Dr. Payne and Dr. Donna Aguiniga, UAA School of Social Work, discussed their research project, "Space, Place & Home: Mapping the Social Environment of Anchorage Homeless Populations." Their research, in partnership with Covenant House, focused on homeless youth. Through interviews and the use of maps, the researchers asked youth to trace the locations they traveled to throughout the day and evening, and where they slept at night.
Dr. Sharon Chamard presented on "Homeless Encampments" and discussed her research that examines why homeless encampments exist where they do and the factors that make one location preferred over another. She often works with the Anchorage Police Department Community Action Policing (CAP) Team to address public safety concerns, including homelessness and the use of public space.
Dr. Travis Hedwig, UAA Department of Health Sciences, explained the project, "Increasing Retention, Graduation, and Educational Success Among UAA Students Experiencing Homelessness." Dr. Kathy Trawver, School of Social Work, and Isabel Hakala, a Health Sciences Dept. student, are also working on this project. They used publicly available information on Free Student Application for Federal Aid (FAFSA) forms from UAA students to gauge the number of UAA students experiencing homeless - the form specifically asks about experience of homelessness. The goal is to ascertain the needs of homeless UAA students and assist them in their college career.
UAA College of Health nursing students also presented about their service learning project from the Nursing Therapeutic II class - the Senior Nursing Capstone Project - and their partnership with Karluk Manor, a Housing First model residence in Anchorage. This cohort of nursing students began a community nursing project to provide home visits to residents of Karluk Manor. Their goal was to determine how this experience of a home visit project influenced student nurses' views about community nursing and its value. Asst. Prof. Rachel Muir, FNP-BC, was the faculty for this class.
The session was moderated by Dr. Travis Hedwig with the UAA Department of Health Sciences.
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| Dr. Hedwig opens the program and discusses the number of students at UAA experiencing homelessness |
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| Dr. Aguiniga describes the Anchorage youth homelessness project she and Dr. Payne have been working on. |
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| Dr. Payne explains the mapping and interview process used with the Anchorage homeless youth who volunteered to participate in the study. |
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| Dr. Chamard discusses homeless encampments and her future research on social networks that are often part of the camps. |
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| UAA student nurses present data on their community nursing project. |
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| UAA presenters at the Housing and Homeless Conference - l to r: UAA Health Sciences Student Isabel Hakala, Dr. Donna Aguiniga, UAA School of Social Work; Asst. Prof. Rachel Muir, UAA School of Nursing; School of Nursing students: Mary Mills, Mai Lor, Glory Ramirez, Katie Krueger, Jessi Pepper, Angelene Ketah, Amanda Bedrosian, and Kailyn Vaughn; Asst. Prof. Travis Hedwig, UAA Dept.of Health Sciences; UAA Justice Center faculty Dr. Sharon Chamard and Dr. Troy Payne. |
