Across the School of Social Work, faculty are leading applied research to uncover the root causes of youth trauma and create solutions that promote healing and justice. Here are some of the ways their work is making a difference:

Rachel Garthe, associate professor and director of the Violence Prevention Research Lab                                                                                                           

“Our lab partnered with the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence (ICADV) to hold focus groups with 46 domestic violence survivors from diverse backgrounds,” Garthe says. “These discussions explored their help-seeking journeys, barriers encountered, and the critical role of advocates in their support networks.”

Survivors’ feedback informs ICADV’s mission to enhance domestic violence services, improve collaboration, and reduce barriers across Illinois for more effective survivor support, Garthe says.

The project includes a 110-page report that details recommendations related to awareness and education and the use of online resources and spaces.

“This report highlights the urgent need to continue strengthening services to better support survivors of DV across Illinois,” Garthe says.

Douglas Smith, professor and director of the Center for Prevention Research and Development (CPRD)

“The juvenile justice work that we do at CPRD is largely based on monitoring the national standards for juveniles in the legal system,” Smith says. “For example, tracking racial and ethnic disparities, prior to the current administration, was a large emphasis. This is because racial and ethnic differences are highly disproportionate at all points of contact: initial arrest, detention, transfer to adult court. We haven’t changed that scope of work yet given the current administration’s focus on racial and ethnic discourse.”

Smith has been principal investigator on numerous projects related to youth, recovery, and domestic violence. One paper he coauthored looked at domestic violence charges brought by youths against their parents “because it is a common reason for girls to be detained,” he says. “We wanted to know if public support for punitive approaches would be based on race or ethnicity and also if we framed domestic violence more as a crime committed by a single person—that is, crime-first—or a family matter.”

Cortney VanHook, assistant professor

VanHook recently coauthored a paper that examined whether the standard Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) questionnaire adequately reflects the childhood adversities faced by Black men who have survived firearm violence.

“Through interviews with ten participants, we found that while all reported at least one ACE, the traditional survey overlooked key hardships such as youth incarceration, family separation or loss, and frequent housing transitions—issues deeply intertwined with their life trajectories and not captured by the conventional ACEs tool,” VanHook says. “The findings highlight the need to expand the ACEs framework to better represent the unique and complex challenges experienced by marginalized Black men, which is necessary for developing more effective violence prevention and intervention strategies.”

VanHook seeks to extend this line of research by surveying youth and young adults specifically about these three overlooked hardships to inform the creation of more responsive and inclusive assessment tools.