Parent Collaboration Leads to Homeless Shelter Improvements

Published October 2021 | Family & Community Health

Many scientists and clinicians understand that homelessness often has lasting negative impacts for child health, behavior, and development. However, few have worked as directly with parents experiencing homelessness as this team of researchers led by experts at Cincinnati Children’s.

In a project led by Pamela Williams-Arya, MD, and Tanya Froehlich, MD, MS, the team gathered 53 parents from three homeless shelters to conduct a Group-Level Assessment (GLA). This community-based research methodology engages stakeholders to develop participant-driven results and relevant action plans. Participants were asked to respond to 20 open-ended questions about their child's medical, developmental, learning, social, and behavioral needs.

Responses coalesced around four themes: job and housing stability, education and skill development, emotional support, and improving shelter life. Sharing the findings with shelter and community leaders led to a number of policy and practice enhancements.

Improvements included enhanced child development programming at all the shelters. More staff were hired to coordinate services and activities for children, and a Play & Learn parenting support program was piloted. One local shelter also began providing childcare on-site, which made it easier for parents to attend and focus on their job and housing interviews.

“GLA provides a valid, lived-experience way to uncover local needs and priorities and thus can be utilized in a wide range of settings,” says Tanya Froehlich, MD, MS, director of research in the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and the study’s senior author. “This research approach is also exciting because it can amplify diverse stakeholder voices, including those from historically marginalized groups, such as racial and ethnic minorities.”