Oral Presentations and Performances: Session I
Project Type
Presentation - Campus Access Only
Project Funding and Affiliations
Montana Campus Network for Civic Engagement (MCNCE) has provided a $500 grant toward 10 filmed interviews with people experiencing houselessness.
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Hannah Zuraff
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Public Administration and Policy
Abstract / Artist's Statement
Within the last three years, Missoula, Montana, has developed a culture of pervasive, systemic, and negative actions against people experiencing houselessness. The transition from funding multi-tiered approaches, including encampments, shelters, transitional housing, and permanent supportive housing, has been replaced by decreased resource-availability and an over-funded policy enforcing fines, misdemeanors, and arrests on anyone unsheltered and experiencing houselessness. At the root of this public sentiment is stigma, which manifests itself at all levels of the socio-ecological system and negatively impacts the health, housing, employment, social, mental, and physical outcomes of people experiencing houselessness. To combat stigma, Meet Your Neighbor is a program that seeks to foster online and in-person education, storytelling, and relationship-building engagement with community members and people experiencing houselessness. Through a combination of consistent, cohesive, and engaging online strategies, along with in-person events and activities that bring together both housed and unhoused neighbors, this program expects to see an increase in the participation of nonprofit organizations serving people experiencing houselessness as a measure of stigma reduction. The socio-ecological model, intervention mapping, theory of reasoned action, intergroup contact hypothesis, peer-reviewed studies, similar non-profit strategies, and news articles have guided this program proposal’s creation and perspective. The program’s development of increased online and in-person positive interactions is anticipated to result in systemic reductions of stigma, contributing to better overall outcomes for people experiencing houselessness.
Category
Social Sciences
Meet Your Neighbor: A Houseless Services Program Proposal in Missoula, Montana
UC 330
Within the last three years, Missoula, Montana, has developed a culture of pervasive, systemic, and negative actions against people experiencing houselessness. The transition from funding multi-tiered approaches, including encampments, shelters, transitional housing, and permanent supportive housing, has been replaced by decreased resource-availability and an over-funded policy enforcing fines, misdemeanors, and arrests on anyone unsheltered and experiencing houselessness. At the root of this public sentiment is stigma, which manifests itself at all levels of the socio-ecological system and negatively impacts the health, housing, employment, social, mental, and physical outcomes of people experiencing houselessness. To combat stigma, Meet Your Neighbor is a program that seeks to foster online and in-person education, storytelling, and relationship-building engagement with community members and people experiencing houselessness. Through a combination of consistent, cohesive, and engaging online strategies, along with in-person events and activities that bring together both housed and unhoused neighbors, this program expects to see an increase in the participation of nonprofit organizations serving people experiencing houselessness as a measure of stigma reduction. The socio-ecological model, intervention mapping, theory of reasoned action, intergroup contact hypothesis, peer-reviewed studies, similar non-profit strategies, and news articles have guided this program proposal’s creation and perspective. The program’s development of increased online and in-person positive interactions is anticipated to result in systemic reductions of stigma, contributing to better overall outcomes for people experiencing houselessness.