New Expertise for Social Justice: Professors at Jane Addams School of Social Work
Faculty who joined the college in Fall 2020 brought a diverse range of expertise to support the mission of advancing social and racial justice, and health equity for marginalized populations .
Expertise in community mental health and violence prevention in urban communities
Kathryn Bocanegra
Assistant Professor
Through over 15 years of experience in community mental health and violence prevention, Kathryn Bocanegra has seen firsthand the trauma experienced by street intervention workers . They not only witness violence, they have personal experiences with violence . They often work in the same communities where they have experienced harm or previously harmed others, she says . “This takes a toll on their physical and emotional health, and their relationships . It even impacts their ability to effectively do their job.
”Now, under a grant from the Robert R . McCormick Foundation, she is working to understand the effect of trauma exposure among street intervention workers and to identify supports that mitigate the effects of this trauma in their personal and professional lives . Through interviews with 35 intervention workers in several Chicago neighborhoods, as well as with their supervisors, she will gain insights into best practices for supporting these workers .
“Trauma-informed and healing-centered approaches to violence prevention work have become commonplace over the last five years” says Bocanegra . “Individuals employed in street intervention practice are trained in these frameworks to help them work more effectively with clients . It is important, however, for the same approach to be used within organizations to support street intervention staff in the difficult work they do .” At the completion of the study in Winter 2021 she will have manualized the findings into training modules that assist organizations in creating supportive work environments for street intervention staff, as well as mechanisms to develop their leadership skills and career trajectories.
Bocanegra is also collaborating with scholars at other institutions with a common goal of strengthening street intervention work as one of the primary measures of public safety in urban communities .“Street intervention staff are leaders in developing more robust infrastructures for community safety,” she say . “Their expertise, often born out of personal suffering, should be promoted at a larger scale as our city develops multifaceted strategies to reduce violence and heal from historical and structural violence .”
Expertise in substance use among sexual minority men, syndemics and intersectionality
Walter Gómez
Assistant Professor.
A recent research focus for Walter Gómez has been methamphetamine use among sexual minority men, with data gathered primarily in the San Francisco area, where he worked before joining JACSW . “My study initially focused on how sex and sexual compulsivity played a role in these mens’ lives, and how it impacted recovery efforts for them,” he says . “But I also looked at the effects of interventions themselves . Methamphetamine is one of the few high-risk, high-priority areas that do not have an approved biomedical intervention for recovery . So I’m interested in seeing if and how we can ramp up behavioral interventions to be more effective .”
Gómez sees both intersectionality and syndemics as central to his work .He explains syndemics as involving multiple co-occurring synergistic, adverse events that impact health and well-being in particular communities or groups . “You may be dealing with people impacted by substance use, but who are also understood to have higher rates of depression, sexual abuse, trauma, poverty, incarceration, and other factors,” he says . “You can’t just look at addiction as a siloed phenomenon, you have to look at how all of these other adverse events and experiences impact their trajectory .
”He explains intersectionality as entailing demographic traits; describing people who are multiply oppressed and may carry multiple identities . In the case of his study the population was HIV positive men with histories of substance use . “But it’s essential to examine all the additional ways they experience oppression or marginalization,” he says .Gómez notes that methamphetamine use research with sexual minority men is more focused in coastal metropolitan centers such as New York, Miami, San Francisco or Los Angeles, and that in the Midwest meth tends to be more used by the straight white population . “Here, opioids are the focus, so it’s going to require adaptation of my work to the local environment,” he says, “but the goal is to continue this kind of research to address the needs of these communities in Chicago .”
Expertise in childhood trauma and well-being, and community partnerships
Michelle-Ann Rhoden Neita
Assistant Professor
Michelle-Ann Rhoden Neita is deeply committed to community-based practice, with a special interest in grassroots and faith-based organizations . “It’s so important for service provision to be based in the community for accessibility,” she says, adding, “I favor smaller grassroots organizations because they provide needed community services with limited resources and support compared to larger organizations.
”Her prior clinical experience is grounded in providing therapy for children and families involved in the foster care system . She has witnessed the trauma and adversity these children can experience, and the long-term impact it may have later in life . “With these children, we’re often talking about psychological and intergenerational trauma, exposure to chronic violence, and abuse . The impact can depend on how chronic the trauma is, that is the intensity and the frequency,” she says . “And there is a spectrum of outcomes ranging from altering how you view yourself and how you view the world, to developing some PTSD symptoms to full PTSD .”
Michelle-Ann explains that people who experience chronic, cumulative trauma are in a heightened state of “fight, flight or freeze .” This raises cortisol levels which impacts them physiologically, producing chronic health issues, but also emotionally and behaviorally, which increases the risk for impulsivity and other self-regulation problems . “I’m very interested in these physiological and biological responses to trauma,” she says, “and advancing trauma-informed care approaches .
”She also wants to examine trauma and epigenetics, and this lies at the heart of her intended research agenda at JACSW . “Studies have shown that chronic trauma can actually affect the functioning of one’s genes, which has implications for physical and psychological health, and this may be intergenerational,” she says . “I want to study changes in the epigenetics of people in the child welfare and justice systems, to gain a greater understanding of the full impact of trauma in these populations .”
Expertise in school social work and equity building
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Lecturer Chastity Owens: Expertise in school social work and equity building
Chastity Owens spent 10 years serving as a school-based practitioner in both a charter school and in UI Health school-based health centers in Chicago . She now leverages that cumulative experience as a lecturer in the college’s School Social Work Specialization, including the Post-MSW PEL (Professional Educator’s License) Certificate Program.
At this moment in U.S . history, she thinks it’s important for social workers to foster conversations around justice and equity in their school communities . “We should be focusing on issues around equity and elevating the voices of the youth, and finding ways to come together and be a united front,” she says . “But we also need to understand and listen to the diversity of perspectives within our schools .
”To facilitate this, she suggests the creation of spaces where students can share their thoughts and feelings about their community and what they can do to make things right .“But the most important thing is to listen, and see what’s going on with our students in schools,” she says .“We might have our own ideas about what’s going on with racial justice, but it’s important to especially focus on where the students are at and where they’re coming from . And then, from a human development perspective, assist them in making connections and working on how they can contribute to making things better in their communities .
”Owens says it’s essential that school practitioners see parents and families as key stakeholders, observing that too often parents are viewed as being merely extensions of the students . “Parents really need to be engaged as individuals and key contributors in the conversation about equity . The more we can connect with and engage parents, the more holistic education can be,” she says . “The more students can see their parents and teachers and school administrators interacting and working together, the healthier it is for their own development .”
She also thinks social workers will play a key role in the return to classroom instruction after remote learning . “As schools go back to in-person learning, there will be more need for school social workers because students will need to process and heal from the trauma of COVID-19, and re-learn how to interact with each other again,” Owens says . “Who better to do that than social workers?”
This article was printed in the UIC Jane Addams School of Social Work Spring 2021 Edition of “Affirmations”.