Lotus House Women's Shelter as the Lead Agency in a Service Driven Research Project

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: PS 14 Topic - Social Policy

Abstract

This presentation will summarize a community-based service-driven research Program for women and their children experiencing homelessness as an example of a research agenda that works because it goes beyond being participatory to having the community organization lead the effort. This homeless shelter is the lead agency that identified the problems to be studied, the technical and methodological support it required, procured funding for operation and staff’s day-to-day functioning. Evaluator and university researcher function as consultants.

The Program, offered to the families while residing at the women-and-children-only shelter has been in operation for three years. In that time it has served 1,118 children and their mothers (n = 619). Program aims are to increase current understanding of homeless children's developmental and mental health status; improve child mental health status with therapeutic services for the dyads; evaluate the effectiveness of modalities offered; and disseminate results. Evidence-based therapeutic modalities include: child parent psychotherapy, parent-child interaction therapy, and trauma focused cognitive behavior therapy. Evidence-based pre-and post-intervention assessments include a developmental screener of children under 8, assessment of parenting stress, child behavior, child trauma experiences and symptoms, and mother-child interaction. Results are available for 481 completers and their mothers. In addition, a subset of children was randomly assigned to psychotherapy or parenting intervention.

The Program will be discussed in terms of the factors that are necessary for a community-agency to lead such an effort, the barriers to be surmounted, and how this experience informs current theory on this type of research methodology. From a social policy perspective, the time spent in a shelter is an extremely opportune window to affect social change because families are receptive to the services that can be provided. Given the millions of children entering this nation's shelter systems, this project offers a model in which shelters offering enriched resources for children and families in need have the potential to transform the trauma of homelessness into a window of opportunity for healing and growth.

Group Authors

Lotus House Women's Shelter

Author

• Constance Collins, Lotus House
  Presenting Author