Psychology – Â鶹ĘÓƵ Tue, 10 Mar 2026 18:15:19 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 /wp-content/uploads/2019/04/cropped-favicon_logo-32x32.jpg Psychology – Â鶹ĘÓƵ 32 32 Recommending best practices for secure detention of youth /projects/recommending-best-practices-for-secure-detention-of-youth/ Tue, 10 Mar 2026 15:55:55 +0000 /?post_type=projects&p=21195 Read More... from Recommending best practices for secure detention of youth

]]> Psychology students examined Sheboygan County’s juvenile justice system, focusing on the interactions between intake, community-based case management, and secure custody functions. Their report evaluates how effectively these components operate individually and as a system and identifies strengths, challenges, and opportunities for improved outcomes for youth and the community.

]]> Evaluating Monroe County’s drug court program, part two /projects/evaluating-monroe-countys-drug-court-program-part-two/ Mon, 09 Mar 2026 20:18:48 +0000 /?post_type=projects&p=21155 Read More... from Evaluating Monroe County’s drug court program, part two

]]> A second group of psychology students analyzed Monroe County’s drug court program across an additional two priority standards as outlined in the All Rise Adult Treatment Court Best Practice Standards. They interviewed court team staff, current participants, and graduated participants. During a site visit, they collected information through courtroom observations, program documents, and quantitative data received from treatment court reports.

]]> Evaluating Monroe County’s drug court program /projects/evaluating-monroe-countys-drug-court-program/ Mon, 09 Mar 2026 20:13:13 +0000 /?post_type=projects&p=21151 Read More... from Evaluating Monroe County’s drug court program

]]> To support Monroe County comply with best practices of completing an outside evaluation at a minimum of every five years, psychology students assessed the county’s drug court program across three priority areas outlined in the All Rise Adult Treatment Court Best Practice Standards. This involved observing court and a graduation, interviewing staff and participants, and evaluating the program across three priority standards. Ultimately, the students created a report that incorporated qualitative interviews, quantitative data, and a review of program documents that will help Monroe County share progress with elected officials, apply for grants, and determine potential changes to make to the drug court program.

]]> Identifying best practices for sober living housing (SLH) in St. Croix County /projects/identifying-best-practices-for-sober-living-housing-slh-in-st-croix-county/ Mon, 12 Aug 2024 21:14:31 +0000 /?post_type=projects&p=18327 Read More... from Identifying best practices for sober living housing (SLH) in St. Croix County

]]> Maintaining a stable residence in sober living housing (SLH) for at least six months or more sustains positive outcomes related to substance abstinence, contact with the criminal legal system, psychiatric symptoms, depression, and more (Subbaraman et al. 2023). Jason and Ferrari (2010) found that those who sought alternative care options used substances at over twice the rate of those who participated in SLH. SLH’s effectiveness at instilling and maintaining substance abstinence necessitates a widespread existence. The Community Justice Collaborating Council in St. Croix County (SCC) has expressed a need for SLH for justice-involved women in SCC. This report aims to provide an evidence-based framework from empirical data and the
expression of lived experiences of individuals in SCC on the best approaches for creating successful SLH for justice-involved women in SCC.

UniverCity Contact Info: UniverCityAlliance@wisc.edu

]]> Evidence Based Practices in Prisoner Reentry: What Does the Research Say? /projects/evidence-based-practices-in-prisoner-reentry-what-does-the-research-say/ /projects/evidence-based-practices-in-prisoner-reentry-what-does-the-research-say/#respond Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:40:13 +0000 https://commons.epicn.org/projects/evidence-based-practices-in-prisoner-reentrywhat-does-the-research-say/ Read More... from Evidence Based Practices in Prisoner Reentry: What Does the Research Say?

]]> This project is an exploration of evidence-based reentry research, resources, and areas for growth. The following resource was completed by students in UW Madison Psych Senior Capstone “Issues in Prisoner Reentry” provided by Dr. Patti Coffey in collaboration with Brown County & the UniverCity Alliance project.

Students explored issues related to 1) the impact of incarceration on families, 2) programs providing community involved support for reentry, 3) the role of specialized treatment courts with a focus on mental health courts, 4) the need to address mental and physical health issues, 5) the role of employment and housing challenges related to reentry, and 6) the special needs of juveniles in the system. The class started with students attending a virtual reentry conference and examining best practices related to working in the community, practiced the development of active listening and interview skills, and developed a plan for reaching out to Brown County professionals and community members. The completed project involved students completing two separate processes and resulted in each group completing two components.

•First, students at the start of the semester began gathering research and media resourcesrelated to reentry issues. This included searching for media articles related specifically to BrownCounty. They continued to expand research gathering throughout the semester. For the finalprojects, each group found the most relevant articles and then developed annotatedbibliographies for their topic area. The goal was to develop a resource of relevant researcharticles and other resources related to reentry for Brown County. The final projected included asummary page for an overview of the key findings in the resource packet.

•Second, each group conducted interviews and explored resources in Brown County. They discovered many innovative programs in Brown County. Each group then developed an Asset Map to represent all the strengths in Brown County and provided a summary of the interviewinformation they gathered.

In addition to developing an understanding of the issues related to prisoner reentry, students gainedvaluable professional experience regarding how to consult and contribute to community agencies. A major goal of this course is to contribute to a “real world” understanding of how psychology cancontribute in a meaningful way to the needs of communities in Wisconsin and beyond. The goal is forthis course exemplifies the UW civic engagement plan in action by enacting a collaboration that is mutually beneficial for students and community partners. Students were pleased by how helpful people were when they reached out amid this pandemic to ask for time for an interview. An overall impression of Brown County from these interviews and the review of the resources is that Brown County is advanced in many ways in comparison to other regions in Wisconsin. Students were extremely impressed with the strong commitment to improve reentry services by various parties from various positions. They were also incredibly grateful to be part of a class project that may be of service in the “real world”. We thank Brown County for the opportunity to engage in this exploration of evidence-based practices and the programs in place and provide “wish lists” for further improvement of reentry practices in Brown County.

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UniverCity Year Contact Info
Gavin Luter
Managing Director
gavin@cows.org
608-261-1141

]]> /projects/evidence-based-practices-in-prisoner-reentry-what-does-the-research-say/feed/ 0 Designing Stormwater Management and Water Quality Surveys /projects/designing-stormwater-management-and-water-quality-surveys-2/ /projects/designing-stormwater-management-and-water-quality-surveys-2/#respond Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:37:44 +0000 https://portal.epicn.org/case-stories/designing-stormwater-management-and-water-quality-surveys/ Read More... from Designing Stormwater Management and Water Quality Surveys

]]> The Mississippi Watershed Management Organization (MWMO) would like to better understand attitudes and perceptions about stormwater management practices and water quality of the Mississippi River in general. Students in Psychological Testing will design, create, and gather evidence of the validity of a new survey that addresses a specific question related to these general topics. Students will be provided with example survey topics; they may choose from these topics or seek to create their own topic within the MWMO’s general issues of interest. This is an optional project topic for their lab work to create a survey and assess its validity.

Project Overview Poster
Partner Outcomes
Discovering people’s attitudes about issues like water quality, stormwater management and the environment generally is a persistent need and challenge for the MWMO. The surveys designed by these students offer a blueprint for future research into these areas. The MWMO is looking at doing a survey in the near future about business owners’ attitudes about stormwater BMPs, and will design this and other future surveys with the students’ insights in mind. MWMO may also use the surveys about environmental attitudes with some of their outreach groups in an effort to gauge the attitudes of audiences like Master Water Stewards, grant recipients and other key audiences.

]]> The City of Big Lake has several parks with aging playground equipment that needs to be repaired or refreshed as well as new parks that are being developed. The City is interested in exploring alternative designs for these parks by asking the question — is there a way to create a better park experience? Students will create design ideas for a natural playground for the City of Big Lake’s River Oaks Park in collaboration with preschoolers at the University of St. Thomas Child Development Center.

]]> The borough of State College seeks to reduce its GHG emissions by 10% of 2007 levels by 2021, and would like to receive guidance on messaging that will change residents’ behavior, promoting overall energy conservation. The borough will utilize student findings in its print and social media.

]]> Reading to children can benefit their development because exposing them to books appears to have the most impact on their early language, literacy, and cognitive development. There is evidence to support that “children who xperience shared-book reading… also demonstrated improvements in word reading” (Pillinger & Wood, 2014). The Read to me Project is great at helping pave the way for a bright future for those participating. It also bases itself on reading together with family and allowing the children to benefit from each other and grow a closer bond together. Since the RtMP is based in Monterey County where the majority of the population is Latino/a, it would be strongly beneficial for them to incorporate English and Spanish books.

Read the final student report delivered to the local gov/community partner.

Sustainable City Years Program Contact Info

University Faculty Contact
Jennifer Dyer-Seymour
Psychology
Professor, Department of Psychology
jdyer-seymour@csumb.edu

Local Government / Community Contact
Gary Petersen

]]> /projects/read-to-me-in-english-and-spanish-2/feed/ 0 Green Power /projects/green-power-2/ /projects/green-power-2/#respond Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:36:29 +0000 https://portal.epicn.org/case-stories/green-power/ Read More... from Green Power

]]> past SCC project in spring 2014 determined residents’ interest in purchasing green power. The project will add to this past research by testing the effectiveness of different messages that will determine how signing up would be improved. Possibly options could be educating residents about the relevance of choosing an energy provider and providing assistance to sign up.

Read the final student report delivered to the local gov/community partner.

Sustainable Communities Collaborative Contact Info

University Faculty Contact
Janet Swim
Psychology
Professor
jks4@psu.edu
(814) 863-1730

Local Government / Community Contact

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