School of Social Work News

Desmond Patton was awarded a grant, from the Office of Research through it's Faculty Grants and Awards Program, to conduct research on the causality between gang violence and social media. His project is entitled "Internet Banging: Exploring Social Media Behaviors and Gang Violence among Black and Latino Males in Chicago". 

Assistant Professor Desmond Patton was awarded a grant from the Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research to conduct research for his project, "Violence Prevention Evaluation".

Grace Adofoli  (MSW student) wrote an article about reproductive health, rights, and justice after her internship with the National Women's Health Network and Black Women's Health Imperative in Washington, DC. After attending the United nations 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW 57), she felt that the conversation on issues regarding reproductive equity needed to be explored further because there was no consensus, on the matter, among women around the world. The article is available through the U-M Library online publication Women's Health Activist through this link from Mirlyn: http://mirlyn.lib.umich.edu/Record/005271524/Holdings#0 or on Amazon. 

Assistant Professor Michael Woodford was awarded a grant from the Institute for Research on Women and Gender to support his project, "Centering Gender Identity, Gender Expression, and Race in Research, Policy, and Programs to Support LGBTQ College Students through Intersectional Research".

Assistant Professor Kristin Seefeldt will work with Abt Associates to conduct longitudinal, qualitative interviews with participants from Abt Associates "Innovative Strategies for Increasing Self-Sufficiency (ISIS)” program. The ISIS project is a rigorous evaluation of promising strategies which promote employment and self-sufficiency among economically disadvantaged families.  The focus of the ISIS study, funded by the Administration for Children and Families, is on career pathways as the main intervention framework.  

Associate Professor Mary Ruffolo and Adrienne Lapidos, Program Coordinator for the Certificate in Integrated Behavioral Health and Primary Care received an award for an evaluation project. The project evaluates the integrated behavioral health and primary care learning community model established by the Department of Community Health to facilitate public behavioral health sites and primary health care sites in the state in implementing integrated care models. The evaluation involves assessing progress on the learning community tasks and goals, examining the degree by which participating sites are moving toward integration of physical and behavioral health services for adults living with serious mental health or substance abuse disorders and chronic physical health illnesses. 

Assitant Professor Emily Nicklett and Assoicate Dean Mike Spencer's article "Direct Social Support and Long-term Health Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus" was selected as editor's choice by the Gerontological Society of America. The study examined whether or not direct social support is associated with long-term health among middle-aged and older adults with diabetes mellitus.

Professor Mieko Yoshihama's PhotoVoice Exhibit is on NHK Japanese TV and is also on the home page of the Center for Japanese Studies. The overall goal of the PhotoVoice project is to strengthen the disaster response policies and practices in Japan (and beyond) by engaging the very women affected by the disasters in the analyses of societal conditions and collective efforts to address them.