Helping Older African American Homeless Women Get and Stay Out of Homelessness: Reflections on Lessons Learned From Long-Haul Developmental Action Research

Abstract

Inspired by narrative theory, the authors offer a storied perspective on collaborative developmental action research in which, over a ten-year period, they designed, tested, and refined practices and tools useful in addressing homelessness among older African American women in a Midwestern city. We consider how progressive ideas interacting with social and organizational learning guided our efforts to translate an understanding of homelessness among older minority women into personal support and social action that the women found beneficial. By prototyping advocacy, group work, and community building and by employing the arts in social action, the project created a distinctive participatory practice knowledge base.