Southwest Institute for Research on Women

Contact

925 N Tyndall Ave
Tucson, AZ 85721-0438
Ph. 520-621-7338
Fx. 520-621-1533
http://sirow.arizona.edu
sstevens@dakotacom.net
sirow@email.arizona.edu

The Southwest Institute for Research on Women (SIROW) is a regional research and resource affiliated with the Gender & Women's Studies Department at the University of Arizona committed to developing interdisciplinary research, professional development, and outreach programs. SIROW conducts research on projects centered around women and gender in the Southwest and Northwestern Mexico, including education, employment, health, history, literature, culture, and the advancement of women and girls in science and engineering. The institute is connected to 30 campuses in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Texas, Wyoming, and with El Colegio de la Frontera Norte and El Colegio de Sonora in Mexico.

Recently Posted

News from SIROW News from the Network
The Southwest Institute for Research on Women, SIROW, in partnership with the James E. Rogers...

SIROW Leading Project to Support LGBTQ Youth News from the Network
The UA's Southwest Institute for Research on Women has received a new $1.75 million federal grant...

SIROW Researcher to Speak at Congressional Briefing News from the Network
Nina Rabin of UA's Southwest Institute for Research on Women will be speaking in Washington, D.C....

Principal Staff

Admin. Staff:

Sally Stevens, Ph.D., Executive Director
Ph. 520-626-9558
Fax: 520-621-1533
E-mail: sstevens@email.arizona.edu

Erin Durban, Graduate Research Assistant
Ph. 520-626-4911
Fax: 520-621-1533
E-mail: durban@email.arizona.edu

Terry Mullin, Business Manager, Senior
Ph. 520-621-7339
Fax: 520-621-1533
E-mail: mullin@email.arizona.edu

Lupita Loftus, Accounting Specialist
Ph. 520-621-3839
E-mail: loftusm@email.arizona.edu


Program Staff and Grad Students:

Jeri Alexander, Research Technician
Ph. 520-670-9075
Fax: 520-670-9136
E-mail: jla3@email.arizona.edu

Thomas Bogart, Instructional Specialist
E-mail: tbogart@email.arizona.edu

Corrie Brinley, Research Specialist/Health Educator
Ph. 520-670-9075
Fax: 520-670-9136
E-mail: cbrinley@email.arizona.edu

Monica Davis, Health Educator
Ph. 520-295-9339
E-mail: midavis@email.arizona.edu

Linda Shaird, Research and Prevention Specialist
Ph. 520-670-9075
Fax: 520-670-9136
E-mail: llshaird@email.arizona.edu

Stephanie Springer, MPH, Program Coordinator
Ph. 520-295-9339
E-mail: stephks@email.arizona.edu

Andrea Verdin, Therapist
Phone: 520-670-9075
Fax: 520-670-9136
E-mail: averdin@email.arizona.edu


Areas of Expertise:

Barriers & Opportunities, Culture & Identity, Girls & STEM, Diversity & Inclusion, Family & Society, Higher Education, Women in STEM, Women in History, Women's, Gender & Feminist Studies, Communications, Culture & Society, Education & Education Reform, Health, Reproductive Rights & Sexuality, Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM)

Member Experts:

Sally Stevens


Projects & Campaigns

The projects that SIROW undertakes either focus on women and gender in the Southwest and the Mexico-U.S. border region from a multicultural perspective, or are developed because they interest scholars in the region.  They are divided into the following topics categories:
 

 

Projects

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reports & Resources

Ruiz B., Stevens, S., Fuhriman, J., Bogart, J., & Korchmaros, J. 2009. "A juvenile drug court model in southern Arizona: Substance abuse, deliquency, and sexual risk outcomes by gender and race/ethnicity." Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. 

Ruiz, B., Hedges, K., Greene, A., Arnold, A., Colonna, H., Stevens, S., Andrade, R., & O'Neill, S. 2009. "School and community counseling collaboration: A promising approach to address youth substance abuse." School Counseling Research and Practice.

Rabin, N. 2009. Unseen prisoners: A report on women in immigration detention facilities in Arizona. University of Arizona, SIROW.

Stevens, S., Andrade, R.A.C., Ruiz, B.S. 2009. Women and substance abuse: Gender, age and cultural consideration.
Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse.

 

 

 
 
 

 
 
 

 

Center News

News from SIROW
Friday, December 16, 2011 - 2:31pm

The Southwest Institute for Research on Women, SIROW, in partnership with the James E. Rogers College of Law's Immigration Law Clinic, provides social support, advocacy, and legal services to vulnerable women detained for months to years while the government determines whether to deport them or grant them legal immigration status to remain in the country. Click here for more info.

The institute also reports that girls are less likely to receive substance abuse treatment than boys in Arizona. To learn more, click here or contact Josephine Korchmaros at jkorch@email.arizona.edu.


SIROW Leading Project to Support LGBTQ Youth
Monday, February 8, 2010 - 5:39pm

The UA's Southwest Institute for Research on Women has received a new $1.75 million federal grant to aid youth and young adults who are homeless and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning who are dealing with mental health and substance abuse issues.

By La Monica Everett-Haynes, University Communications January 8, 2010  
 
Researchers with the Southwest Institute for Research on Women have spent years studying the unmet needs of southern Arizona youth and young adults who are homeless and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning.
 
The University of Arizona institute, also known as SIROW, which also has provided programs to address those needs is launching a new initiative.
 
The project, "i-TEAM: A Treatment Enhancement for Adolescents on the Move," has just earned the institute a five-year Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grant totaling $1.75 million. The collaborative project will focus on some of population's most pressing needs, particularly those involving mental health support and substance use prevention.
 
"This is great for the University and really connects the UA and our community," said Sally Stevens, the institute's executive director.
 
While some services exist for this population, for the most part their needs are largely unmet, Stevens said. 
 
"These services are difficult to find funding for and it is getting tougher and tougher with the economic times," she said. "There are some services available, but they are not at a level where we need to be" she said, speaking specifically about resources for homeless LGBTQ youth and young adults."
 
"Also, programs don't always know what to do with these youth, and there are a lot of biases that they are dealing with," said Stevens, also the principal investigator on the grant.
 
SIROW's grant proposal cited a 2005 study conducted by LeCroy & Milligan Associates, Inc. on Tucson-area homeless youth and young adults. The study estimated that between 20 and 40 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 24 who report being homeless identified as LGBTQ. Of their more pressing needs, the agency found that housing, education and employment were among them.
 
Stevens noted that SIROW and its community-based partners would also be working to reduce discrimination and stigma when working with the youth and young adults. And over the course of the project, the UA-led team also will evaluate the program's effectiveness.
 
The UA institute's collaborators are Our Family Services, Open Inn, Wingspan, CODAC Behavioral Health Services and the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation, also know as SAAF. Our Family Services and Open Inn are offering housing and case management, CODAC will provide the substance abuse and mental health treatment and SAAF will offer an HIV prevention curriculum and testing. SIROW will take the administrative lead on the project and facilitate the research component.
 
The i-TEAM project will target 300 homeless LGBTQ youth and young adults, enrolling 60 individuals each year during the funding period.
 
Those enrolled will be engaged in an intensive program for six months, which will include the case management, housing and mental health treatment. Other services to be provided include voluntary HIV education and testing, links to community services and training to provide life skills. The UA-led team will then follow up with each participant for another six-month period.
 
The project comes after SIROW concluded the Prism Project, a research initiative that gleaned a tremendous amount of insight about the needs of young LGBTQ homeless individuals, Stevens said. The Prism Project also offered workshops to the youth on topics such as healthy relationships, sexuality, empowerment, and LGBTQ history.
 
In preparing for i-TEAM, SIROW will begin reaching out in January to LGBTQ youth and young adults who are homeless and between the ages of 15 and 23, targeting shelters, local streets and areas the population tends to frequent. Those admitted into the substance abuse treatemnt component must meet the American Society for Addiction Medicine's qualifications for outpatient substance abuse treatment.
 
The project is critically important, as it will provide much needed services for one of the most underserved populations, Stevens said. It is especially important that the new project builds upon years of research about the population.
 
During the five-year Prism Project, SIROW investigated the sexual health histories and substance abuse use among about 200 participants, aged 13 to 23. 
 
The Prism project was funded at $2.5 million through a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The program operated at Wingspan's EON Youth Center which was then located in downtown Tucson. Collaborators on that project included the Pima County Health Department, CODAC, SAAF, and Wingspan.
 
"We had expected this population would be heavily involved in substance abuse and engaged in a lot of risky behaviors for contracting HIV," Stevens said.
 
But the team found that while that was true for a "smaller segment of the population," it was not true for most.
 
"They weren't really involved in the criminal justice system either," Stevens said. "Yet, we found that there was a greater need for mental health services than we had expected."
 
The research team also found that the young, homeless LGBTQ are dealing with serious stressors, such as stigma, harassment, discrimination and depression, which was "higher than we thought compared to when we set out on the research."
 
Another key issue, of course, is housing.
 
"These were youth who were between the ages of 15 and 23 who oftentimes did not have a stable place to live," Stevens said, adding that a large portion of individuals SIROW was following lived in shelters or tended to "couch hop," living on the sofas of extended family or friends.
 
"It goes back to what research has shown: Just ending treatment is not a good idea; not an effective approach," Stevens said. "Our approach is to make sure they are connected in the community in healthy ways after formal treatment ends."
 
Substance abuse treatment is somewhat complicated, she said, noting challenges with location, enrollment requirements, and stigma associated with treatment. Still, one of the major challenges is that treatment tends to stop abruptly, rather than taper off, as the iTEAM program is designed.
 
"We're examining how we can provide effective recovery services and follow up treatment," Stevens said. "That is where the field needs to move because people may be helpful for a while but when the treatment stops, there must be support there."
SIROW Researcher to Speak at Congressional Briefing
Monday, February 8, 2010 - 5:31pm

Nina Rabin of UA's Southwest Institute for Research on Women will be speaking in Washington, D.C. this month about the condition of women being detained in immigration detention centers.

By La Monica Everett-Haynes, University Communications June 17, 2009  
 
Nina Rabin, director of border research at the Southwest Institute for Research on Women, has been invited this month to participate in a U.S. Congressional briefing to be held in Washington, D.C.
Rabin, who also co-directs The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law's immigration clinic, will be speaking during the June 24 briefing alongside a former detainee, a former health care provider of a U.S. immigration detention center and representatives from the Women's Refugee Commission and Human Rights Watch.
 
The briefing, "The Impact of Immigration Enforcement on Women and Families," is sponsored by several non-governmental organizations and held in cooperation with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.
 
"This is pretty big," said Sally Stevens, director of the UA institute, also known as SIROW. Stevens said SIROW researchers are generally called to speak on the local and regional level, but no one in recent history had been called to speak at the federal level.
 
The briefing is directed at members of Congress and meant to provide information about immigration issues on the cusp of what may amount to a national-level discussion about comprehensive immigration reform.
 
Of note, one bill – the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act of 2009 – has been proposed to enforce "fair and humane treatment" of immigrant detainees.
 
During the briefing, Rabin will be presenting findings from "Unseen Prisoners: A Report on Women in Immigration Detention Facilities in Arizona," SIROW and the UA law college's Bacon Immigration Law and Policy Program released earlier this year.
 
The Women's Refugee Commission invited Rabin to speak during the briefing. Rabin had been in contact with members of Human Rights Watch for several months to discuss ways to get both her report and the organization's report on medical care services for women in immigration detention systems into the hands of policy makers.
 
Rabin's report culminated one year of research on detention facilities in the state of Arizona, focusing on the treatment of immigrant women – an ever-growing population of detainees.
 
During a one-year period, Rabin and her research team interviewed more than 40 detainees and their families, attorneys and service providers.
 
The report details ways in which immigrant women lack adequate attention and care and also provides recommendations at the local, state and federal levels.
 
Rabin will focus on findings that indicate women were not receiving adequate health care and most were separated from at least one child who was a U.S. citizen and under the age of 10. She will also speak about the prevalence of domestic violence and sexual assault survivors in the detention centers.
 
"Immigration detention is a key issue because even people working on immigration issues aren't always completely aware of it," Rabin said, adding that she and others will follow up with members of Congress after the briefing.
 
"So much of the solution to the detention problem has to come from Congress," she added.

Opportunities, Grants & Fellowships

Get Involved!

SIROW is open to those who want to make a difference in the lives of women and families through collaborative and innovative research and the integration of new knowledge into policy and practice.

There are various way you can become involved with SIROW.   Including collaboration, financial contribution, internships, work study and volunteer positions, and participation on one our advisory boards. Please click on the links to the left to find out more about each of these valuable contributions.
If you are interested in developing further connections with SIROW, please contact Sally Stevens at sstevens@u.arizona.edu