Voices of Home: Amplifying Women’s Experiences of Recovery and Reintegration through Transitional Housing

• In Event: Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 4: Housing Processes

Abstract

Transitional and recovery housing plays a critical role in supporting stability, recovery, and reintegration among justice-impacted and housing-insecure populations. However, existing scholarship has largely emphasized program outcomes and effectiveness, with comparatively less attention given to the lived experiences of residents, particularly women residing in transitional housing environments. This study addresses this gap through a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project titled Voices of Home, conducted in partnership with The 209 House, a women’s transitional recovery residence in the Midwestern United States.
Guided by CBPR principles, this study employs photovoice methodology to center residents’ experiential knowledge and narratives. Up to fifteen adult women residing in The 209 House will be recruited through a community liaison and invited to participate in a multi-phase data collection process during Spring 2026. Participants will take photographs representing their experiences of living in transitional housing and select five images to discuss in semi-structured, in-depth interviews. These interviews will explore participants’ interpretations of their photographs, focusing on themes of home, recovery, stability, and reintegration. Participants will also engage in focus group discussions to collectively reflect on shared experiences and identify emergent themes across individual narratives and visual data.
This approach positions residents as co-creators of knowledge and recognizes lived experience as a form of expertise. By integrating visual and narrative data, the study aims to generate a nuanced understanding of how women in recovery housing conceptualize home, safety, and support within transitional living environments. Findings are expected to contribute to sociological research on housing, recovery, and reentry by foregrounding resident perspectives and informing more gender-responsive and community-informed housing practices.

Author

• Daniel J Bartholomay, University Of North Dakota