Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Human Trafficking: Exploration Of Best Practices For Restoration And Integration For Survivors In Southeastern United States, Joel D. Shafer Mr.

Honors College Theses

Domestic human trafficking, especially of minors, has become a serious though largely

invisible issue in the United States. There are, however, organizations and policies in place that

have become active in caring for, restoring and reintegrating those survivors who have been able

to escape. Through the perspectives of service providers, this exploratory qualitative study

examines the factors of vulnerability of victims, the issues that support reintegration for

survivors and the best practices as well as indicators of success when caring for survivors. This

was accomplished through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with representatives from

various social service agencies in Georgia that are …

Creating Peace In Our Communities: An Analysis Of Community Reconciliation Techniques, Jessica Shanken

Honors College Theses

Given the rise in efforts to resolve race issues in American communities and ethnic conflicts internationally through open communication techniques, I examine ways that these efforts can be carried out more effectively by analyzing the structure of dialogue centered on race at a large university in a rural area of the Southeast. For that purpose, survey data was collected from students before and after they attended an open forum about race and race relations on their campus to determine the impact of the forum on students' perceptions and attitudes regarding race in their community. In addition, I draw from two …

Designing And Documenting Community Engagement For Tenure And Promotion, Lesley M. Graybeal, Debra Burris, Amy Hawkins

Gulf South Summit on Service-Learning 2016

Research over the past two decades has built a compelling case that perceived institutional barriers, including lack of recognition of service-learning pedagogy in tenure and promotion decisions, are one of the greatest deterrents to faculty use of service-learning (Abes, Jackson, & Jones, 2002; Hammond, 1994; Morton & Troppe, 1996; Ward, 1998). Furthermore, faculty members perceive these institutional barriers at every stage of implementation of service-learning pedagogy (Hou & Wilder, 2015). Knowing how to design a service-learning experience, then, with an awareness of the tenure and promotion process can help faculty not only create robust community-engaged courses and research projects, but …

Service Learning And Community-Based Research: Implementation, Benefits, Challenges, And Future Directions, Ariana Postlethwait Phd, April Rand Phd, Sarah I. Pilgrim Phd, Carmelita Dotson Msw

Gulf South Summit on Service-Learning 2016

Rationale: Service learning and community engagement are a natural fit for many disciplines. Service learning projects provide students with an opportunity to apply course content to real world situations (Harder, 2010), developing projects that will benefit clients, agencies, and communities. Service learning is used across a variety of disciplines including social work (Hostetter, Sullenberger, & Wood, 2013) nursing (Murray, 2013) and business (Payne, Campbell, Bal, & Piercy, 2011). Working in a group within a service learning context provides a multitude of benefits including greater interest, motivation, and engagement; improved communication skills; real-life application of course content; and skills …

How Are We Impacting Communities In Short-Term International Service Immersion Programs?, Eliza Wethey

Gulf South Summit on Service-Learning 2016

The presentation will allow participants to critically examine service immersion and service-learning programs in an international context. While impacting students is an important outcome of international service immersion programs, equally important is our impact on communities. How are we considering the needs of the community partners we are working with? How are we ensuring the sustainability of the programs after our short-term involvement. How are we preparing students for work in these contexts?

This presentation will explore these questions in the context of Virginia Tech and VT Engage's international programs and give suggestions for how we can implement more sustainable …

Multimedia Service Learning Partnerships, Chandra Clark

Gulf South Summit on Service-Learning 2016

Goal: I would like to share the success of working with 30 different nonprofit, community, and campus organizations with senior electronic news and sports majors. At a time where every student has to really stand out at job interviews, a service learning project that incorporates everything they have learned in their curriculum can take them to the next level by engaging them in the community they are about to serve.

Rationale: Following the tornado that devastated Tuscaloosa on April 27, 2011, I witnessed nonprofits who were held hostage by the web companies that hosted their content. They couldn't make changes …

A Neighborhood Team Approach To Strengthening University-Neighborhood Relations, Tito Luna

Gulf South Summit on Service-Learning 2016

It takes very intentional efforts on behalf of a university to listen to what its neighbors are saying and to respond. Furthermore, it is the university’s responsibility to communicate with its off-campus students about their rights as tenants, their responsibilities as community members and the importance of being civically engaged. The goal of this presentation is to inform participants of VCU’s efforts to collaborate with its surrounding neighborhoods, the City of Richmond and its off-campus students. Participants will begin to consider what they can incorporate into their current engagement efforts in the surrounding community.

VCU’s Neighborhood Team was created in …

Building Students’ Civic And Moral Responsibility And Assessing Outcomes Through Service Learning, Lori Moog

Gulf South Summit on Service-Learning 2016

Colleges and Universities have great potential to make a positive difference in meeting community needs and addressing complex social and economic problems through service learning because it is a distinct program from other campus-community partnerships due to its deliberate intent to work collaboratively through service that is linked to course work. Developing service learning programs that engage students in meeting community needs also helps students meet their own educational goals. Integrating service and academic study optimizes resources for the community. Because of these mutually beneficial goals, service learning fits into higher education’s mission of service to the community. Moreover, in …

It’S A Data Job, But Someone’S Gotta Do It, Heather Mack

Gulf South Summit on Service-Learning 2016

In this session, we will:

• Contextualize the community engagement field’s data management needs
• Introduce a CE Data Cycle, a framework that participants can use to conceptualize CE data as a system
• Guide participants through a basic CE data management needs assessment
• Review two approaches for meeting those needs, including pros and cons for each, and best practices and lessons learned about both approaches

1. Align with staff in Institutional Research and Information Technology
2. Deploy technological solutions

• Brainstorm how to meet gaps in CE data management
• Outline data management objectives for 2016-17 and concrete next steps to achieve them

Rationale for the …

The Impact Of A Community-Based Engaged Learning Experience For Students And Community Partners Through Cancer And Exercise Wellness Programs, Emily Simonavice, Laura Childs

Gulf South Summit on Service-Learning 2016

There are a growing number of cancer survivors within our society that experience negative physical and psychological side effects from cancer related treatments. Exercise has been shown to be an effective way to attenuate some of these negative side effects; however, reports indicate that the majority of cancer survivors do not engage in adequate amounts of exercise. Thus, the goal of the present study was to incorporate a five-hour service learning project into the Exercise Science curriculum in which students would educate cancer survivors about the benefits of exercise and basic exercise prescription information. Additionally, students implemented a comprehensive exercise …

Youthbuild Savannah: Helping At-Risk Young People, Rebuild Their Communities And Their Lives, Shauna-Lee Ruglass

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

Hear best practices from the YouthBuild Savannah program and learn about how they recruit at-risk youth, keep them engaged during 9 months of programming and what pathways are made available to participants, once they graduate. Current YouthBuild students and/or graduates will share their stories of transformation and you will learn about YouthBuild USA, Inc. the national support center for the YouthBuild movement.

Youth workers, government officials, foundation staff, corporate and non-profit employees are all welcomed to join and learn about America’s best kept secret, the YouthBuild program.

Systems Of Care For Addressing The Traumatic Impact Of Violence Exposure On Student Well-Being, Laurie A. Garo, Nakeshia Williams, Tiffany Hollis

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

Our presentation addresses mental health needs of youth from concentrated poverty and exposure to violence. We describe the Systems of Care model and recommend a framework for implementation within school, family and community based settings. Topics include mental health, environmental trauma, poverty, and youth cultural violence. Target Audience: educators, school- and community-based counselors & support staff, social workers, and educational researchers.

The Influence Of Normative Feedback And Expectancy Violation On Attitudes Related To Sexual Assault, Stephanie Chastang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sexual assault is a complex problem, and there is no set of best practices for sexual assault prevention and education programs. Social norms marketing and expectancy violations, however, have been proposed to be influential factors that may aid in increasing prosocial attitudes related to sexual assault. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential effect of social norm feedback and expectancy violations on attitudes related to sexual assault and bystander intervention. Participants in the study included 244 undergraduate and graduate students who completed an experiment embedded in an online survey. Results indicated that there were no significant …

The Effects Of Construal Level On Stigmatizing Attitudes Toward An Individual With Mental Illness, Jeremy Glenn Gay

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

People with mental illness often face stigmatization by society. However, little research has examined cognitive factors that may activate or dissipate stigmatizing attitudes toward those with mental illness. Construal level, or the extent that people focus on abstract generalizations versus concrete details of events, may be one such cognitive factor. Two contradictory hypotheses emerged concerning how construal may affect stigmatizing attitudes. One hypothesis suggests that abstract construals will decrease stigmatization because abstract construals tend to increase the activation of similar goals, thus leading to a similarity focus. In contrast, another hypothesis suggests that abstract construals will increase stigmatization because abstract …

Frames Of Military Veterans In Letters To The Editor In Us Newspapers, Matthew Kleinsorge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This ethnographic content analysis of veterans in letters to the editor builds on the existing literature in two ways. First it examines the new time frame of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Second it deals with new data—letters to the Editor and Op-Eds. The new timeframe allows me to address the following questions. (1) What types of frames are currently associated with veterans after over eleven years of continuous combat? (2) Does the amount of sympathy in framings of veterans found by this research seem to differ from the amount of sympathy found in the framings of veterans in …

Black Lives Matter? Public Accounts Of Police Officers' Use Of Lethal Force, Akiv Dawson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine the manner in which, police application of lethal force is accounted for in the public sphere. The study examines opinion editorials from the New York Times, Washington Post, Contra Costa Times, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Salt Lake Tribune. The study applies Altheide’s methodology of ethnographic content analysis to opinion editorials written between July 2014 and September 2015 about three specific cases involving the death of an African American male due to police use of lethal force. Each editorial was loaded into an NVIVO 10 project and coded line by line. This …

The Perspectives Of School Resource Officers On Job Responsibilities And Training, Sarah Parker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As school security measures are increasing, including the use of school resource officers (SRO) throughout the United States, there is a concern that these officers are being used as disciplinarians rather than being in the schools to ensure student safety. There is very little research that looks at the job expectations for SROs and if the training they receive reflects what is required of them. To address this issue, this study will provide the perspectives that SROs have on their job responsibilities, what they believe their responsibilities should be, and if the training they received reflects those responsibilities. This study …

Analyzing Predictors Of Drinking And Driving Among Gender Cohorts Within A College Sample, Justin Hoyle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study focuses on predominant predictors associated with each gender cohort’s engagement in driving under the influence (DUI). Aker’s social learning theory, Gottfredson and Hirshi’s low self-control theory, and Agnew’s strain theory are utilized to explore differences within two separate step-wise logistic regressions; one set of regressions contain a male only sample (n = 855), while the other model contains a female only sample (n = 968). This study uses self-report measures of DUI from a survey administered at a large Southeastern university focusing on risk-taking behaviors. Results indicate that social learning variables differential association and imitation are significant …

A Qualitative Examination Of The Needs Of Mothers In College In The Rural Southeast, Danielle N. Bostick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of my study was to understand student mothers that attended college in the rural southeast by using an ecological framework to examine the barriers and challenges that they encounter on college campuses. Additionally, the study identified support and the lack of support that the mothers received. The theoretical concepts of intensive mothering, role strain, and role conflict were also used to comprehend how parental obligations can conflict with the expectations of being a college student. In total, 14 participants that attended a mid-size university in the rural southeast agreed to be a part of the study. The criteria …

Faces Of Immigration: The American Dream Is Not Dead, Megan E. Bright

Honors College Theses

Since the beginning of the history of the United States, we have been a nation not of one people but of many. Immigrants from across the globe have come to the U.S. bringing their cultures and histories with them; making this country the proverbial “melting pot” that it is today. This thesis looks at the United States’ immigration policy through featuring three people from Middle Eastern countries who are linked to the immigration process. These stories give insight into the immigration process of the US and the adjustment of Arab immigrants to life in America in a post 9/11 world.