Digital Commons Network^™

Outcome Mapping: Documenting Process In The Métis Settlements Life Skills Journey Project, Brent Hammer, Fay Fletcher, Rebecca Shortt, Mandy Macrae, Alicia Hibbert

The Qualitative Report

Mapping serves as a metaphor for where we are now, where we have been, and where we are going. In this paper the authors illustrate the use of outcome mapping as a methodological framework for documenting the planning, monitoring, and evaluation process for the Métis Settlements Life Skills Journey (MSLSJ) project. The MSLSJ is a multi-year, multi-site, multi-method research project. It is centered on building relationships and facilitating knowledge exchange between the University of Alberta team, Métis Settlement Councils and administrators, and Settlement members. We highlight how the outcome mapping framework enables us to document project processes through the identification …

Peace Connector Projects: Bishop Korir's Strategy For Grassroots Peacebuilding, William Kiptoo

The Journal of Social Encounters

This essay is a narration of my personal experiences in peacebuilding in the North Rift region of Kenya as a resident of the region, and peace worker from 1995 to date. I draw from my work experiences with the National Council of Churches of Kenya (1995-2005), Catholic Relief Services and the Mennonite Central Committee (2007-2019). Specifically, how connector projects were used as a strategy for grassroots peacebuilding for the conflict-affected communities in the North Rift Valley region. The processes of mobilizing the communities, challenges, and outcomes of reconciliation efforts are discussed. The four connector projects discussed show the rewards attained …

The Manifestation Of Neighborhood Effects: A Pattern For Community Growth?, Michael R. Cope, Jorden E. Jackson, Scott R. Sanders, Lance D. Erickson, Tippe Morlan, Ralph B. Brown

Faculty Publications

Neighborhood effects, or the development of community by neighborhoods, are often studied in an urban context. Previous research has neglected to examine the influence of neighborhoods in nonurban settings. Our case study, however, contributes to the existing literature as it takes place in a small, rural-to-urban town at an important point in time where the town was urbanizing. We find that neighborhood effects also influence community satisfaction and attachment in Creekdale, an urbanizing town. Using survey data (N = 1006) drawn from the Creekdale Community Citizens Viewpoint Survey (CCVS), we find that, contrary to conventional wisdom, population size and density …

Leveraging The Power Of Mutual Aid, Coalitions, Leadership, And Advocacy During Covid-19, Daniela Domínguez, Dellanira García, David A. Martínez, Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga

Psychology

The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the norms, patterns, and power structures in the United States that privilege certain groups of people over others. This manuscript describes COVID-19 as an unprecedented catalyst for social transformation that underscores the need for multi-level and cross-sectoral solutions to address systemic changes to improve health equity for all. The authors propose that the American Psychological Association and its membership can initiate systemic change, in part, by: (a) supporting mutual aid organizations that prioritize the needs of vulnerable communities; (b) leveraging the efforts and strides APA psychologists have already made within the association, in …

Towards A Social Justice Agenda: Intimate Partner Violence Among Rural, African American Women, Shani Collins Woods

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

The social work profession is rooted in community-based work that seeks to eradicate social injustice everywhere. Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global phenomenon which impacts women from diverse socio-economic and racial/ethnic backgrounds. It involves power and control, economic abuse, and physical and sexual violence. When compared to other racial and ethnic groups, African American women are likelier to experience physical violence, rape, and homicide. Intimate partner violence among African American women is a social justice issue.

When compared to other racial and ethnic groups, rural and/or low-income African American women are likelier to experience IPV. They are also likelier …

The Researcher Journey Through A Gender Lens, Maria De Kleijn Msc, Mba, Bamini Jayabalasingham Phd, Holly J. Falk-Krzesinski Phd, Thomas A. Collins Phd, Liliane Kuiper-Hoyng Msc, Isabelle Cingolani Phd, Jin Zhang Phd, Guillaume Roberge, Gemma Deakin, Abigail Goodall, Kjersten Bunker Whittington Phd, Stephane Berghmans Dvm, Phd, Sarah Huggett Ma, Stacey Tobin Phd

Public Reports

An examination of research participation, career progression and perceptions across the globe.

As part of Elsevier’s ongoing efforts to promote gender diversity and advance gender equity in research using an evidence-based approach, we developed this latest report to understand how gender impacts the researcher journey. Drawing on robust data sets, we analyzed information about authors of academic publications, grant recipients and patent applicants to gain insights into trends in gender-based representation across 15 countries and the EU28.

In addition to the general global trends, there were notable country-specific findings. For example, Argentina was the closest to gender parity among authors …

Editor’S Note, Janie Harden Fritz

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This is the Editor’s Note to Volume 39, Issue 1 of the Journal of the Association for Communication Administration.

Environmental Governance For Whom? Examining The Political, Institutional, Fiscal, And Legal Determinants Of State Environmental Agency Budget Policy In The Us, Andrew R. Duggan

Theses and Dissertations

Budgets are a prospective tool of governance, and appropriations are a planning vehicle reflecting: bureaucracies’ values, complex interactions, collective preferences, political influences, and available resources. Research spanning 30 years finds that environmental pollution is a key determinant of environmental budgets in the US, though myriad factors, actors, and subsystems are important to consider. Due to federalism and devolution of responsibilities and authorities, environmental governance falls largely to the states. While the dynamics that shape state environmental budget policy have received scholarly interest, theoretically-driven examinations of environmental appropriations remain limited within the public budgeting and environmental policy literature.

Using panel data …

Communication Administration As A Tri-Voiced Sustainable Community, Ronald C. Arnett

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

Books and authors have challenged the focus on “me” alone, rejecting “individualism” that seeks to stand above social context and constraints (Tocqueville, 1955; Arnett, 2019; Arnett, 2020), “narcissism” that falls in love with one’s own image (Lasch, 1985), and “emotivism” that limits decision making to personal preferences (MacIntyre, 1984). Contrary to a focus on an individual abstracted from a social context, one finds an emphasis on community (Arnett, 1986). When, however, a conception of community embraces only those empirically present, it becomes an abstraction oblivious of the phenomenological considerations of persons before and after the present moment. This essay textures …

Therapeutic Wilderness Experiences And Empathetic Perception Of At-Risk Adolescent Youth, Sandra Short-Robbins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Current research involving wilderness therapy (WT) programs indicates that therapeutic wilderness or outdoor interventions have increased in popularity as alternative approaches for treating at-risk or adjudicated adolescents. However, the role that empathetic perception plays in advancing the efficacy of WT intervention absent from the majority of extant literature. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to address a gap in research involving how empathetic perception may be affected by WT program participation. The conceptual framework for the project involved ecopsychology, a branch of science that addresses the connection between human beings and the natural world. Nine young adults between …

Therapeutic Wilderness Experiences And Empathetic Perception Of At-Risk Adolescent Youth, Sandra Short-Robbins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Current research involving wilderness therapy (WT) programs indicates that therapeutic wilderness or outdoor interventions have increased in popularity as alternative approaches for treating at-risk or adjudicated adolescents. However, the role that empathetic perception plays in advancing the efficacy of WT intervention absent from the majority of extant literature. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to address a gap in research involving how empathetic perception may be affected by WT program participation. The conceptual framework for the project involved ecopsychology, a branch of science that addresses the connection between human beings and the natural world. Nine young adults between …

Constructing Commonmentalities: Toward Collaborative Governance, Knowledge And Subjectivity, Imil Ferrara

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Western society’s intractable social and environmental problems arise outside the bounds of classical liberal ideation, challenging the utilitarian rationality, decision-making faculty, and popular legitimacy of our liberal institutions. Through a qualitative analysis of three collaborative, community-based institutions, this study aims to identify and illuminate alternative conceptions and organizational relationships, which transcend liberal shortcomings and succeed precisely where liberal institutions have failed. It draws on Michel Foucault’s account of liberal governance, discourse and subject formation, but employs a complex-systems lens to move from critical deconstruction to intentional normative construction, from radical subjectivism to a collaborative pragmatic realism, and from the critique …

Arising: Hurricane (Superstorm) Sandy’S Impact On Design/Planning Professionals, Maxinne R. Leighton

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Standing by my bedroom window, looking out at the ocean, a huge wave comes and swallows up my building. Everything around me is gone, including me. I wake up. I am 13 years old and living in the Coney Island Houses on Surf Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. With ongoing anthropogenic changes to the natural environment such as sea level rise and intensifying storms, coastal communities, especially ones segregated by class and culture, are particularly vulnerable in this context that challenges a way of life, and in some instances, threatens that life's survival. This dissertation focuses specifically on what one massive …

No Happy Accident: Defining The Factors Contributing To The Success And Longevity Of A Long-Running Community Engagement Program, Jennifer Irvine

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The Kalamunda Community Learning Centre (‘the Centre’) was established in 1977 by a group of four women, following their attendance at a conference held by the Women’s Electoral Lobby. Originally named the Kalamunda Women’s Learning Centre, it was established with a charter to improve the status of women, whilst providing a place to alleviate isolation and boredom for ‘stay at home’ mothers. Through its structure, underpinned by feminist ideology, the Centre also provided a place for women to practice skills that would build their confidence with respect to returning to the workforce. From its beginnings with a predominant focus on …

Ua12/2/1 Grad Guide, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Special graduation magazine issue of the College Heights Herald includes articles:

• Robb, Hayley. Dear Fall 2019 Graduates
• Graduation Weekend Schedule
• College of Education & Behavioral Sciences Graduates
• Norvell, Abbey & Ryan Goodlett. Topping Off the College Years – Mortarboards
• Gordon Ford College of Business Graduates
• College of Health & Human Services Graduates
• Benningfield, Chloe. Graduate Christmas List
• Ogden College of Science & Engineering Graduates
• Norvell, Abbey. Picking the Perfect Pair – Shoes
• Potter College of Arts & Letters Graduates
• Brandt, Jess. What Kind of Co-Worker Are You?

Consequences Of Self-Interested Behavior: Pedagogical Questions And Dilemmas Relating To Cases Of A Closed Adoption And A Regional Landfill Proposal, J Forbes Farmer

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

Abstract

The motive of self-interest is the driving factor behind many situations faced by those who have chosen the human services profession. In this article, the author provides two of his own fact-based human service cases (one involving case work and the psychological needs related to a closed adoption and one about community organization and advocacy related to a proposed regional landfill) that can be studied and debated in social work classes. The cases reflect the double identity of contemporary social work. The questions after each case require the students to reflect on and talk about the ramifications of self-interested …

Doubling Time And Population Increase Of The Amish, Joseph Donnermeyer

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Current estimates of Amish population growth often cite a “doubling time” figure, but fail to substantiate the source from which the estimate was derived. As well, some estimates of population increase, such as by the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College, use net change in the number of church districts as a proxy to determine population change, rather than a more precise counting up of children and adults. Unfortunately, a direct “head count” of the Amish, and changes in this count overtime to create a doubling time estimate, would be very daunting, Until there is a …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 95, No. 8, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. This issue contains articles:

• Civil Suit: Ex-WKU Player Accused of Sex Assault – Marlon Hunter
• Burris, Lily. WKU to Be Tobacco-Free, Smoke-Free Campus
• Burris, Lily. Behind the Mask – Big Red, O’Brian McKinley
• Burris, Lily. WKU Expects Freshman Enrollment Drop, University of Kentucky & Murray State University Up
• Dobbs. Jack. Graduate Programs for Criminology, Sociology Set to Be Cut
• Stack, Madalyn. Editorial Cartoon re: Matt Bevin Email
• Schmalbert Schmells – Matt Bevin Email
• Mattison, Reed. Not Horsing Around – Ethan Harrington, Farriers
• Tolbert, Eleanor. Shoot Your Shot – Gun …

Human Rights And Economic Democracy: Reinvigorating The Human Rights Movement, Curtis T. Kline

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

A 2018 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that in order to avoid a seemingly inevitable ecological collapse that would bring intense suffering especially on the most marginalized and excluded sectors; the world needs to develop “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society”. There are many local experiences which demonstrate the possibilities of achieving these needed changes. There are a number of community organizations and associations, social movements, and municipal efforts, among others, with creative visions on this front. In Jackson, Mississippi, for example, Cooperation Jackson strives to be a means …

Tracking Change In The North Country: Paths To The Future Of Coös County, Eleanor M. Jaffee

Carsey Publications

From 2008 through 2018, the Neil and Louise Tillotson Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation partnered with the Carsey School of Public Policy (formerly the Carsey Institute) at the University of New Hampshire for a research project titled Tracking Change in the North Country. In this brief, author Eleanor Jaffee summarizes several major products of this research partnership and considers how they may inform future directions for North Country policy and programming.

Engaged Communication Scholarship For Environmental Justice: A Research Agenda, Chad Raphael

Communication

As a discipline of crisis and care, environmental communication needs to address questions of environmental justice. This article argues that the most appropriate approach to studying environmental justice communication is engaged scholarship, in which academics collaborate with community partners, advocates, and others to conduct research. The article reviews prior engaged communication scholarship on environmental justice, and proposes four streams of future research, focused on news and information, deliberation and participation, campaigns and movements, and education and literacy.

Collaborative Research For Justice And Multi-Issue Movement Building: Challenging Discriminatory Policing, School Closures, And Youth Unemployment, Ronald David Glass, Brett G. Stoudt

Publications and Research

This special issue engages ethical, epistemic, political, and institutional issues in projects of collaborative research for justice that were designed with movements contesting policing, school closures, and youth disinvestment and unemployment. Three of the articles were collaboratively written by activists and scholars who drew from movements that deployed research for community-driven progressive change. The movements and the research are thus situated at the intersection of struggles against a resurgent anti-immigrant white supremacy, gentrification, a punitive carceral state, low pay and lack of meaningful employment opportunities, and the privatization of the public sector. These articles build upon and are in conversation …

“Greening” Worcester: Municipal Best Practices For Sustainability, Erin Mckeon, Charline Kirongozi, Jared Duval, Antannia Greene, Qianshu Sun, Zewei Yao

School of Professional Studies

In response to the urgent threat posed by climate change, more and more cities, including Worcester, are attempting to become more environmentally responsible and sustainable. Worcester is attempting to develop ways to become more sustainable; both to strengthen their communities and to protect the planet. The Green Worcester Working Group (GWWG) tasked the Clark Capstone Team with researching best practices for municipal sustainability. The GWWG has set the following priorities: climate change mitigation, resilience, open spaces, sustainable resource management, education and awareness. Taking these into account, the Clark Capstone Team researched the sustainability practices of cities in New England, across …

For One Child, Zion Bereket, Xin Huang, Yitong Lin, Ruobing Pei, Rachel White, Ziyuan Li

School of Professional Studies

The entirety of this project was completed on the foundation of the three focus areas, which were identified by our client as areas of high need. The client wanted to prioritize these three areas as they believed that these three areas were the most integral to the successful achievement of their mission, as well as to the overall health and longevity of the organization.

The Rattler (Volume 107, Issue 8), St. Mary's University

The Rattler (Previous issues)

Founded in 1919, The Rattler is the student voice of St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. The newspaper documents campus life, academic and social issues, student opinion, and local and national events as they relate to the University community. Content typically includes news articles, editorial commentary, arts and culture coverage, sports reporting, and advertisements.

Measurement Plan And Analytic Strategies For Evaluating The Mayor’S Action Plan For Neighborhood Safety. Map Evaluation Update Number 2., Jeffrey A. Butts, John Roman, Angela Silletti, Anthony Vega, Wogod Alawlaqi

Publications and Research

This is the second of six updates presenting interim findings from the evaluation of the NYC Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP). As part of an evaluation of the New York City Mayor’s Action Plan for Neighborhood Safety (MAP), the John Jay College Research and Evaluation Center was asked to create the measurement framework and analytic strategies to evaluate the MAP initiative. Using multiple data sources and onsite observations and interviews, the team aims to understand the relationship between the MAP efforts and the expected outcomes of those efforts.

Promoting Spiritual Wellness On A College Campus Through Community Based Participatory Research, Regina Idoate, Melissa Tibbits, Mark Gilbert, Michele Marie Desmarais, Christopher Fisher, Alicia Bower, Daniel J. Shipp, Joe Kaminski

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

This case study describes an initiative to promote spiritual wellness on a public state college campus and demonstrates evidence of the effectiveness of taking a community-based approach. We employed the community readiness model to develop an initiative to promote spiritual wellness in a Midwestern state university. We recruited informants through purposeful sampling and conducted interviews, both pre- and post-initiative launch. Baseline data was used to inform initiative efforts. The community’s level of readiness to promote spiritual wellness increased from stage three, vague awareness, at baseline to stage six, initiation, at follow up. Although these findings are specific to our community, …

Sa Climate Ready: A Pathway For Climate Action & Adaptation, Sa Climate Ready, Alfred Montoya

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty Research

San Antonio is one of the fasted growing cities in the nation. Every day, we are working to plan for and accommodate the estimated one million additional residents that will arrive in San Antonio by 2040. In much the same way, it’s our collective responsibility to prepare for a future that is projected to have hotter temperatures, longer droughts and more intense rain events, as a result of our changing climate. That is why working with the City Council, one of my first acts as your Mayor was to sign the Paris Climate Agreement.

Throughout the SA Climate Ready process, …

Service-Learning Faculty Assessment: Report Of Results, 2018, Lynn E. Pelco, Katie Elliott, Katie Schifano

Division of Community Engagement Resources

In Spring 2018, the VCU Service-Learning Office sponsored an evaluation process that gathered feedback from faculty members who teach service-learning classes. The goal was to deepen understanding of the barriers faced by VCU’s service-learning faculty instructors and to solicit feedback about key strategies for overcoming these barriers. An independent research consultant conducted the evaluation in two phases: an online anonymous survey and a 30-minute phone interview. Eighty service-learning instructors completed the online survey, and a stratified sample of 18 instructors completed the telephone interviews. Findings indicated that both the online survey respondents and phone interview participants experienced similar supports and …

Conclusion: The Future Of Latina/O/X Communication Studies: A Plática With Senior Scholars, Bernadette Marie Calafell, Karma Chávez, Fernando Delgado, Lisa A. Flores, Michelle A. Holling, Darrel Wanzer-Serrano, Stacey K. Sowards, Angharad N. Valdivia

Critical Race and Ethnic Studies Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.