic and there has been an abundance of precaution to control the transmission of the virus causing COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) worldwide. Though it has been observed that the SARS-CoV-2 virus cannot multiply in food and it requires an animal or human host to multiply yet there has been panic and fear regarding consumption of food. This paper considers food in popular culture with particular reference to the ongoing pandemic.
Home is Where the Heart Is: Connection Between Home and the Transplant Journey View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Heather Lannon
Every year thousands of Canadians are diagnosed with heart failure and for many the only treatment option is a heart transplant. Organ transplants are not available in every province in Canada thus many patients and caregivers must relocate to access transplant care. Using narrative analysis, this study explores the connection between home and the heart transplant journey. Nineteen interviews were conducted with patients and caregivers who relocated to access heart transplants. Several of these patients and caregivers relocated within their home province, while others moved outside their home province to access the care required. Autoethnography was used to analyze the researchers own transplant journey as a caregiver. The researchers journal writings, which documented a three-year relocation with her husband who required a heart transplant were analysis. Participants defined home in terms of people – family, friends and loved ones, while also defining home as a sense of community, safety and comfort. These definitions correlates with what patients and caregivers found most helpful during the transplant journey: meeting other patients and caregivers, support from care providers, and the importance of those who relocated with participants to the new city. Autoethnography revealed findings similar to those reported by participants. What the researcher found most helpful during their transplant journey: the care team and other patients, support from family who resided in the new city, and visits from family and friends from the home province. The findings show that home is connected to the transplant journey.
