Funded Grants:

Dr. Rita Chou has been selected as a Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholar. This is a highly prestigious, highly competitive award. The award provides up to $50,000 each year for two years in support of salary and benefits, attending national professional meetings and/or research and statistical consultation, as well as other costs related to work on Dr. Chou's research project.

Dr. Jinseok Kim received a grant award from the HRSA. The study entitled as "Long-term effect of social environments on activity patterns and overweight among U.S. adolescents," is to conduct a series of analyses using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to determine how social environmenal factors (such as neighborhood cohesion, safety, and social network) predict physical activity/inactivity patterns and overweight status at adolescence and 6 years later in their early adulthood. This study is responding to R40: Maternal and Child Health Research Program (MCHR) and funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of US DHHS. Jihong Liu (Public Health) is the PI, and Jinseok Kim (Social Work), Natalie Colabianchi (Public Health) and Russ Pate (Public Health) are co-PIs.

The Social Work Leadership Institute at the New York Academy of Medicine, together with the John A. Hartford Foundation, has announced that Dr. Terry Wolfer of the College of Social Work has been selected from a competitive group of submissions to receive a Practicum Partnership Program (PPP) Grant. Dr. Wolfer's project will focuses on geriatric social work in congregations. Geriatric Social Work in Congregation Press Release (In Adobe Acrobat)

Arlene Bowers Andrews, Professor in the USC College of Social Work, has been selected as a Fahs-Beck Fellow by the Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation at The New York Community Trust.

Centers of Economic Excellence (CoEE)  has approved state funding for a new Center of Economic Excellence, including SMART HOME

The Center for Child and Family Studies has been awarded a three-year, $216,000 contract to evaluate Project SAFE. This youth suicide prevention and early intervention project will be administered by Mental Health America- South Carolina and is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Research Assistant Professor Michael Rodi, Ph.D. will serve as the Principal Investigator for the evaluation.

Dr. Jinseok Kim has been accepted to the ICPSR Summer Program: Social and Economic Contexts of Child Care and Early Education. Dr. Kim also was awarded a travel stipend to defray the costs of attending the workshop, which will be held in early August at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Dr. Jinseok Kim was selected for an internal award of $17,000.00 from the Office of Research and Health Sciences for his research productivity proposal on childhood victimization, sexual behavior development, and neighborhood context . The competition was very strong this year: only 9 of 70 proposals throughout the university were chosen by an independent scientific review panel for this particular award.

Congratulations to Dana DeHart, Ph.D. and the Center for Child and Family Studies! Dr. DeHart recently has been awarded three different grants as Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator. Each of the projects also involves different members of the Center’s research faculty and staff.

Poly-victimization of Girls Referred to the Justice System: National Institute of Justice

The study, funded by the National Institute of Justice, is an extension of previous research on victimization histories of incarcerated women. Researchers and practitioners have recognized that girls in the justice system experience disproportionately high rates of violence exposure—such as child maltreatment, rape, and dating violence—prior to their delinquent or criminal offending. Using interviews with girls, caregiver surveys, and archival records to gather information on girls’ histories of violence exposure, use of community services, and relationship of victimization and service use to girls’ delinquency or crime, we hope that the study will help equip community- and systems-based interventions to address complex constellations of abuse such as “poly-victimization” (simultaneously experiencing multiple types of violence exposure). Making findings useful for practitioners is a major goal of the study, and funding is included for activities to help translation of research to practice.

Preventing Mistreatment of Vulnerable Adults: South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services

With support from the SC Department of Health and Human Services, we are working to develop a training program to prevent mistreatment of vulnerable adults for nursing homes across the state. The collaborative effort brings together two USC teams, each with demonstrated experience in community-derived practitioner education of national significance. The Office for the Study of Aging and the Center for Child & Family Studies will solicit input on training needs from a variety of stakeholders, including service providers who work with vulnerable adults or victims of crime, community advocates, policymakers, and victims and families affected by mistreatment.  

Development of a Victim Service Coordinating Council in SC

Our contract to develop a council in South Carolina is part of the State Office for Victim Assistance's mandate to provide "support for a state-level advisory group representative of all agencies and groups involved in victim/witness and domestic violence services to improve coordination efforts" (Title 16, Article 14 of the SC Code of Laws). An ideal council will be driven by providers from that community, yet professionally facilitated to assist in processing diverse perspectives, mediating conflict and bridging philosophical or informational gaps, helping participants share their expertise, and moving the pace along for efficient functioning. Our approach will include exploration of existing community needs and resources, as well as guided examination of options for nature and depth of council activities. We will engage providers in identifying stakeholders and goals, and we will assist in integrating collective ideas for a clear and feasible strategic plan for the council.  

For questions about any of these projects, please contact Dana DeHart at (803) 777-7867 or at dana.dehart@sc.edu.

Archived Grants