Social networking helps keep homeless youth safe

April 8, 2011 By 3 Comments


Listen to an audio story by Annenberg Radio News:

—–

image Homeless youth in Los Angeles are technologically wired. Their connections to the outside world are making their lives safer, according to a study by University of Southern California School of Social Work assistant professor Eric Rice. Rice received a three-year $2.1 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study social networking among the homeless.

Rice and his co-investigator, Norweeta Milburn from the University of California Los Angeles, will look at two primary hubs of homelessness in the Los Angeles area – Hollywood and Santa Monica – to explore how and why homeless youth engage with each other and the outside world through social media.

“What’s happening is that the young people who are using social networking sites connect to best friends from home or family members that they still have good relationships with,” Rice said. “Those young people are the ones that are doing well. They’re using fewer drugs, they’re engaging in less risky sex and, partially because they have an anchor, they have an anchor to another social world that’s less filled with risk.”

Rice and Milburn hope to create new and innovative interventions to deter risky sexual behavior and drug-use.

“If I can help understand what’s going on in their lives and what’s working for them, then I can try to help agencies that serve these youth to deliver programs better, help develop newer programs that hit them right where they’re at,” Rice said.

While homeless services and programs do exist for youth in Los Angeles, the ways in which social media can be incorporated into those programs has not yet been explored.

“When we think about creating social media programs for these young people, we want to think about a few different things,” Rice said. “But one of the things we want to think about is trying to create programs that really encourage those young people to connect back to those positive influences. If most of these homeless youth that are doing well have someone in their lives that they can turn to, we want to encourage them to do that.”

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: , , , ,

Proposition 19 lacks funds, not buzz

October 26, 2010 By 6 Comments


image

Listen to the audio story:

—–

A recent poll by the Los Angeles Times and the University of Southern California shows that 51 percent of California voters oppose legalizing marijuana.

With just a week away from voting time, the Yes on 19 campaign says it is stepping up its efforts.

But both campaign sides have had little capital compared to other campaigns this election cycle. With less money, the campaign is focusing on reaching voters online instead of on televesion.

Recently, the campaign for legalizing marijuana just got a monetary push from investor George Soros. He donated $1 million to the Drug Policy Alliance.

Stephen Gutwillig is one of the alliance’s spokespersons. He declined to give details about Soros and the donation. He did say, however, that the alliance plans on using the money for voter mobilization and public education.

It is a little late in the game to film and televise advertisements. So far, there is only one pro-legalization marijuana advertisement done by the Yes on 19 campaign.

Tom Angell is the spokesperson for Yes on 19. He says the advertisement originally played in Los Angeles, but it recently expanded to Bakersfield, Fresno and Chico. The campaign also purchased a “predicted dialer.” That is a gadget that calls about five people at once, and when someone picks up the phone, it connects to a volunteer.

Their so-called “grassroots campaign” will be focusing more on communication though Facebook and blogs. They also signed up hundreds of volunteers to man the phones. Expect a phone call this week.

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , ,