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Abstract
Returning veterans often experience difficulties engaging with community-based treatment services. This article describes a collaborative effort between social work evaluators and veteran community leaders to investigate a perceived social disconnection between returning veterans and a treatment court attempting to assist them. Collaborators conducted an exploratory evaluation with individuals participating in a veterans treatment court (VTC) in Hamilton County, Ohio. The evaluation utilized both ecological theory and culturally responsive methods to explore participant perceptions. The analysis made explicit a chain of participant perceptions expected to promote program engagement and retention. Recommendations are made for program evaluation, training, and avenues for further study.
Notes
1 Chouinard (Citation2010) describes six dimensions of cultural context. In addition to relational and ecological dimensions, the author also discusses methodological, organizational, political, and personal (evaluator) dimensions. The latter four were seen as less relevant to VTC participant perspectives.
2 The C index represents a normalized coefficient that varies between 0 (when codes do not co-occur) and 1 (when codes co-occur wherever they are used; Muhr, 2009).