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- All Subjects: homelessness
- Creators: Lucio, Joanna
Description
Obesity in Hispanic youth has reached alarmingly high levels, increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. In Mexican American children ages 6-11 years, 41.7% are overweight and obese, 24.7% are obese and 19.6% have a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than the 97th percentile. While personal, behavioral, and environmental factors contribute to these high rates, emerging literature suggests acculturation, self-efficacy and social support are key influences. The one-group, pre- and post-test, quasi-experimental design used a community-based participatory research (CBPR) method to test the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of the 8-week intervention. Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) was used to guide the design. Measurements included an analysis of recruitment, retention, participant satisfaction, observation of intervention sessions, paired t-tests, effect sizes, and bivariate correlations between study variables (acculturation, nutrition and physical activity [PA] knowledge, attitude and behaviors, perceived confidence and social support) and outcome variables (BMI z-score, waist circumference and BP percentile) Findings showed the SSLN program was feasible and acceptable. Participants (n = 16) reported that the curriculum was fun and they learned about nutrition and PA. The retention rate was 94%. The preliminary effects on adolescent nutrition and PA behaviors showed mixed results with small-to-medium effect sizes for nutrition knowledge and attitude, PA and sedentary behavior. Correlation analysis among acculturation and study variables was not significant. Positive associations were found between perceived confidence in eating and nutrition attitude (r = .61, p < .05) and nutrition behavior (r = .62, p < .05), perceived confidence in exercise and nutrition behavior (r = .66, p < .05), social support from family for exercise and PA behavior (r = .67, p < .01) and social support from friends for exercise and PA behavior (r = .56, p < .05). These findings suggest a culturally specific healthy eating and activity program for adolescents was feasible and acceptable and warrants further investigation, since it may fill a gap in existing obesity programs designed for Hispanic youth. The positive correlations suggest further testing of the theoretical model.
ContributorsStevens, Carol (Author) / Gance-Cleveland, Bonnie (Thesis advisor) / Komnenich, Pauline (Committee member) / Shaibi, Gabriel (Committee member) / Arcoleo, Kimberly (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Social impact bonds (SIBs) are a multi-year contract between social service providers, the government, and private investors. The three parties agree on a specific outcome for a societal issue. Investors provide capital required for the service provider to operate the project. The service provider then delivers the service to the target population. The success of the project is evaluated by outside party. If the target outcome is met, the government repays the investors at a premium. Nonprofit service providers can only serve a small community as they lack the funding to scale their programs and their reliance on government funding and philanthropy leads to a lot of time focused on raising money in the short-term and inhibits them from evolving their programs and projects for long-term strategic success. Government budgets decline but social problems persist. These contracts share risk between the government and the investors and allow governments to test out programs and alleviate taxpayer burdens from unsuccessful social service programs. Arizona has a severe homelessness problem. Nightly, 6000 people are homeless in Maricopa County. In a given year, over 32,000 individuals were homeless, composed of single adults, families, children, and veterans. Homelessness is not only a debilitating and difficult experience for those who experience it, but also has considerable economic costs on society. Homeless individuals use a number of government programs beyond emergency shelters, and these can cost taxpayers billions of dollars per year. Rapid rehousing was a successful intervention model that the state has been heavily investing in the last few years. This thesis aimed to survey the Arizona climate and determine what barriers were present for enacting an SIB for homelessness. The findings showed that although there are many competent stakeholder groups, lack of interest and overall knowledge of SIBs prevented groups from taking responsibility as the anchor for such a project. Additionally, the government and nonprofits had good partnerships, but lacked relationships with the business community and investors that could propel an SIB. Finally, although rapid rehousing can be used as a successful intervention model, there are not enough years of proven success to justify the spending on an SIB. Additionally, data collection for homelessness programming needs to be standardized between all relevant partners. The framework for an SIB exists in Arizona, but needs a few more years of development before it can be considered.
ContributorsAhmed, Fabeeha (Author) / Desouza, Kevin (Thesis director) / Lucio, Joanna (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
This thesis examines Care Not Cash, a welfare reform measure that replaced traditional cash General Assistance program payments for homeless persons in San Francisco with in-kind social services. Unlike most welfare reform measures, proponents framed Care Not Cash as a progressive policy, aimed at expanding social services and government care for this vulnerable population. Drawing on primary and secondary documents, as well as interviews with homelessness policy experts, this thesis examines the historical and political success of Care Not Cash, and explores the potential need for implementation of a similar program in Phoenix, Arizona.
ContributorsMcCutcheon, Zachary Ryan (Author) / Lucio, Joanna (Thesis director) / Williams, David (Committee member) / Bretts-Jamison, Jake (Committee member) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Homelessness has a history of existing as a misunderstood condition involving stereotypes, stigmas and assumptions. In fact, the combination of acute-care medical professionals with patients of chronic illness and chronic homelessness can lead to incongruity of attitudes. These mindsets have the potential to affect the care homeless individuals receive in the emergency department (ED) and impact their intentions to seek medical help in the future (Ugarriza & Fallon, 1994, pp. 26). Furthermore, homeless individuals account for 54.5% of all ED visits in the United States (Kushel et al., 2002). The author conducted a qualitative descriptive study of 10 in-person interviews with homeless individuals in the downtown Phoenix, AZ area. The objective was to determine homeless individuals' perceptions of welcomeness and unwelcomeness by emergency department staff. Findings support significantly unwelcome experiences in the ED and negative perceptions of ED staff through repeating concepts of dehumanization, dismissal, stereotypes and discrimination. Further research is needed to create interventions for improving perceptions of ED staff, promoting health and preventing illness in the homeless population, and reducing ED visits by homeless individuals.
ContributorsLeander, Lauren (Author) / Stevens, Carol (Committee member) / Kleinlein, Shirley (Committee member) / McNulty, Julie (Committee member) / Arizona State University. College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
Law enforcement officers are frequently tasked with addressing and responding to public safety and community concerns related to issues of homelessness. While interactions between law enforcement and individuals experiencing homelessness occur frequently, issues of homelessness also span public health, policy, and housing spheres. Because of this, several communities in the United States also lean on outreach workers to address issues of homelessness. Recent research has described both law enforcement officers and outreach workers as street-level bureaucrats. Both groups grapple with unique shift demands, lack of supervision, burnout, and issues such as turnover, all while leveraging their personal knowledge and connections to make decisions on a case-by- case basis.In two studies, this dissertation explores the role of the police and outreach workers in responses to issues of homelessness. This is important to address because there is evidence that these two groups have a high degree of contact with individuals experience homelessness and have similar decision-making processes. Yet, they are largely siloed from one another making it difficult to generate policies related to issues of homelessness that are informed by both groups. In study one, responses to close- and open-ended responses (N = 1,163) drawn from a survey distributed to law enforcement personnel are analyzed, merged, and interpreted. The second study of this dissertation is an ethnography of outreach workers in Maricopa County, Arizona. The collective findings from these two studies underscore a remarkable similarity between outreach worker and law enforcement decision making, as well as a growing need to strengthen the relationships between these two groups to support longer-term solutions. Co-created training guides and events can be constructed to enhance the relationship between these two groups and to support mutually beneficial outcomes.
Portions of this research were supported by a Law and Science Dissertation Grant, via the National Science Foundation, award SES-2016661 to Arizona State University. This project was also supported by Arizona State University’s Graduate College and Graduate Student and Professional Association’s Graduate Research Program Award. The findings and conclusions are those of the author and do not reflect the position of the National Science Foundation or Arizona State University.
ContributorsBrown, Katharine L (Author) / Telep, Cody W (Thesis advisor) / Lucio, Joanna (Committee member) / Young, Jacob Tn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023