Using a Developmental Action Research Strategy to Build Theory for Intervention into Homelessness Among Minority Women

This article illuminates the use of developmental action research (DAR) to create midline theory guiding intervention into homelessness among older African-American women. The authors identify the usefulness of DAR in designing, developing, and refining interventions to help participants get and stay out of homelessness. A multimodal intervention project, the Leaving Homelessness Intervention Research Project (LHIRP), demonstrates how DAR and midline theory were used to frame an understanding of how homelessness occurs among older African-American women. LHIRP is offered as an example of how social work practitioners, researchers, and participants can collaborate to address homelessness through team-based action. It also demonstrates how a number of promising interventions can be best undertaken to address this problem. The authors then illustrate how LHIRP formulates theory to guide the design and development of subsequent intervention models and procedures.