Grace Dyrness

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Teresa Marat-Mendes

ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL)

David Seamon

Kansas State University

Murat Cemal Yalcintan

Msgsu

Stephane Tonnelat

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / French National Centre for Scientific Research

Jonathan Xavier Inda

University of Illinois at Chicago

Asher Ghertner

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Olivier Nay

Université Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne

Maurizio Carta

Università degli Studi di Palermo

Juana María Rodríguez

University of California, Berkeley

Haris Tsavdaroglou

University of Amsterdam

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Papers by Grace Dyrness

Policy on the streets: A handbook for the establishment of sidewalk-vending programs

and Space in Southern

Promised Land? Immigration, Religiosity, and Space in Southern California

Space and Culture, 2010

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Outcomes Evaluation in Faith-Based Social Services: Are We Evaluating Faith Accurately?

Research on Social Work Practice, 2007

In response to a recent call for research on the effectiveness of faith-based organizations, this... more In response to a recent call for research on the effectiveness of faith-based organizations, this article synthesizes how effectiveness has been defined and measured in evaluation research of faith-based programs. Although evidence indicates that religion can have a positive impact on individuals' well-being, no prior comprehensive review exists of the literature on the effectiveness of faith-based social service programs. Adopting the systematic review method, the authors explore how researchers have conceptualized and operationalized effectiveness and faith. The authors identify trends and limitations across studies and conclude with implications for researchers and practitioners interested in examining and delivering faith-based social services.

Faith-based programs and outcomes for street-living youth in Los Angeles, Mumbai and Nairobi

International Social Work, 2008

English This study explores programs and outcomes for homeless street youth in faith-based organi... more English This study explores programs and outcomes for homeless street youth in faith-based organizations in Los Angeles, Mumbai and Nairobi. Findings reveal differences in conceptions of street youth and services provided. Similarities are manifested in client outcomes. Recommendations are offered to improve social welfare policies and service provision for street youth. French Cette étude examine les programmes innovants pour les jeunes de la rue émanant des organisations basées sur la foi et la vie communautaire à Los Angeles, Bombay et Nairobi. Les résultats révèlent des différences de conceptions sur les jeunes de la rue et en matière de services proposés. Des similarités sont observées dans les résultats relatifs aux usagers. Des recommandations politiques sont proposées dans le but d'améliorer la formulation des politiques sociale à l'égard des jeunes des rues. Spanish Este estudio examina programas innovadores creados por organizaciones comunitarias y religiosas desti...

Comparative analysis of faith-based programs serving homeless and street-living youth in Los Angeles, Mumbai and Nairobi

Children and Youth Services Review, 2006

This study sought to determine which faith elements exist in faith-based programs for homeless an... more This study sought to determine which faith elements exist in faith-based programs for homeless and streetliving youth in Los Angeles, Mumbai and Nairobi and how these concepts are defined according to staff and youth clients. Descriptions of client outcomes across programs are also explored. Quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews were conducted with 22 staff and 11 clients from 11 faith-based programs for homeless youth in Los Angeles. In Mumbai and Nairobi, 6 staff and 12 youth were interviewed from 3 faith-based programs in each city. Findings reveal similarities across cities in services, faith components and client outcomes. Differences are noted in the influence of the socio-political context on service provision. Recommendations are offered to guide faithbased organizations in designing and improving services for homeless and street-living youth.

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Immigration and integration

Progress in Development Studies, 2011

Although the role of religion in the lives of immigrants has recently been a subject of interest ... more Although the role of religion in the lives of immigrants has recently been a subject of interest by scholars, there has not been much focus on the importance of the religio-political activism of faith-based and community organizations in favour of immigrants. This article focuses on a religious congregation, Immanuel Presbyterian Church, and a community-organizing network, the Salvadoran American National Association, to demonstrate how religion is actively promoting and aiding political engagement on behalf of and with immigrants in Los Angeles, with a particular, although not exclusive, focus on immigrants of Latino origin, who comprise the lion’s share of immigrants in Los Angeles County. The theoretical analysis builds on concepts drawn from religious activism for immigrant rights and theories of social mobilization, interest groups, symbolic and social capital, and economic and morality politics. We use a triangulated methodological approach that includes observation and partic...

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Formal Versus Informal Allocation of Land in a Commons: The Case of the MacArthur Park Sidewalk Vendors

bepress Legal Series, 2006

Sidewalk vendors are becoming a more common presence in cities in Latin America and the United St... more Sidewalk vendors are becoming a more common presence in cities in Latin America and the United States. Vendor demand for the best sidewalk vending spots increasingly exceeds supply, making necessary a system to allocate space in what is essentially an open access commons. This paper presents an empirical study of two very different systems of allocation that have been adopted in the city of Los Angeles, California, a formal one imposed by the city on legal vendors when they were unable to come up with one on their own, and a second that was embraced by illegal vendors across the street on

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Crisis and Hope among the World’s Urban Poor: Religion responds to Covid-19

International Journal of Interreligious and Intercultural Studies

We are living in unprecedented times of migration flows. There are over 271.6 million internation... more We are living in unprecedented times of migration flows. There are over 271.6 million international migrants globally, most of them women and children under the age of 19, most of whom move to cities causing fast growth in urban areas, particularly in the informal settlements and slums, places of poverty, densely populated with inadequate household water and sanitation, little or no waste management, overcrowded public transport and limited access to formal health care facilities. As they seek to establish themselves in the city, many migrants turn to religion for support. Faith communities become places where they can find 1) a source of community; 2) where resources are available to meet their needs; 3) for support in times of trouble; and 4) where praying becomes a resource for survival. As the Covid-19 pandemic began spreading throughout the world and cities were locked down, people were requested to stay in their homes, but yet they had no income or food, causing hunger, anxiet...

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Using GIS to evaluate the impact of the built environment surrounding transitional homeless shelters on their residents' tobacco use

Chapter 11. Bearing Witness: Women in Cities as Agents of Transformation for God

Women's Health and the World's Cities, 2011

Chapter 10. Transforming Urban Environments

Women's Health and the World's Cities, 2011

Perceptions of faith and outcomes in faith-based programs for homeless youth : A grounded theory approach

Journal of Social Service Research, Jun 22, 2007

This study sought to determine which "faith" elements exist in faith-based programs for homeless ... more This study sought to determine which "faith" elements exist in faith-based programs for homeless youth and how these concepts are defined according to staff and youth clients. Descriptions of client outcomes across programs are also explored. Quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews were conducted with 22 staff and 11 clients from 11 faith-based programs for homeless youth in Los Angeles. Common themes that emerged include using faith to instill hope in clients, non-church-related religious practices and spiritual growth in clients. Grounded theory is used to interpret findings and develop hypotheses to inform future research on faith and outcomes. Implications for social work are offered to guide practitioners and researchers in designing, implementing and evaluating effective faith-based practices for homeless youth.

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Space and Culture Space and Culture Promised Land? Immigration, Religiosity, and Space in Southern California

by Clara Irazábal and Grace Dyrness

This article looks at how immigrants and their supporters appropriate and use religious space and... more This article looks at how immigrants and their supporters appropriate and use religious space and other public spaces for religious and socio-political purposes in Southern California. While the everyday living conditions of many immigrants, particularly the unauthorized Latino immigrants, force unto them an embodied disciplinarity that maintains spatialities of restricted citizenship, the public appropriations of space for and through religious practices allow for them -even if only momentarily -to express an embodied transgression. This practice in public space helps realize spaces of freedom and hope, however ephemerally. Potentially, these rehearsing exercises can help revert internalized disempowering subjectivities and create social empowerment. Negative stereotypes about immigrants held by the larger public can also be challenged through these spatial practices, as the public demonstrations make visible the invisible. We focus on "Posadas Without Borders" and "the New Sanctuary Movement," considering both the role of progressive civic and religious institutions in supporting immigrants and the agency of the immigrants themselves. The theoretical analysis builds on concepts drawn from a conversation between geography and religious and theological studies. We use a triangulated methodological approach that includes observation and participant observation, content-analysis of multimedia, interviews, and intellectual advocacy for the immigrant movement. The cases discussed here show that progressive religious groups and coalitions can be important allies to progressive planners, geographers, and policy makers in advancing social and environmental justice for the disenfranchised. They also show that the theological underpinnings of such groups share a lot in common with planning epistemologies for the just city.

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Policy on the streets: A handbook for the establishment of sidewalk-vending programs

and Space in Southern