Sense of Community through Supportive Housing among Foster Care Alumni.

EX-foster children; PUBLIC housing; INDEPENDENT living; INTERPERSONAL relations; SENSORY perception; COMMUNITIES; CONTENT analysis; FOCUS groups; INTERVIEWING; RESEARCH methodology

Foster care alumni are young people emancipating, or recently emancipated from, state foster care systems. In recent years, federal funding has incentivized supportive housing as a way of mediating risk for this population. Utilizing a sample of 16 foster care alumni from a focal housing program in a densely populated Northeastern city, this research attempts to inductively answer the question: "How do foster care alumni, who are also residents of supportive housing, perceive and experience community?" Focus groups, individual interviews and administration of the Brief Sense of Community Scale were employed. Directed content analysis helped to guide qualitative findings, while a correlation analysis enabled quantitative results. Four themes emerged from the qualitative data: Detached Housing Staff, Self-reliance and Determination, Intangible Benefits of Housing, and Dichotomy of Perspective. Also, analysis of survey data indicated that the sense of community dimensions of "membership" and "needs fulfillment" were related at a level of statistical significance. Targeted, supportive housing was capable of facilitating sense of community for this sample of foster care alumni. Similarly, results contextualize, support, and extend the sense of community framework for this population, which often experiences relational and ecological impermanence. Implications for policy, practice and future research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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