Community-based Research Collaborations

Willie F. Tolliver | MSW | DSW

Associate Professor

In October 2022, NFAACP signed an agreement with the City of Apalachicola to manage the City’s Center for History, Culture & Art (HCA) in downtown Apalachicola on the waterfront. HCA is housed in a two-story, 5,000-square-foot renovated cotton warehouse built in 1836. The nonprofit has also secured funds from the Tourist Development Corporation to pay employees to staff the Center for History, Culture & Art. 

Why a Focus on African American History in Apalachicola?

Despite its erasure from official stories told about this region of Florida, Apalachicola's historic Black neighborhood, known as The Hill, remains a close-knit community. As recently as the 1960s, The Hill was a vibrant area with family homes, a thriving business district, a Black elementary, middle and high school, and several churches and fraternal organizations— all of which contributed to an extended economic and social life. Today, the community is under threat. After decades of economic disinvestment, the closing of the paper mill in Port St. Joe—a major employer in the region, and, more recently, the collapse of the seafood industry, there are few job prospects in town. Some homes on the Hill are vacant or uninhabitable and abandoned. Yet, the Black community of Apalachicola has remained vital. The annual African American Heritage Festival, sponsored by the Hillside Coalition of Laborers for Apalachicola (H’COLA), attracts current and former residents. 

This work is important for social work education. Intergenerational harm results from repeated injustices, including Indigenous genocide, enslavement of African people, segregation, and discrimination toward people viewed as outside the protected groups for whom the United States was established. The history of the country chronicles the groups that have been excluded by law through the years. Today, there is a renewed fervor to parse who are the true patriots and heirs to the rights extended by the world’s oldest democracy. 

Kerry Deas, Senior Research Associate (left); Claire Crowley, Research Associate (center); Diane DePanfilis, Principal Investigator; NYC ACS Office of Training and Workforce Development, Supporting Knowledge into Practice Initiative (right).

Why is Focusing on Transfer of Learning Important? 

Millions of dollars are spent every year providing training in child welfare and human services, but research shows that only a small percentage of knowledge, skills, and attitudes covered by training are transferred to practice in the real world. With the goal of achieving better training outcomes, the SKIP team has implemented a series of four Safety-Focused Coaching Labs in all five of ACS’ Division of Child Protection Borough Offices. Preliminary results from the labs—which focus on reinforcement and practice strategies to support real transfer—are promising. 

The team uses the New World Kirkpatrick Model of training evaluation to measure four levels of impact. 

• Level 1 reactions indicate that 92% of training participants agree or strongly agree that the skills practice activities showed them how to use the learning on the job. On average 90% agree or strongly agree that they can use coaching skills to support critical thinking and objectives of staff in the context of child safety. 
• Level 2 results suggest an increase in knowledge from pre- to post-test in contrast to a comparison group, and an increase in confidence and commitment to using coaching from pre-ratings to post-ratings. 
• Level 3 results indicate implementation of transfer of learning plans at a high rate, particularly by applying coaching skills at key areas of supervision focused on child safety. 
• The team is currently in the planning stages to evaluate Level 4 impact and is considering options discussed at this national conference.

Citations for this presentation and other recent related presentations:

Featured Speaker

Mark Hetfield

President and CEO, HIAS

Student Panel

Juan Diaz

Doctoral Candidate – PhD Program in Social Welfare Policy and Advocacy

Associate, Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York

Juan’s research interests include examining housing, economic, and immigration policies at all government levels; the experiences of first-generation youth; and the evaluation of policies that foster social capital and upward mobility. He currently manages economic, housing, and migration advocacy at Citizens’ Committee for Children.

Andrew Tate

2nd Year MSW Student

One-Year Residency (OYR) in Clinical Practice

Andrew is an Honor’s student in Global Social Work and Practice with Immigrants and Refugees and a first-generation son of Caribbean immigrant parents. He works as Queens County Re-entry Coordinator and Counseling Intern at the Fortune Society. He is interested in the intersection of incarceration, immigration status, and the Afro-Caribbean Community.

Paulina Perera-Riveroll 

2nd Year MSW Student

Community Organizing, Planning & Development

Paulina was born in Mexico City. Prior to attending the Silberman School of Social Work, she obtained an MFA from Parsons and worked as an artist and bilingual educator, most recently at New-York Historical Society’s DiMenna Children’s History Museum. She is an Honor’s student and community organizer working with unaccompanied minors to locate resources. She is passionate about seeking ways to improve their lives.

Jennifer J. Raab, President - Hunter College (left)

Martha Bragin | LCSW | PhD, Professor (right)

Dr. Marina Lalayants had a productive series of meetings and presentations in Jerusalem, Israel. In collaboration with Dr. Yuval Saar-Heiman, a professor at Ben-Gurion University, she led a workshop at the Ministry of Social Affairs in Israel. The workshop was attended by high-level leaders from various divisions, including child protection, foster care, family and community supports, and strategic planning. The workshop, Changing the story: Involving parents in child protection decision-making and service delivery, delved into the history of parent advocacy and the successful implementation of Parent Advocacy initiatives in New York City. Dr. Lalayants presented her research findings, which garnered significant interest, leading to an engaging discussion among participants. They explored the potential adaptation of parent advocacy in Israel, considering contextual, conceptual, cultural, and other relevant factors.

Dr. Lalayants also participated in the International Conference on Child Maltreatment at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she delivered two presentations. One presentation focused on the promotion of parent engagement and prevention of child maltreatment through parent advocacy programs. The other presentation, co-presented with Dr. Yuval Saar-Heiman, discussed the outcomes of their scoping review, Parent Advocacy and Peer Support in Child Protection: Exploring the conceptualization of current practice approaches redefining outcome achievement.

Photovoice for Change (P4C) 

Silberman School of Social Work Associate Professor Colleen Cary Katz, in collaboration with Dr. Michelle Munson, NYU Silver School of Social Work, and Children’s Village, has been awarded support from the Kenworthy-Swift Foundation to implement Photovoice for Change (P4C). P4C aims to improve mental health and empowerment among youth, while advocating for systems-level change. 

Figure 1 (below) illustrates the approach taken by the project team to co-curate an exhibit of images contributed by adolescents transitioning from foster care. The exhibit, held at an art gallery, will create a space and opportunity for adolescents transitioning from foster care to speak about their experiences and show their photographs. 

Twenty adolescents across Children’s Village programs will be recruited to participate. Each youth will be invited to contribute up to five images that have shaped their experience in their journey in child welfare, answering the question: What are the places, the spaces, that shaped your foster care experience (for better or worse)?

Figure 1. The Places and Spaces that Have Impacted the Journey

Colleen Katz | LCSW | PhD, Associate Professor (left)

Yi Wang | MSW | PhD, Assistant Professor (right)

Via a two-year award from the Redlich Horwitz Foundation, Associate Professor Colleen Cary Katz and incoming Assistant Professor Yi Wang will use propensity score matching, so that the effects of having a CASA on permanency outcomes are not distorted by characteristics making children more likely to receive CASA services. The study will include data linked from (1) CASA NYC and (2) The Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) to examine differences in permanency outcomes between those who receive and do not receive a CASA. Data will be matched by: (1) demographics (age, race, sex), (2) time to and type of permanency; and (3) administrative reason for entry into care. Investigators will use state-of-the-art methodology of caliper matching with “greedy algorithms,” a method more sophisticated and reliable than other strategies. Caliper matching is reputable for its best performance in achieving balance between compared subsamples regarding the characteristics most mathematically consequential for the outcome of interest. 

Cycle 54, PSC-CUNY Research Enhanced Award

Title: Formative Research to Create a Substance Use Disorder Prevention Program for Autistic Adults

Faculty Member: Laura Graham Holmes, PhD, Assistant Professor

Laura Graham Holmes | PhD

Assistant Professor

Semi-structured interviews will focus on:

• what a curriculum about substance use should or should not include
• types of challenges that are most salient
• what kinds of statements, cognitions, and emotions would motivate them to decrease substance use
• recommended modality and format of an educational experience

Cycle 54, PSC-CUNY Research Awards, Traditional A and B Award

Title: Experiences and Strategies of Female Minority Domestic Workers in Worker Cooperatives in New York City: The Intersectionality Perspective

Faculty Member: Seon Mi Kim, MSW, PhD, Assistant Professor

Seon Mi Kim | MSW | PhD

Assistant Professor

Cycle 54, PSC-CUNY Research Awards, Traditional A and B Award

Title: Organizational Strategies for Managing Mandated Reporting Calls: Working Supportively with Families Experiencing High Levels of Stress

Faculty Member: Tricia Stephens, LCSW-R, PhD, Assistant Professor

Tricia Stephens | LCSW-R | PhD

Assistant Professor

Cycle 54, PSC-CUNY Research Awards, Traditional A and B Award

Title: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Stress Management Interventions among Police Officers

Faculty Member: George Patterson, M.S., Ph.D., Associate Professor

George Patterson | MS | PhD

Associate Professor

Cycle 54, PSC-CUNY Research Awards, Traditional A and B Award

Title: Gender & Race Politics in the Workplace: Hunter Social Work Management Graduates’ Career Advancement Experiences

Faculty Member: Rong Zhao, MSW, PhD, Assistant Professor

Rong Zhao | MSW | PhD

Assistant Professor

Katz, C.C., Gopalan, G., Wall, E., Leoni-Hughes, H., Pargiter, T., & Collins, D. (2023). Screening and assessment of suicidal behavior in transition-age youth with foster care involvement. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-023-00913-4

Author Abstract: 

Transition-age youth with foster care involvement (TAY, ages 17–22) are at heightened risk for suicidal behavior. Despite this, mental health screenings are not standardized across child welfare (CW) systems and existing assessment tools are not designed for use with this specific population. As such, TAY are unlikely to be adequately screened for suicide risk and connected with needed services. In this paper, we sought to identify screening and assessment tools that could be effective for use with TAY in CW settings. Using PubMed and PsycINFO, we conducted a search of the current literature to identify some of the most commonly used screening and assessment tools for youth. We then narrowed our focus to those tools that met predefined inclusion criteria indicating appropriateness of use for TAY in CW settings. As a result of this process, we identified one brief screening tool (the ASQ) and four assessments (the SIQ-JR, the C-SSRS, the SHBQ, and the SPS) that demonstrated specific promise for use with TAY. The strengths and limitations of the tools are discussed in detail, as well as the ways that each could be used most effectively in CW settings. 

We highlight three key points intended to guide social work practice and policy: 

1. Systematic, routine assessment of mental health and suicide risk across CW settings is critical. 
2. The protocol for assessing suicidal behavior in TAY must account for the wide variations in context and service provision. 
3. CW workers administering assessments must be thoughtfully trained on risk identification and the protocol implementation.

Lalayants, M. & Merkel-Holguin, L. (2023). Adapting private family time in child protective services decision-making processes. Child and Family Social Work. https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12999

Author Abstract:

The Family Group Conference (FGC) is grounded in a rights-based framework, whereby children and their families have the right and responsibility to be primary decision-makers when child protection issues arise, and the statutory agency has the responsibility to convene the entitled members of the family network to lead the decision-making. A distinct core component of FGC—private family time (PFT)—allows families to discuss the information and formulate their responses and plans privately during conferencing. This paper describes how a large child welfare agency in the United States adapted PFT in two ways: (1) including a parent advocate (PA) and (2) abbreviating the amount of time allowed for this discussion. Given the lack of empirical research on the PFT component, this qualitative exploratory study sought to understand the functions and perceived impacts of PA-supported PFT during initial child protective services (CPS) conferences at which decisions of child removal or placement were being contemplated. PFT served multiple beneficial functions and impacted families in several positive ways: families gained greater awareness of safety concerns, felt empowered and confident in the preferred safety and service plan, became increasingly engaged and involved in the case decision-making process, and ultimately felt less apprehensive.

Stephens, T., Lens, V., & Singer, J. (2023). Introduction: Race, racism and child welfare: Perspectives from youth, parents, advocates and scholars. Family Court Review, 61(2), 225-228. https://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12713

Author Abstract: This paper provides an introduction to a special issue on race, racism, and child welfare in the journal, Family Court Review. Together, the voices of the authors shared in this special issue have a singular purpose: to shine a light into the shadowed spaces where injustice thrives and to imagine a more just future. They offer both a strong critique of our current family regulation system and a vision for remaking the system into one that supports, rather than surveils marginalized families and that combats, rather than contributes to racial oppression. 

Zhao, R. (2023). Are women’s and men’s pay increase trajectories different in nonprofit and for-profit human services organizations? Social Sciences, 12(3), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.3390/sosci12030152

Author Abstract

Using the Survey of Income and Program Participation panel data, this study compares women’s and men’s pay increase trajectories and patterns of job mobility in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. As recent studies suggested that industry-specific rather than economy-wide analysis is more appropriate in nonprofit/for-profit comparison, this study only focuses on the human services field. 

The results indicate that: 

1. There was a selection in workers’ choices regarding staying or changing sector of employment. 
2. Nonprofit workers who chose to move to the for-profit sector tended to be those worse off in the nonprofit sector, whereas for-profit workers who chose to move to the nonprofit sector tended to be those better off in the for-profit sector, and both of the mover groups gained by moving. 
3. In both nonprofits and for-profits, men enjoyed a steeper pay increase curve by occupying more managerial positions, having higher levels of education, and working longer hours. 
4. On average, there was no statistically significant difference in pay increase trajectories between workers who chose to stay in their sector of employment. 

Consistent with previous studies, the regression analyses further support the argument that, within human services, there is not necessarily a sectoral difference in the gender pay gap—in other words, nonprofits are not necessarily more equitable than for-profits.