Learner and Specialization Information

(MUST BE COMPLETED)

Learners, please insert your answers directly into the expandable boxes that have been provided.

Learner Name

Ashley Cook

Learner Email

[email protected]

Learner ID Number

1367748

Mentor Name

Mentor Email

Specialization (check one)

|_| Leadership and Organizational Management

|X| Program Evaluation and Data Analytics

Specialization Chair Name

Specialization Chair Email

Committee Member #1 Name

Committee Member #1 Email

Committee Member #2 Name

Committee Member #2 Email

Capstone Type (check one)

|_| Research Paper

Deliverable (check one)

Research Paper

|_| Action Research Monograph

|_| Program Evaluation

Professional Product

|X| Service Project

|_| Change Management Plan

Section 1. Topic Endorsement Comment by Elissa Dawkins: Hi Ashley, Thank you for submitting your topic. Currently, it is DEFERRED. Please see my comments throughout 1.1 and 1.2. Please do not delete my comments and turn on track changes so that I can see the changes that you have made when you resubmit. Thanks! Dr. Dawkins 3/11/2021

Please, use single-spaced, Times Roman 11 pt. throughout the form – the boxes will expand as you input text.

1.1 Capstone Topic (2 paragraphs)

Clearly describe the topic of the Capstone Project.

This section should include:

· FIRST PARAGRAPH: State the topic of the capstone project. The topic statement should include the problem or opportunity for improvement in the project. The concepts of the topic must be clear and focused and well supported in the literature.

· Begin this paragraph with, “The topic is…”

· SECOND PARAGRAPH: Describe the significance of this topic to Human Services AND the specialization within your program. Include a statement about the practical implications of the project by describing the impact of this Capstone Project on the organization or community of interest. Comment by Elissa Dawkins: The second paragraph of 1.1 does not discuss what is needed as described here.

Example – The topic of this capstone project is the effectiveness of a transitional summer program, Helping Others, Inc., on middle school student's chance of success (graduation) in high school.

The topic should be correctly formed:

· The topic should be appropriate for the specialization.

· The topic should use appropriate language for key concepts/phenomena.

· The type of action proposed should be specified.

· The community of interest/organization/program or community and target population should be named.

· The concepts should be appropriately focus

· The topic should be supported by at least ten (10) citations.

· The topic should be in alignment with current literature and the DHS Programs of Professional Practice.

Use current (within 5-7 years), scholarly, PRIMARY resources to support statements. Textbooks are not primary resources. Theses and dissertations are not considered peer-reviewed published articles. Use APA style in citing all resources.

The topic of this capstone project is improving The Haven’s ability to assist victims in establishing their independent financial ability. The Haven looks at making the current housing more reasonably priced, building improved, and low moderate-income houses using the existing building materials to help create a community where every person can live in (The Haven (valdostaharven.org). The Haven is a local non-profit agency that provides emergency temporary shelter and services to victims of family violence and sexual assault. The Haven is dual-programmed and has two emergency facilities: The Battered Women’s Shelter, which serves victims of family violence, and the Rape Crisis Center, which serves victims of sexual assault. Both programs have a 24-hour toll-free crisis line, staffed by trained personnel, that is available to anyone wishing to utilize the emergency facilities or the Outreach Programs (The Haven, valdostaharven.org). This capstone will explore domestic violence and economic or financial abuse as the background for creating training protocol on financial literacy for domestic violence victims for use by The Haven. Financial impediments play a major role in restricting the freedoms enjoyed by women who are abused by their intimate partners (Juing et al., 2021). A batterer is empowered by his partner’s financial dependence, and a woman’s autonomy is diminished by her abuser’s financial control. Moreover, financial instability is one of the greatest reasons why, after gaining freedom, a woman who experiences battering has limited choices and may ultimately acquiesce to her partner’s attempts to reconcile (Ortiz-Ospina, & Roser, 2017). Economic instability is a link that binds a woman to her abuser (Carla Moretti 2017). Regardless of the interventions, law enforcement, family, friends, or The Haven, as long as she remains financially dependent upon her abuser, it is exceedingly difficult for a woman who experiences intimate partner violence to stop the batterer’s control. Economic independence can provide freedom from abuse (Bramley & Fitzpatrick,2018).

The significance of this topic to human service is to educate women who have experienced domestic violence about finances. The information gathered in this research would help the program run by The Haven to be in a better position to help these women and their children. Money and domestic violence might not seem related, but financial literacy can play a powerful role in helping survivors recover from domestic violence. The impact of this project is to people of the community of interest live without fear by helping victims of domestic violence and sexual assaults together with their families escape abuse and can create safer lives. Through this capstone topic, the aim is to completely eradicate sexual assault and domestic violence as well as empowering people with financial literacy that would help them in their lives. In this service project, the training will focus on personal finance basics like budgeting, and money management. These type skills teach survivors how to recover financially from an abusive relationship (The Haven, valdostaharven.org). Comment by Amy Lyndon: This goes beyond the scope of your project. Comment by Amy Lyndon: You can’t completely eradicate domestic violence or sexual assault. Try to keep within the scope of your project

Most victims experience some type of financial abuse, which reduces their financial literacy. Thus, they will need assistance with maintaining the long-term shelter. Without having many organizations that are willing to take care of the plight the people are facing, the goals of the human services field would not be easily fulfilled (Juing et al., 2021). Human service programs can help victims through the programs that have been put in place along with hotlines that are focused directly on these issues. Housing is among the three most essential life requirements. Haven helps victims who have been financially abused by building a healthy, empowering, and strengthening them by looking into what is the cause of the situation and how they can come up with an idea that can change it (Soibatian, 2017). The Haven has many programs like housing, children support, women support groups, income, and employment service groups. The supporting services try to assist the individuals with materials and supplies that will help the individuals with low income to have daily needs. The victims sometimes are helped by social workers or churches that focus on stabilizing them and creating a budget that will finance the living (Jennifer, Patrick, 2011). However, it is projected that over one billion people are today living in insufficient housing conditions in urban areas. “In most cities, there are more than half of the population who lives in informal settlements in what can be described as life and health-threatening” (Ortiz-Ospina & Roser, 2017, p 3). More than 100 million people are homeless globally, and data shows that there are increasing propositions of women and children. The statistics given give a clear picture of the dire need for having quality housing globally. Comment by Amy Lyndon: Because this section only asks for two paragraphs, this content should be moved elsewhere – maybe section 2.1 and/or 2.2?

It is indisputable that homelessness continues to be a grand challenge in our country and globally. In addressing the problem of homelessness, our organization has been putting up measures to ensure that we prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place. This includes outreach efforts targeting at-risk people in short-term case management (Moretti, 2017).

 References

Bramley, G., & Fitzpatrick, S. (2018). Homelessness in the UK: who is most at risk? Housing Studies, 33(1), 96-116. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2017.1344957

Carla Moretti (2017) Social housing mediation: Education path for social workers, European Journal of Social Work, 20(3), 429-440. DOI:  10.1080/13691457.2017.1314934

Dunn, M., Rawson, M., & Rogers, A. (2021). Rural housing: Competition and choice (3rd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003132950

Gan, X., Zuo, J., Wu, P., Wang, J., Chang, R., & Wen, T. (2017). How affordable housing becomes more sustainable? A stakeholder study. Journal of Cleaner Production, 162, 427-437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.06.048

Juing, H., Jaime, J., & Lee, S. (2021). Mental health in subsidized housing: Readiness to assist residents with mental health issues In Subsidized Housing From The Perspectives Of Housing Employees. Qualitative Social Work. https://doi.org/10.1177%2f14733250211027630

Kottke, T., Abariotes, A., & Spoonheim, J. B. (2018). Access to affordable housing promotes health and well-being and reduces hospital visits. The Permanente Journal, 22.

Muir, K., Moran, M., Michaux, F., Findlay, S., Meltzer, A., Mason, C., & Heaney, R. A. (2017). The opportunities, risks, and possibilities of social impact investment for housing and homelessness. Ng, K., & Neo, Y. (2019). Housing Problems and Social Work Advocacy in a Home-Owning Society. Journal of Social service Research, 46(5), 671-684.

Ortiz-Ospina, E., & Roser, M. (2017). Homelessness. Our World in Data. Homelessness – Our World in Data

Polvere, L., Barness, C., & Lee, E. (2018). Housing needs of grandparent caregivers: grandparent, youth, and professional perspectives. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 61(5). https://doi.org/10.1080/01634372.2018.1454566

Jennifer, Patrick. (2011). The Role of Financial Education in Improved Housing. https://www.findevgateway.org/sites/default/files/publications/files/mfg-en-paper-the-role-of-financial-education-in-improved-housing-jun-2011.pdf.

1.2 Research Problem (2 Paragraphs)

Write a brief statement of the problem or need for improvement at the capstone site or program. Clearly describe the gap in current practice, service, process, policy, and/or the identified outcome. Identify the performance gap you wish to close and the potential root causes of the problem.

This section should include:

· FIRST PARAGRAPH: Write a brief statement that fully describes the problem being addressed. This paragraph introduces the problem that is informing the research and warrants the need for this study.

· Begin this paragraph with the statement, “The problem is…”

Example: The problem is that Helping Others, Inc’s transitional summer program has not consistently improved high school graduation rates.

· SECOND PARAGRAPH: Identify the need for the study. The need should be directly related to the problem presented in the first paragraph. It must identify a gap in current practice, service, process, policy, or programs. It must identify the need for the research and the desired outcome.

Example: This study is needed because high school graduation rates are decreasing in the service community where Helping Others Inc. provides its transitional summer program. Decreased graduation rates have negatively affected the unemployment rate in the area.

Use current (within 5-7 years), scholarly, PRIMARY resources to support statements. Textbooks are not primary resources. Theses and dissertations are not considered peer-reviewed published articles. Use APA style in citing all resources.

The problem is that the victims of domestic violence lack financial literacy and knowledge to retain long-term housing. After victims enter The Haven for assistance, they are provided with housing assistance to include finding housing, paid security deposits, paid utilities, and home goods are all covered for up to a three month period. After the three month period, many victims find themselves back in unfavorable situations, because they are unable to maintain the housing due to a lack of money manage and financial literacy (The Haven, valdostaharven.org). “We talked with survivors about why they had a hard time leaving the relationship and what comes up is lack of money or the lack of ability to obtain housing (Thomas, Tiffanie, valdostaharven.org). The human services field increasingly recognizes economic and financial abuse within intimate partner relationships (Shinn, & Khadduri, 2020); for this reason, the human services field has worked to develop financial empowerment programs to empower survivors for their financial future (Sikorska, 2021). The problem is domestic violence and intimate partner violence (IPV) victims struggle with financial independence. In recent years, researchers have come to recognize economic and financial abuse as a unique form of abuse commonly used by IPV perpetrators to gain and maintain control over their victims (Polvere et al., 2018). Broadly defined, financial abuse includes behavior’s that control a victim’s “ability to acquire, use, and maintain resources thus threatening her economic security and potential for self-sufficiency” (Adams et al., 2008, p. 564) and is frequently a precursor to physical abuse. For example, Adams (2011) reported that 99% of IPV victims experience financial abuse. Similarly, Postmus et al. (2012) reported that 94% of the IPV survivors they surveyed experienced some form of financial abuse. The Haven can provide short-term housing needs to victims for up to three months, but once the short-term shelter ends, victims struggle with maintaining the housing independently (The Haven (valdostaharven.org). Many victims suffer because their credit scores have been destroyed by their partners or simply because of a lack of knowledge. Partners often destroy victim’s credit by harassing them to use their social security numbers. Victims are not able to retrieve this information of their resources because many of the abusers closely monitor the websites that they will visit. The lack of financial security is brought by a lack of access to safety, so the housing takes the initiative of educating the victims on how to secure their homes (Robin & Osub, 2020). Comment by Amy Lyndon: Can you find an updated source for this information or the next one or two? Or even keep these, but find ones that say something similar to add?

The Haven explores a variety of options through local resources and the needs of the victims (MacKenzie et al., 2020). This project helps The Haven address the most affected people and use the available local resources, making access to affordable houses easier (Polvere et al., 2018). The major goal is to ensure that everybody can live in a house that is decent and affordable (Benerjee & Bhattacharya, 2020).

In response, this capstone is needed because financial literacy training is needed to help survivors of domestic violence to gain financial independence. A major deficiency in the debate is empirical evidence that the proposed interventions, which seek to empower women, so that they may be less likely to return to an abuser if they are to stay financially independent. This capstone fills the gap by developing training to improve the financial literacy of domestic violence victims. The domestic violence rate is 185 incidents per 100,000 population annually (Shinn, & Khadduri, 2020); these estimates suggest improving financial literacy can prevent between 6 to 20 domestic violence incidents per 100,000 population from occurring each year. This capstone will develop women’s financial literacy, which should significantly reduce the need to return to the abuser for financial reasons. First, financial literacy in the female population is significantly lower compared to the male population – i.e., the gender gap in financial literacy (Fonseca et al., 2012; Hasler & Lusardi, 2017; Lusardi & Mitchell, 2008, 2014). This inequality makes women susceptible to financial abuse by their partners. Therefore, improving financial literacy can help women be aware of and identify financial abuse when it first happens, and stop the cycle of violence. That is conditional on women’s income level, by closing the gap in financial knowledge and preventing financial abuse, financial literacy re-establishes women’s economic independence and bargaining position in the partnership, which in turn reduces domestic violence. Comment by Amy Lyndon: You also won’t have any empirical evidence, directly gathered. You will, however, use any empirical evidence on content and delivery of a financial literacy training program when creating it. Be careful that you don’t set up a problem that you don’t solve. Comment by Amy Lyndon: I think this may be a better argument.

References

Bramley, G., & Fitzpatrick, S. (2018). Homelessness in the UK: who is most at risk?. Housing Studies, 33(1), 96-116.

Benerjee, D., & Bhattacharya, P. (2020). The hidden vulnerability of homelessness in the Covid-19 pandemic: P

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