Funded faculty research

Researchers asked young people to discuss issues they observe or experience in their everyday lives and then produce videos sharing their perspective on the issues.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been especially damaging to communities of color in the United States.

This project designed and developed an intervention to assist people who are unemployed and homeless in Detroit who also are experiencing anxiety and/or depression-related barriers to employment.

The purpose of this project is to assess the feasibility, acceptability, usability, and impact of WorkChat: A Virtual Workday as an intervention to support income growth through sustained employment for adults with psychosis spectrum disorders.

While approximately 12,000 Detroit homeowners living in poverty qualify for the Poverty Tax Exemption, the policy remains underutilized by residents in need. This project evaluated the effectiveness of the policy and studied potential factors that may hinder or facilitate its access.

The study tracked outcomes for 11 nominees who received Barrier Buster awards ranging from $500 to $2,000 and a comparison group of four nominees who did not receive Barrier Buster awards.

The researchers found undocumented clients encounter three phases of delay: delay in the decision to seek care, delay in identifying and traveling to healthcare facilities, and delay in receiving adequate and appropriate care at healthcare facilities.

Partnered with one of the world's largest garment manufacturers in India, researchers planned to run a randomized controlled trial that aimed to facilitate Indian women's rural-urban migration and assess impacts on the well-being of workers and their families.

The goal of this project is to assess the feasibility of using grocery delivery to strengthen services related to the special supplemental nutrition program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) by improving access to and use of food benefits during pregnancy.

This grant allowed Sara Heller to expand on three research projects that can provide evidence to guide the development of effective interventions aimed at youth whose families have low incomes.

The research investigates the impact of offering home visiting universally to all women, regardless of insurance status, on participation rates and the health outcomes of mothers and babies.

The goals of this project are to better understand the state of first-time homebuyer education in Detroit and to analyze public data sources that represent the state of sales and homeownership in Detroit.

The researchers will convene trans women of color, administrators of Medicaid In Lieu of Services, and MDHHS staff to co-develop a policy brief with implementable recommendations to promote equitable access to food-as-medicine programs.

The U-M Online Court Project (OCP) developed and tested an objective digital method of evaluating litigants' ability to pay.

This project evaluated the impact of the Lower Eastside Economic Mobility program, which connects residents with low incomes with mentors from the community, with the goal of addressing barriers to stable employment.

Researchers collected statewide case filing data and data from a random sample of eviction case records in Washtenaw and Lenawee counties to understand the prevalence, patterns, and causes of evictions in Michigan.

This study is designed to collate evidence around the link between income and health and examine the implications for current proposals to redistribute income and wealth.

Researchers examined the scarce resource of non-emergency medical transportation within the city of Detroit and a new system designed to improve health care access for underserved communities in western Detroit.

This project uses police body camera footage as a window onto police-citizen interactions to examine 1) racial disparities in officer communication and 2) the consequences of these differences for physiological stress and institutional trust.

Using monthly data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U-M’s Rapid Insights Jobs Report analysis provides key charts and findings that highlight new developments in the labor market.

The study focused on unmarried mothers because they are the primary recipients of EITC, are most likely to experience poor housing outcomes, and their children are vulnerable to the detrimental effects of housing instability.

Researchers held focus groups with 34 Certified Peer Support Specialists from across Michigan to learn more about their experiences with vocational services.

This project gathered in-depth, qualitative information about the impact of decision-making among front-line financial service employees.

The Functional Sentencing program attempts to help people permanently exit the criminal justice system by replacing fines and costs with targeted interventions that address the root causes of an individual's offense.

The goal is to better understand the most effective mode of sharing information about how different treated drinking waters are processed, so individuals can make decisions on the best water hydration choice for themselves.

This project used a mixed methods case study design to amplify how Black families make decisions and leverage resources in support of their children's mathematics education during COVID-19.

This project sought to develop strategies for converting abandoned school buildings in Detroit into anchor institutions that provide internet access through mesh networks.

The project seeks to understand whether educating a community about factors outside of personal choices helps change attitudes toward inequality and anti-poverty programs in the Philippines.

This project developed a new model for employing community health workers to serve the Detroit Cody Rouge neighborhood.