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Empowerment

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Learning Beyond Borders, Alex Altshuler Mar 2010

Learning Beyond Borders, Alex Altshuler

New England Journal of Public Policy

I was involved in the Learning Exchange Network project mainly during the years 2007–2008, both as an active participant and as a member of the Social Justice and Civil Society committee, in the framework of the Haifa–Boston Connection. I was inspired by the spirit and commitment of both the Boston and Haifa leaders. At that time I coordinated recovery projects at the volunteer organization SELAH–Israel Crisis Management Center, which focused on immigrants in Northern Israel following the Israel-Lebanon war in 2006. SELAH’s core mission is providing essential assistance and emotional support to immigrants who face crisis situations; its involvement in …


A Story Of Collaboration: Haifa Council Of Volunteer Organizations And Shatil, Hagit Sachar Mar 2010

A Story Of Collaboration: Haifa Council Of Volunteer Organizations And Shatil, Hagit Sachar

New England Journal of Public Policy

The present essay tells the story of a partnership between two organizations: the Haifa Council of Volunteer Organizations (CVO) and the Haifa branch of Shatil (The New Israel Fund’s Empowerment and Training Center for Social Change Organizations in Israel). They have cooperated for many years and, in the last two years, have further tightened their partnership. The first part of this essay presents a theoretical framework that serves as a basis for the case study discussed in the second part. The summary offers a number of open ended questions for further consideration and research.


We Make A Difference: Balancing Advocacy And Service, Marina Zamsky Mar 2010

We Make A Difference: Balancing Advocacy And Service, Marina Zamsky

New England Journal of Public Policy

The present essay deals with the problem of balancing community service provision and social-change advocacy, as well as other strategies, from various aspects: efficacy in achieving short-term and long-term goals, necessary resources, the benefits for society as well as for individuals, empowerment, and empowerment deficit.


Microfinance And Women’S Empowerment In Honduras, Katherine Sugg Jan 2010

Microfinance And Women’S Empowerment In Honduras, Katherine Sugg

Sociology Honors Papers

This thesis examines the possibilities for women’s empowerment through microfinance. It utilizes the results of a survey conducted in 2009 with clients of the microfinance organization FINCA Honduras. The analysis of these survey results yields important conclusions on FINCA Honduras’ ability to empower Honduran women economically, psychologically, and socio-culturally. The original hypothesis of this study stated that FINCA Honduras’ financial services would help the female client to improve her standard of living, her psychological well-being, and her gender relationships in the home. FINCA Honduras has partially succeeded in empowering its female clients in these ways, but currently lacks the specific …


Citizen Professionals: The Effective Practices Of Experts Helping Community Organizations, Sarah Hippensteel Hall Jan 2010

Citizen Professionals: The Effective Practices Of Experts Helping Community Organizations, Sarah Hippensteel Hall

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Although numerous local, state, and federal laws and policies address water pollution, many problems remain. To address these problems thousands of groups of citizens, who are concerned with their water resources - rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, and groundwater - organized around the U.S. over the past several decades. To succeed, these community organizations need the resources and capacity to reach their goals. To gain capacity, some community organizations turn to people outside the organization for assistance. Citizen professionals are helpers who work jointly with an organization to help develop an organization's adaptive capacity to deal with challenges and achieve goals. …


Promoting Strengths, Prevention, Empowerment, And Community Change Through Organizational Development: Lessons For Research, Theory, And Practice, Scotney D. Evans, Ora Prilleltensky, Adrine Mckenzie, Isaac Prilleltensky Jan 2010

Promoting Strengths, Prevention, Empowerment, And Community Change Through Organizational Development: Lessons For Research, Theory, And Practice, Scotney D. Evans, Ora Prilleltensky, Adrine Mckenzie, Isaac Prilleltensky

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

SPEC Learning and Changing by Doing is a three-year, action research and organizational change project designed to ultimately promote social justice and well-being in the community. SPEC is an acronym that stands for Strengths, Prevention, Empowerment, and Community Change. The project consists of five organizations tackling internal organizational change in order to better promote justice and well-being in their respective constituencies. In this paper we present a formative evaluation of this multicase study of organizational change in human services. This paper contributes to the empirical and theoretical literature on organizational change in the nonprofit human service milieu.


Youth Empowerment And High School Gay-Straight Alliances, Stephen T. Russell, Anna M. Muraco, Aarti Subramaniam, Carolyn Laub Aug 2009

Youth Empowerment And High School Gay-Straight Alliances, Stephen T. Russell, Anna M. Muraco, Aarti Subramaniam, Carolyn Laub

Sociology Faculty Works

In the field of positive youth development programs, “empowerment” is used interchangeably with youth activism, leadership, civic participation and self-efficacy. However, few studies have captured what empowerment means to young people in diverse contexts. This article explores how youth define and experience empowerment in youth-led organizations characterized by social justice goals: high school Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs). Through focus group interviews, fifteen youth leaders of GSAs from different regions of California explain what they think empowerment means and how they became empowered through their involvement with the GSA. Youth describe three inter-related dimensions of empowerment: personal empowerment, relational empowerment, and strategic …


Palestinian Refugee Women Of Jabaliya Camp, Occupied Gaza Strip: Everyday Acts Of Resistance And Avenues Of Empowerment, Sharon French Wallace Jan 2009

Palestinian Refugee Women Of Jabaliya Camp, Occupied Gaza Strip: Everyday Acts Of Resistance And Avenues Of Empowerment, Sharon French Wallace

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

The lives of Palestinian refugee women are complex and layered, embedded in the constraints and dictates of a patriarchal class system within a conservative culture that has been shaped by resistance to the Israeli military occupation since 1948. Over six decades of Israeli military occupation, ongoing national resistance, poverty and a maledominated society are a few of the forces that continue to shape the lives of refugee women today. The Israeli occupation has obstructed the development of a viable Palestinian economy and legal institutions that could serve as a framework for attaining women’s rights. In addition, Palestinian women, especially refugee …


Qualitative Research And Consumer Policy: Focus Group Discussions As A Form Of Consumer Participation, Eva Heiskanen, Katja Järvelä, Annukka Pulliainen, Mika Saastamoinen Jun 2008

Qualitative Research And Consumer Policy: Focus Group Discussions As A Form Of Consumer Participation, Eva Heiskanen, Katja Järvelä, Annukka Pulliainen, Mika Saastamoinen

The Qualitative Report

This paper describes our ongoing attempts to involve consumers in innovation and technology policy by means of a national Consumer Panel, using focus group discussions as the primary method of consumer participation. We evaluate our experiences of the usefulness of focus group discussions in this context by considering two examples of studies focused on product safety. We evaluate the usefulness of this method in promoting consumer empowerment, deliberation, and multivocality in the assessment of new technologies and innovations. We also raised some critical questions that require further analysis and discussion.


Community Involvement Among Liberians In Johnson City, Tennessee: An Exploratory Pilot Study., Zon Gangbayee Quewea May 2008

Community Involvement Among Liberians In Johnson City, Tennessee: An Exploratory Pilot Study., Zon Gangbayee Quewea

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined predictors of community involvement among Liberians in Johnson City, Tennessee. This study was exploratory in nature and used a social survey employing closed-ended questions. Using cross-tabulation analysis, results derived from a random sample (n = 62) of respondents indicate that persons who were older, married with children, employed, more religious, members of the Mande Fu ethnic group, and/or tended toward very liberal or conservative views had the highest rates of community participation. Predictors of types of community participation were also analyzed, the most significant of which was the higher prevalence of males in leadership roles and females …


Vietnamese Women And Domestic Violence: A Qualitative Examination, Tuyen D. Nguyen Sep 2004

Vietnamese Women And Domestic Violence: A Qualitative Examination, Tuyen D. Nguyen

The Qualitative Report

This grounded theory qualitative study investigated the major influencing factors in the United States that empowered six Vietnamese women who had been in abusive relationships to take actions, to make changes in their intimate relationships, unlike many of their abused counterparts in their homeland. Interviews of two focus group sessions, field-notes, and documentary evidence were used to obtain the results for this research study. Five major dominant influencing factors in the U.S. have helped these women to stand up to their abusers: 1) financial condition, 2) dominant U.S. cultures intolerance of domestic violence, 3) education, 4) support from other individuals, …


Culture Of Growth: Teacher Collaboration For The Empowerment Of All Students, Kamilla Bahbahani Apr 2004

Culture Of Growth: Teacher Collaboration For The Empowerment Of All Students, Kamilla Bahbahani

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Studies

This dissertation documents an in-depth year long qualitative case study of three elementary school teachers to address the following research question: what characterizes, and what are the major influences on, an integrated, constructivist-oriented approach to elementary math instruction? The researcher, working collaboratively with the teachers, used a combination of interviews, observations, journaling, and informal discourse to learn about what they want to do in their classes, the various pressures they feel for performance and student learning, the forces they balance in making their instructional choices, and the ways in which they make instructional choices and change their approaches over time. …


Organizational Factors Contributing To Worker Frustration: The Precursor To Burnout, Cathleen A. Lewandowski Dec 2003

Organizational Factors Contributing To Worker Frustration: The Precursor To Burnout, Cathleen A. Lewandowski

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study examined the organizationalf actors that contribute to workers' frustration with their work situation. The sample included 141 service professionals who attended workshops on burnout in 2001. The purpose of the workshops was to increase awareness regarding the organizational factors that could contribute to burnout. Findings indicate that factors most directly affecting clients were predictive of frustration, rather than factors that may indirectly support service quality or factors impacting workers' professional autonomy. A sense of powerlessness and isolation was also predictive of frustration, suggesting that participants viewed workplace problems as a private rather than an organizational concern. To address …


Empowering Communities Of Color Through Computer Technology, Michael Roberts Sep 1995

Empowering Communities Of Color Through Computer Technology, Michael Roberts

Trotter Review

As we hurtle towards the 21st century, an increasing number of individuals start to realize that the ability to use computers and information technology resources effectively will determine how well individuals, organizations, and communities function in a rapidly changing technological society. Numerous studies, including one conducted in the Summer 1995 of Boston's Black community by Freedom House and The Trotter Institute, and highlighted in this issue, have documented the need of Americans—students, workers, unemployed, youth, adults and senior citizens, to become knowledgeable and proficient in the use of computers and information technology. There are several questions that do face communities …


Black Women Managers And Participatory Action Research, Gloria Gordon Phd Jan 1994

Black Women Managers And Participatory Action Research, Gloria Gordon Phd

Gloria Gordon PhD

This paper informs on the work of an action research group set up to investigate the status and experiences of black women managers within an organisational context in the UK. It relates how the group rapidly becomes a ‘participatory’ action research group when it is recognised that the black women managers share the common perception that theirs’ is an experience of oppression and potential powerlessness in their organisational setting. Empowerment results as common experiences shared are identified also the immediate and longer term steps being taken towards their ‘emancipation’.