Active funded projects
Baylor University continues to grow into its R1 status, identifying best practices to support the fast-changing, high research activity as well as encouraging the growth of diverse research activities across campus. We are proud of the ways GSSW faculty, staff, and students have contributed to Baylor’s R1 status.
Developing a Culturally-sensitive Volunteering Program to Reduce Stress of Dementia Caregivers in Chinese American Communities - NIH
Dr. Jinyu Liu leads this National Institutes of Health (NIH) project. Given the increasing prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) in the United States and the quickly growing population of older Chinese Americans, many older Chinese Americans are expected to need intensive care because of cognitive impairment. Few interventions have been designed to address caregiver needs among Chinese Americans, despite previous studies showing critical issues of poverty, low acculturation, and poor mental health in this population, the largest group of Asian Americans. A large gap exists in development of culturally sensitive interventions to reduce stress among caregivers in Chinese American communities. This Research Career Development Award (K01) will give Dr. Liu the training, mentoring, and skills necessary to conduct intervention research to reduce the burden of dementia care among Chinese American families. The proposed mentored research activities for this K01 award involve developing and pilot testing a culturally sensitive intervention, the Peer Mentoring Program (PMP).
Behavioral Health Workforce Training Grant Program - HRSA
Drs. Becky Scott, Elissa Madden and Danielle Parrish have created the Baylor BRIDGE Training and Certificate Program, titled “Behavioral Health in Developing and Growing Health Education Training and Certificate Program, is to recruit, train and support a diverse group of social work emerging professionals in evidence-based, interdisciplinary behavioral health practices with youth and emerging adults. This program provides stipend support for advanced year MSW students at the Garland School of Social Work (GSSW) at Baylor University to engage in courses, internship training, and didactic workshops focused on the best practices and established models in integrated behavioral health with an emphasis on delivery in community health primary care and consideration of pediatric patient needs.
Building Resilient Congregations: Consultation in Accompaniment, Trauma Care & LGBTQ+ Inclusion - Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation
Dr. Gaynor Yancey and C3I research staff will run the three-year project and consult with 15-20 diverse congregations. Additionally, they will ;build certificate programs for both future congregational learning and sustainable support for the C3I. The goal of each online certificate will be to improve pastoral and spiritual care for faith communities, increase resiliency amidst engaging difficult conversations will this allow for deeper learning experiences for the congregations involved in the initial consultation process but will also create a sustainable model for congregations to become better equipped around the topics of Trauma Care, Accompaniment, and LGBTQ+ Discernment for the years to come.
C3I Collaboration - Fellowship Southwest
The Center for Church and Community Impact is in complete alignment with Fellowship Southwest’s aim to help congregations strengthen their ministries, deepen their relationships with God, enhance their connections with each other and contribute to the flourishing of their communities and world.
Through this collaboration, the C3I gains capacity and support to launch and pilot the collaboration of the C3I, the FSW and CBF congregations committed to experiencing transformation as they engage their changing communities and aims to accomplish this pilot.
Partnering for H.O.T. Mental Health – Department of Education
Building on a seven-year partnership with Waco Independent School District (WISD) and Transformation Waco (TW), two LEAs with high need in our community, Professors Carrie Arroyo and Mary Zane Nelson will utilize funding from this opportunity to increase high quality mental health service providers who are prepared to work in local schools upon graduation with their Master of Social Work degree.
Mt. Sinai R21 Alzheimers – NIH
Dr. Jinyu Liu is leading this study and the goal is to examine the relationship between immigration and cognitive function in older Chinese immigrants. This requires training of a clinical research coordinator on qualitative interviews and survey-based measures of immigration. Collected data will be entered for exploratory analysis and interpretation. Research activities will be conducted at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS).
SCRAP Collective - Mission Waco
Dr. Stephanie Boddie and Dr. Joshua King will lead this initiative alongside community leaders in Waco. The SCRAP Collective is hoping to reduce the environmentally damaging methane emissions generated landfill, the matching grant funds to support a program that diverts extra food to those that need it and encourages converting food waste into nutrient-rich compost for gardening.
Klaras Center for Families’ Homeless Youth Safety Net Project
Dr. Cheryl Pooler will collect data using an admixture of already-developed measures, e.g., RHY- HMIS, PPR, The Comprehensive Human Trafficking Assessment, the VI-SPDAT (Vulnerability Index-Service Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool}, the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS}, the Child & Adolescent Needs & Strengths Assessment (CANS) as well as additional measures created by Baylor's research team. New measures will be constructed to collect and report performance measures as required by the Administration on Children, Youth and Families per the RHYA.
Post-Graduate Fellowship for Social Workers in Texas Primary Care Clinics - Sholar Foundation
Dr. Becky Scott, Principal Investigator (PI) will provide model development of a primary care training model for LMSW (non-student) trainees. Dr. Scott will provide curriculum development and training of others in the curriculum, evaluation of the training program, and dissemination of the program evaluation outcomes. Dr. Sung Seek Moon, Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) will provide program evaluation, data analysis and interpretation. Dr Moon will provide a brief annual report on program outcomes as well as a final aggregated report in year 4. If data is relevant for manuscript preparation, Dr. Moon will participate in creating a manuscript of the findings.