Our Research
Our Research
Our scholars make the social work profession better by learning from and alongside our community partners as they conduct cutting-edge, client-focused research.
By the Numbers
3
Innovative, client-based research centers
15
Active research grants
$8.8M+
In total research awards over the past 5 years
80%
of faculty engaged in research with students
Center for Field Innovation, Research, Strategy and Training (C-FIRST)
Our students to arrive in practice already knowing how to implement research-informed solutions in partnership with the communities they serve. Current C-FIRST programs include behavioral health workforce training, certification in advanced brief interventions for substance use disorders and promotion of a pipeline to employment for those at high risk of opioid use disorder.
Center for Immigrant and Refugee Accompaniment (CIRA)
We created CIRA to help our students and other practitioners better advocate for immigrant and refugee populations here in Chicago, across the United States, and with our partners around the globe.
Center for Research on Self-Sufficiency (CROSS)
Using psychological self-sufficiency (PSS) as a framework, we seek long-range solutions to issues of self-sufficiency and stability for low-income individuals and families. Informed by the communities we work in, we focus on economic self-sufficiency and workforce development, as well as health promotion, youth development and violence prevention, adult education, ex-offender reentry and more.
Featured Partnerships and Awards
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
HHS has been a frequent funding partner of CROSS research focused on helping low-income adults overcome the barriers that prevent them from finding and keeping full-time jobs.
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
C-FIRST was recently awarded a $2 million four-year grant from HRSA to help develop a cutting-edge curriculum for second-year and advanced standing students in partnership with community organizations.
After School Matters
After School Matters has been a regular partner of the Empowering Counseling Program, which has offered free school-based counseling and after school services in pre-school to Grade 12 in South Side communities since 2006.
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago and Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico
For over 12 years, the Ibero Transnational Service Project—developed collaboratively by the three institutions— has provided social services to the Latino community as well as knowledge, practicum and research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students from both universities in a unique cross-national program.
Research areas
Informed by the needs of our community partners, our faculty conduct research across nine primary areas of focus:
- Mental Health/Schools/Children & Youth/ Foster Care
- Interpersonal & Community Violence
- Opioids & Other Addictions
- Integrated Health
- Practice Methods & Theories
- Environmental Issues, Disasters, & Justice
- Work, Worker, Workplace
- Poverty, Race & Community
- Migration & Refugees
Active Grants
Implementation Science of Transforming Impossible into Possible for Jobs Plus at Dearborn Homes
Principal Investigator: Philip Hong
The place-based Jobs Plus Initiative program at CHA's Dearborn Homes addresses poverty among public housing residents by incentivizing and enabling employment supported by the PSS theory.
The Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program at Loyola University Chicago (B-WEP@LUC)
Principal Investigator: John Orwat
The Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program at Loyola University Chicago (B-WEP@LUC) for Professionals Project aims to enhance the screening, assessment, and treatment of individuals at risk of behavioral health issues by creating a pipeline to employment by training 116 second year/Advanced Standing social work students for over four years.
Loyola Veterans Clinic
Principal Investigator: James Marley with Theresa Ceko (Law)
Loyola University Chicago's Veterans Clinic, in collaboration with the School of Social Work and the School of Law, will be expanding its mental health services, through more social work interns, allowing for increased case management support as well as legal services.
Support for Contextualizing Black Adolescent Female Sexual Health, Decision-Making and Paternal Engagement
Principal Investigator: Marquitta Dorsey
This project aims to support preparation and training for the larger study titled Contextualizing Black Adolescent Female Sexual Health, Decision Making and Paternal Engagement through protected time and funding for methodological training and mentorship.
Transforming Impossible into Possible (TIP) Institute: Strengthening Virtual Capacity for Community Engagement during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Principal Investigator: Philip Hong
This project will conduct TIP implementation research at Instituto del Progreso Latino (IDPL) and Heartland Human Care Services. Further, Center for Research on Self-Sufficiency (CROSS) will be providing a virtual community-based learning collaborative to agency partners that are currently implementing the TIP program.
Friends of the Children Program Enhancement Project
Principal Investigator: Julia Pryce
Enhancements will build upon current continuous quality improvement efforts and our unique long-term partnership forged with families. This project aims to strengthen Friend training and ongoing whole family supports to prevent substance abuse and delinquency.
Human Rights Youth Advocates - Law Under Curious Minds
Principal Investigator: Katherine Tyson McCrea
This summer program occurs virtually in Englewood and the Near West Side. Instructors and social work interns will work with youth recruited via After School Matters and virtual interviews, in small group and large group formats over digital media. The human rights-oriented program will focus on understanding human, civil and legal rights in the context of COVID-19 and the quarantine. Youth will interview community members to understand and help with stressors and resource needs.
First Star Academy at Loyola School of Social Work through DCFS
Principal Investigator: Julia Pryce
First Star Academy at Loyola serves a cohort of foster youth from Chicago with a program operation of teaching, supporting, and advocating for the youth by providing them with university-based programming to help them aspire to advance to higher education after graduation.
A Curriculum and Internship Model for Socioemotional Care and Mental Health Services in Emergency Situations
Principal Investigator: Maria Vidal de Haymes
This project aims to develop, pilot, evaluate and disseminate a professional internship model and curriculum designed to prepare social work students for interprofessional practice in migration crisis situations.
The Expansion of Practitioner Education @ Loyola University Chicago (PracEd@LUC)
Principal Investigator: John Orwat
The Practitioner Interprofessional Substance Abuse Training Program at Loyola University Chicago (PISAT@LUC) builds on the success of the SAMHSA-funded SBIRT@LUC training program.
Opioid Workforce Expansion Training Program at Loyola University Chicago (OWETP@LUC) Professionals Project
Principal Investigator: John Orwat
The Opioid Workforce Expansion Training Program at Loyola University Chicago (OWETP@LUC) Professionals Project aims to enhance the treatment and recovery of adolescents and transition-aged youth who are at high risk with substance use disorder (SUD) and opioid use disorder (OUD) by creating a pipeline to employment.
Evaluation of Goal-Directed Psychological Capital and Employer Coaching in Health Profession Opportunity Development
Principal Investigator: Philip Hong
This evaluation assesses the degree to which an increase in psychological self-sufficiency (PSS) through an employer-sponsored TIP program for employees leads to economic self-sufficiency.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Family Court Enhancement Project in the Domestic Violence Court, Chicago, Illinois
Principal Investigator: Susan Grossman with Christine George (Center for Urban Research and Learning)
The three main goals of the evaluation research project are: 1) to understand the impact of FCEP activities on achieving risk-appropriate parenting arrangements via i) judges’ decisions on OPs and ii) petitioners’ pleadings as assisted by attorneys, advocates or FCEP educational materials 2) to identify factors that help and hinder implementation of FCEP practices in achieving those goals and 3) to assess the long-term impact of FCEP activities.
BRAVE Minority Youth Violence Prevention
Principal Investigator: Caleb Kim
The goal of this project is to develop and implement the BRAVE (Building Resilience Against Violence Engagement) model for preventing minority youth's violence in collaboration with community agencies in Chicago.
Evaluation of Fifth House Ensemble Education Programming
Principal Investigator: Brian Kelly with David Van Zytveld (Center for Urban Research and Learning )
The 5HE project aims to develop new evaluation/assessment tools to measure the effectiveness of music programs in non-arts-based settings, in collaboration with Loyola University's Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL).
Evaluation of Thriving Fathers and Families: A Psychological Self-Sufficiency for Fatherhood (PSS-Fatherhood) Study
Principal Investigator: Philip Hong
Loyola University Chicago in partnership with Children’s Home & Aid will incorporate evaluation efforts focused on both the process of program implementation (program model and fidelity) and program outcomes with the goal of further program application and scalability. The evaluation includes program and process components, analyzing not only what is being achieved through the integration of Transforming Impossible into Possible (TIP) but also how various programmatic outcomes are achieved. The analyses will allow adjustment of programming as needed and change the systems for strengthening fatherhood and healthy families.
"The growing success and prominence of the School of Social Work's research portfolio are driven by its faculty's innovative, community-focused, and community-engaged approaches to contemporary problems in our society, whose focus is in perfect alignment with Loyola University Chicago's Jesuit values and commitment to social justice." Meharvan (Sonny) Singh, PhD Vice Provost of Research, Loyola University Chicago Vice Dean of Research Professor, Cellular and Molecular Physiology
Improving Social Work… Improves Lives
Our faculty publish award-winning articles, but research here doesn’t stop at the journal page. Our innovative centers bring students and community partners together to ensure improvements are implemented and success isn’t just theoretical.