Research Question
What perceived barriers do residents of Southern New Jersey encounter when trying to access violence-related services in their community?
Project Goals
• To identify and categorize factors preventing community members from accessing local violence-related services (e.g., medical care, law enforcement, and social services).
• To raise awareness among service providers about the barriers preventing community members from accessing violence-related support.
• To collaborate with local stakeholders to create actionable strategies that address the identified barriers and improve service delivery.
My Role
• Protocol design
• IRB approval
• Participant recruitment, enrollment, and consent
• Site approval
• Data collection and analysis
Research Method
• Semi-structured focus groups and interviews with residents of Southern New Jersey
• Inductive coding using NVivo 14
Progress to Date
• Data collection in progress
• Data analysis in progress
Preliminary Findings
Forthcoming
Collaborators
• Cortney VanHook, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
• Jiayin Luo, B.A. (Community Partnership Coordinator, Healthcare Approaches to Justice Collaborative, Montclair State University)
• Katheryne Pugliese, M.A. (Ph.D. Candidate, Criminal Justice, John Jay College - CUNY)
• Nicholas Lozano, M.D. (Psychiatry Resident at New York Medical College - St. Mary's & St. Clare's)
• Octavia Goodman, M.P.H. (Ph.D. Candidate, Health Services Research, Old Dominion University)
• Shamecia Pullem, B.A. (Research Assistant, Healthcare Approaches to Justice Collaborative, Montclair State University)
• Sheetal Ranjan, Ph.D. (Professor, Departments of Justice Studies and Sociology, Montclair State University; Co-Founder, Healthcare Approaches to Justice Collaborative)
