Twitter impact on a community trauma: An examination of who, what, and why it radiated.

The study examined the radiating impacts of trauma following the officer-involved shooting of Alton Sterling. Twitter data (#AltonSterling) was collected, filtered, and analyzed using textual and spatial methods. Primary coding encompassed the 30-day period immediately following the shooting. In general, tweets were not used to convey either facts or neutral information, rather, personal opinions dominated. The immediate responses were largely grounded in fear and/or violence. One particularly illuminating finding was the absence of messaging and silence from local leadership. Social media can be a tool to either provide consolatory messaging to promote healing and health, or to spread inflammatory exchanges that perpetuate community discord, further fracture communities and groups, and elevate the risk of retraumatization. Local organizations need established protocols for using social media proactively in the aftermath of community trauma; social media can be a powerful tool for enhancing community cohesion, recovery, and resilience.

Addressing Crime, Violence, and Other Determinants of Health through Community-Based Participatory Research and Implementation Science.

In this paper, we describe the assessment and planning phase of the Thrive community-based initiative to reduce violence and address other determinants of health in a community in the Southwestern United States. Using community-based participatory research (CBPR) and an implementation science framework, we engaged residents and other key stakeholders as equal partners in the assessment and planning process. The Thrive assessment and planning phase involved collaboration among researchers, residents, law enforcement, nonprofit agencies, public health, local government, and other cross-sector partners. We used implementation science in order to examine the barriers and facilitators to addressing community health and safety, to assess the nature and scope of health and safety issues, to review existing solutions, to assess the acceptability and necessary adaptations of selected interventions, and to assess feasibility and sustainability of the initiative. Through interviews, focus groups, analysis of crime incident data, geomapping, and direct observations, our findings highlighted the presence of an open-air drug market, the high-stress nature of the community, concern for the lack of opportunities for youth, the lack of trust between residents and law enforcement, and a need to address the built environment to promote safety and well-being.

Consensus Organizing and Community-Based Participatory Research to Address Social-Structural Disparities and Promote Health Equity: The Hope Zone Case Study.

This case study illustrates the process of integrating community-based participatory research and consensus organizing in an effort to deconstruct social-structural risk factors and markers of health disparities, and build positive relationships between members of the criminal justice system and the community. Community residents, law enforcement, and other cross-sector partners engaged in an extensive planning initiative to address crime and social-structural risk factors in a majority African American community. Community-based participatory research and consensus organizing can be integrated as an effective approach to engaging and empowering communities to take action to dismantle social-structural disparities and promote a culture of health and well-being.

Hazards of Our Helping Profession: A Practical Self-Care Model for Community Practice.

The social work profession is a helping profession; social workers provide services with the intent to improve life opportunities in pursuit of social justice for individuals, groups, communities, and society as a whole. Social workers are called to work on behalf of the most vulnerable people in our society, and as such, the hazards of our helping profession are abundant. Though the literature offers numerous frameworks that can be used by social workers in a variety of settings, many issues that are unique to community practice settings can lead to professional burnout and compassion fatigue for social workers. At present there are no comprehensive models for self-care that attend specifically to the unique needs of the community practitioner. This article presents the iM-PAACT model, a four-part conceptual framework that helps to fill this gap in the literature. This practical self-care model has been designed specifically for social workers engaged primarily in community practice settings, including the community activist, community organizer, and community-engaged scholar.