Pathway of Employment From Uncovering Barriers to Discovering Hope: Nontraditional, Student-Centered, Relationship-Based Approach

Abstract

This study explores the experiences and perspectives of service providers with regard to the process of psychological self-sufficiency (PSS) among students in the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) program. Based on a social work theory of PSS as our organizing framework, combined qualitative content analysis (inductive to deductive) was conducted with two service provider focus groups ( n = 16) and three student focus groups ( n = 27). The overarching theme of nontraditional, student-centered, holistic staff approaches which lead to the pathway from uncovering perceived employment barriers to discovering employment hope emerged with four phenomenological categories. The findings supported the adaptations of service providers’ different roles when providing student-centered approach in service delivery to reach maximal PSS for a better outcome in case management.

A Randomized Controlled Trial Study of Transforming Impossible into Possible (TIP) Policy Experiment in South Korea

“…TIP is designed to help low-income jobseekers to strengthen PSS by uncovering the barriers such as sickness, lack of education or career, low self-esteem, lack of self-efficacy, or hopelessness which can be obstacles to attaining and retaining employment (P. Y. P. Hong, R. Hong, Lewis, & Williams, 2019).…”

“…As a goal-directed process, PSS is posited to represent the force within someone that activates interchangeable cognitive (explicit) and noncognitive (implicit) process, enabling them to alter the intrapsychic structures from negative and hopeless narratives to those that are positive and hopeful by focusing on the possibilities and opportunities (R. Hong et al, 2019).…”

“…The TIP program attempts to help individuals go through the recursive, integrative process that allows the “TIPPING” (being in the process of transforming) of barriers to goal-directed hope actions by discovering the source of strength that one can draw from in their lives (R. Hong et al, 2019).…”

“…By engaging in praxis —“reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it” (Freire, 2000, 2014, p. 33)—along with various mindfulness and kinesthetic activities, the TIP program allows individuals to deftly weave the meanings of their difficulties, identify obscure strengths within and around themselves, and successfully transform their perceived barriers into hope driven actions (P. Y. P. Hong, 2016a, 2016b; R. Hong et al, 2019).…”

“…Y. P. Hong’s (2016a) TIP program because of its emphasis on a human-centered process of shifting individuals’ perceived barriers to goal-directed hope actions by which a system-level transformation emerges (P. Y. P. Hong et al, 2018; R. Hong et al, 2019).…”