Ending Family Homelessness: A Trauma-Informed Narrative Approach to Inquiry With Extraordinary Mothers

• In Event: Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: Contemplating Questions of Home and Ethnicity

Abstract

How families overcome homelessness receives much less research attention than risk factors for becoming homeless. Emerging themes from hermeneutic-informed focus groups with fourteen urban and suburban mothers who have overcome family homelessness are described. Critically, these mothers expressed a desire to participate in the broader political realm to have greater say about the institutions that impact their lives, including schools. Participants’ policy recommendations for supporting homeless families included the removal of common barriers to housing; providing mediated peer mentoring programs; and providing community liaisons to support interaction with school personnel. Trauma-informed care is widely discussed in the social services literature, but has not been reviewed in terms of research design; this paper will outline key considerations for integrating these safeguards.

Author

• Marie Gina Sandy, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee