Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons^™

Assessment Of Policies For Innovative Financing In Infrastructure Systems, Ali Mostafavi, Dulcy Abraham, Charlene Sullivan

Infrastructure System-of-Systems (I-SoS ) Research Group

Infrastructure systems are drivers of the economy in the nation. A dollar spent on infrastructure development yields roughly double the initial spending in ultimate economic output in the short term; and over a twenty-year period, and generalized ‘public investment’ produces an aggregated $3.21 of economic activity per $1.00 spent [1]. Thus, formulation of policies pertaining to infrastructure investment and development is of significance affecting the social and economic wellbeing of the nation. The aim of this policy brief is to evaluate innovative financing in infrastructure systems from two different perspectives: (1) through consideration of the current condition of ...

The Fatherhood Factor: The Impact Of The Father-Child Relationship On The Social, Interpersonal, And Recidivism Risk Factors Of Previously Incarcerated Men, Larissa A. Maley

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Of the men who return home from prison, nearly 7 out of 10 will be re-arrested and sent back within 3 years of their release (Travis, Solomon, & Waul, 2001). This trend has large- scale implications, not just for individuals, but for their families and communities as well. Clearly, understanding the factors that contribute to a man’s success or failure in staying out of prison is extremely important in constructing policy and programs to assist these at-risk individuals and communities. Of the few studies that have explored the lives of previously incarcerated men, some have found fatherhood to be a salient factor (Arditti, Smock, & Parkman, 2005). The current study investigated this particular relationship by looking at the father’s perceived quality of the father-child bond, and how that relationship is related to the fathers’ risk for re-offending. The study also investigated the contribution that social and individual factors play in facilitating the father-child bond, as well as the contribution that those factors may make in predicting recidivism risk; specifically, the father’s own experience of being parented, the quality of communication they have with their child’s mother, their perception of social support, and individual factors associated with motivation to change. The study found empirical evidence to suggest that a positive father-child bond may reduce recidivism risk for previously incarcerated men. In addition, the study found that the father-child relationship may be a more significant predictor of recidivism risk than individual ...

Policy Impact Assessment: The “Reasonable Break Time” Provision Of The Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act, Merritt Juliano

21st Century Social Justice

Breastfeeding continues to be the most optimal source of nutrition for infants under 6 months of age, and has been associated with a wide variety of infant and maternal health benefits, including protection against certain illnesses and diseases. Most health organizations recommend exclusive breastfeeding for at least the first 6 months post-birth. Despite these recommendations, breastfeeding women, especially those in lower socioeconomic groups face many challenges in our society. Moreover, maternal employment stands as a significant barrier to successful breastfeeding durations. To counter these problems, Section 4207 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act [ACA] was enacted to offer ...

Conditional Cash Transfers, Community, And Empowerment Of Women In Colombia, Harlan Downs-Tepper

21st Century Social Justice

In 2001, the Colombian government initiated an experiment in poverty alleviation called Familias en Acción. This conditional cash transfer (CCT) program takes a novel approach to poverty reduction by addressing short- and long-term factors contributing to poverty. Though Colombia’s CCT program is just one of a wave of similar initiatives, its unique context and unexpected social effects, beyond the primary intentions of program designers, differentiate it from other such programs. Drawing on 200 interviews and focus group discussions which he conducted with academic experts, program beneficiaries and program administrators in three Colombian cities, the author finds that an unexpected ...

The Importance Of Access To Benefits Under The Family Medical Leave Act For Low-Income Families For Bonding And Attachment Facilitation With A Fragile Infant And The Role Of The Social Worker, Theresa Stewart Moran

21st Century Social Justice

Lack of universal family leave discriminates against low-income families with infants who require care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Birth complications tend to occur more frequently in families living with low socioeconomic status, placing a disproportionate burden on an already vulnerable population. Parents in this group tend to be employed in jobs that do not include the benefit of parental leave. Considering that attachment relationships form as the result of bonding transactions during a critical time in development, limiting contact curtails secure attachment. This, combined with other risk factors, increase the odds of lifelong negative outcomes. Family leave policy ...

Coastal Defenses, U.S., Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides an overview of U.S. military coastal defenses during the period up to and including the War 1812.

New York Stock Exchange, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides a historical overview of the origins and early development of the New York Stock Exchange.

Revenue, U.S. Government, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides a historical overview of U.S. Government revenue receipts and spending during the early years of national history. Presents revenue generation statistics, information on revenue sources, and information on domestic and international political and economic factors affecting government revenue receipts.

Trade, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Provides a historical overview of analysis of U.S. foreign trade policy during the early decades of the country's history. Examines bilateral U.S. trade relations with France and Great Britain, provides import and export statistics, details on commodities and products imports and exported, trade statistics, and information on the political and economic factors shaping U.S. trade during this period.

Strategies For Recruitment And Retention Of Teen Mothers In A Program To Prevent Repeat Pregnancy, Jeannette E. South-Paul, Collette N. Ncube, Chyongchiou J. Lin, Mary Patricia Nowalk, Ruth N. Kagwima, Emily A. Wheeler, Annamore Matambanadzo, Ayotunde Adeyeye

Journal of Adolescent and Family Health

Background: We describe challenges to recruitment and retention of teen mothers in a study to prevent repeat teen pregnancies, and strategies used to overcome them. Methods: We documented recruitment efforts, the teens who were retained at each stage of the intervention and changes to strategies. Results: Challenges to recruitment and retention were related to lifestyles, immaturity, and competing demands, among others. Successful strategies included bus advertisements, early pairing of teens with mentors, using electronic media, convenient meeting times with a meal, providing child care, transportation vouchers and immediate incentives. Conclusions: This study highlights impediments to teen mother research recruitment and ...

Data, Analytics And Community-Based Organizations: Transforming Data To Decisions For Community Development, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

The past ten years have seen a revolution in two disciplines related to operations and strategy design. ‘Big Data’ has transformed the theory and practice of producing and selling goods and services through methods associated with computer science and information technology. ‘Analytics’ has popularized primarily quantitative models and methods by which organizations and systems can measure about multiple measures of performance. As these disciplines rely on information technology to collect, store, process and share data, we refer to the collection of knowledge and applications associated with Big Data and analytics as ‘data analytics and information technology’. The impacts of data ...

Nuclear Fiction, Peter Nichols

Colby Magazine

Hiroshima, John Hersey's classic work of literary journalism about the dropping of an atomic bomb on that city, details the suffering and survival of six of the city's inhabitants, including Toshiko Sasaki, a clerk in the personnel office of the East Asia Tin Works. She was less than a mile from the man-made sun that blossomed in an eye blink above the city in 1945. Just before the building came down on her, a bookcase behind her desk poured the factory's library, like a breaking wave, over the 20-year-old clerk. "There, in the tin factory," Hersey writes ...

The Aca’S Contraceptive Mandate: Religious Freedom, Women’S Health, And Corporate Personhood, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

On June 30 2014 the Supreme Court decided Burwell v Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc, in a deeply divided judgment that engaged religious freedom, women’s health, and corporate personhood. Three closely held for-profit organizations challenged the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate, objecting to four contraceptive methods that they believe acted as abortifacients, in violation of their Christian beliefs.

The Court held that the contraceptive mandate violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, ruling that the Act’s protections extended to closely held corporations, with the mandate substantially burdening their religious freedoms. The Court acknowledged the federal government’s ...

Healthy Living Needs Global Governance, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

It may seem counter-intuitive, but the same factors that drive the spread of infectious diseases also contribute to the dominance of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the global burden of disease—urbanization, global markets and harmonized cultures. NCDs have overtaken infectious diseases as the leading cause of morbidity and premature mortality worldwide, with deaths concentrated among the poor due to the growing availability and affordability of highly-processed, unhealthy foods, alcohol and tobacco.

The global response to NCDs has been slow and fractured, with the World Health Organization dedicating scant funding and the United Nations waiting until September 2011 to hold a ...

Indomitable Subtext, Stephen Collins

Colby Magazine

In the life and work of Hanna Roisman, the Holocause is an ever-present undercurrent.

Vying For Scholars, Jeff Wuorio

Colby Magazine

As students, parents and alumni watch college costs creep upward, the sound they make slapping their foreheads is often followed by a question: "Why so much?" Or "How has it come to this?" Jeff Wuorio '79 is a business and finance writer who returned to Colby this fall to try to answer those questions. In short, he found that competition among colleges has raised the quality of programs and services; the increased quality of programs and services has raised students' expectations; students' expectations have increased competition among colleges; and around again. Wuorio, who writes for Money, Worth and The New ...

Value Focused Thinking For Community-Based Organizations: Objectives And Acceptance In Local Development, Jeffrey Keisler, David A. Turcotte, Rachel B. Drew, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

A multi-site case study applies value-focused thinking methods in a community engaged research framework within three organizations. All three organizations are community development corporations (CDCs), a type of community based organization (CBO) who direct assets and efforts toward housing stock and neighborhood improvement.

Objectives hierarchies were developed for the three sites. A set of common aspects of these structures suggest ways to operationalize the generic mission of CDCs. Other aspects which vary across sites can be related to specific characteristics of the organizations and the communities in which they operate. The process of applying value-focused thinking is also compared across ...

Electronic Supplement: Value Focused Thinking For Community-Based Organizations: Objectives And Acceptance In Local Development, Jeffrey Keisler, David A. Turcotte, Rachel B. Drew, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

This is an electronic supplement to the manuscript "Value Focused Thinking for Community-Based Organizations: Objectives and Acceptance in Local Development", to appear in European Journal of Decision Processes.

The Compost Of Disagreement: Creating Safe Spaces For Engagement And Action, Michele Holt-Shannon, Bruce L. Mallory

Journal of Public Deliberation

The experiences gained in almost two decades of supporting community-based deliberative processes highlight the importance of balancing participants’ desire for civility and safety with the passionate expression of deeply held values and beliefs. Effective deliberations may surface highly contested positions in which intimidation or bullying can occur. At times, even the deliberative process itself may become the object of ideological objections. This has the potential to a create a climate of fear on the part of participants and public officials seeking solutions to complex issues related to public investments, long-term planning, or improved governance. We apply the metaphor of “community ...

Deliberative Civic Engagement In Public Administration And Policy, Tina Nabatchi

Journal of Public Deliberation

This article explores deliberative civic engagement in the context of public administration and policy. The field of public administration and policy is seeing a resurgence of interest in deliberative civic engagement among scholars, practitioners, politicians, civic reformers, and others. Deliberative processes have been used to address a range of issues: school redistricting and closings, land use, and the construction of highways, shopping malls, and other projects. Additional topics include race and diversity issues, crime and policing, and involvement of parents in their children’s education. Finally, participatory budgeting, which has been used with success in Porto Alegre, Brazil since 1989 ...