Digital Commons Network^™

Impact – Information Management, Public Access, Community Transformation: Year One Evaluation Report, September 1, 2000 Through August 31, 2001, Oscar Gutierrez, John Mcgah, Donna H. Friedman

Center for Social Policy Publications

The goals of the IMPACT project are “to improve access to and delivery of human services for low-income residents, strengthen community planning and resource allocation, and enhance understanding of how data on homelessness can be gathered and aggregated on local and national levels to accurately capture the scope of the problem and the effectiveness of efforts to ameliorate it.”

The first year of the IMPACT project was one of infrastructure development in a broad sense. It involved primarily the development and modification of innovative information technology tools as well as the identification, selection and deployment of other information systems designed …

University Reporter - Vol. 06, No. 01 - September 2001, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1996-2009, University Reporter

No abstract provided.

Quality Of Life As Defined By Chinese Americans With Disabilities: Implications For Rehabilitation Services, Nan Zhang Hampton, Vickie Chang

Institute for Asian American Studies Publications

We hypothesized that Chinese Americans with disabilities may remain culturally attached to their ancestors' homeland and this cultural attachment may have influences on the concept of Quality of Life (QOL). That is, QOL may be perceived, by Chinese Americans with disabilities, not only as an individual's satisfaction with his or her life, but also the person's fulfillment of his or her responsibilities to his or her family and community. Of course, this hypothesis needs to be examined. Such an investigation may provide rehabilitation counselors with insights into the meaning of QOL from the viewpoint of Chinese Americans with disabilities. It …

The Development Of Boston's Seaport District: Employment Opportunities And Community Strategies, O. Steven Quimby

Gastón Institute Publications

The development of Boston's Seaport District will create thousands of full-time employment opportunities over the next decade. To ensure equitable access to these opportunities for Boston's communities of color, it is imperative that organizations offering employment-training programs begin to take these opportunities into account now in their training efforts. The Center for Community Economic Development (CCED) at the University of Massachusetts Boston has prepared this report, The Development of Boston's Seaport District: Employment Opportunities and Community Strategies, as a step in becoming informed about these opportunities.

This study examines employment opportunities to be created in three industries projected to be …

Brief 7: Preparing For The Next Wave Of Faculty, New England Resource Center For Higher Education, University Of Massachusetts Boston

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

Ten years ago higher education scholars predicted a major faculty turnover in the late 1990s and into the twenty-first centurya prediction based on demographic data on an aging faculty. The turnover is under way, accelerated by early retirement policies. Currently blocks of faculty positions are opening up at regional colleges and universities, and new faculty are being hired in groups, rather than a few at a time. In larger universities, the impact of this kind of hiring is felt most acutely at the department level. At small institutions, the effects can be institution wide. Throughout this academic year, NERCHE’s Department …

University Reporter - Vol. 05, No. 09 - May 2001, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1996-2009, University Reporter

No abstract provided.

Access To Educational Opportunities For Latino Students In Four Massachusetts School Districts, Carole C. Upshur, Rodolfo R. Vega, Natalie Carithers, Charles Jones, Dale Lucy-Allen, Tatjana Meschede, Charles Ndungu

Gastón Institute Publications

This report was prompted by the pressing concerns over the high failure rates of Latino students on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam. While 27% of White students failed the English portion of the MCAS test and 38% failed the Mathematics portion in 2000, the corresponding rates for Latino students were 66% and 79% respectively (Massachusetts Department of Education, 2000a). There is a great urgency to understand why Latino students score substantially behind students from other racial/ethnic groups. This urgency stems from the reality that students currently enrolled in the 10th grade will be required to pass this exam …

University Reporter - Vol. 05, No. 08 - April 2001, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1996-2009, University Reporter

No abstract provided.

Driving In Massachusetts: When To Stop And Who Should Decide?, Nina M. Silverstein, Jenai Murtha

Gerontology Institute Publications

The purpose of this exploratory research was to assess three stakeholders’ perceptions of the locus of responsibility for driving cessation and identify the criteria that should be included in that decision. The stakeholder groups studied were law enforcement officers, physicians, and the general public age 50 years and older. Defining areas of agreement and disagreement across stakeholders will be valuable for informing policy makers who may be considering statewide or national initiatives. Findings will also be useful for public information and training.

Burning And Burying In Connecticut: Are Regional Solutions To Solid Waste Disposal Equitable?, Timothy Black, John A. Stewart

New England Journal of Public Policy

To comply with federal legislation, states throughout the country are replacing old town dumps with a regional system for municipal solid waste disposal.This system includes trash-to-energy incinerators and ash landfills as well as recycling and reduction facilities. While these new types of facilities are expected to be environmentally safer, they have concentrated the disposal process of waste generated throughout the state in fewer locations. State leaders champion the use of newer, cleaner disposal methods, while local community groups complain that they have become the dumping grounds for the state. This is the first environmental equity study to examine whether these …

Living Legitimacy: A New Approach To Good Government In Africa, Ajume H. Wingo

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article argues for the reorientation of African governments from a model that privileges the central or garrison states to one rooted in the living experiences of citizens, such as their economic conditions, fellowship associations, local governments, and community self-reliance. It begins by describing and analyzing in depth an example of a set of moral, political, and social institutions that still work well to make collective decisions that the members of the community consider legitimate and follow without coercion. It demonstrates that a legitimate government is not and should not be a matter of instituting finished, polished, or ready-made solutions …

Front Matter

New England Journal of Public Policy

No abstract provided.

From Correctional Custody To Community: The Massachusetts Forensic Transition Program, Stephanie W. Hartwell, Donna Haig Friedman, Karin Orr

New England Journal of Public Policy

Offenders with mental illness who are serving correctional sentences are released to the community.Without support systems linking their transition to community-based programs following release from prison, the services necessary for their community reintegration are often fragmented and attenuated. Nearly two thirds of all inmates return to prison, and offenders with mental illness face major challenges during reintegration and have an even more difficult time living in the community without specialized, informed services. This article describes a Massachusetts program designed to bridge the transition of offenders with mental illness from incarceration to the community.The authors review historical and recent trends that …

Very Like A Whale, Richard A. Card

New England Journal of Public Policy

The author talks about his visit to Herman Melville's house and the experiences he had while there.

University Reporter - Vol. 05, No. 07 - March 2001, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1996-2009, University Reporter

No abstract provided.

Tools For Inclusion: Stories Of Success: Using Networking And Mentoring Relationships In Career Planning For Students With Disabilities And Their Families, Jaimie Ciulla Timmons, Jennifer Schuster, Mairead Moloney

Tools for Inclusion Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

This brief gives examples of how students and families have successfully used networking and mentoring to learn about jobs and find employment, and gives students tools to build and use their personal networks throughout the career planning process.

Brief 5: For Funders Of Multi-Institutional Collaborations In Higher Education: Support Partnership Building, New England Resource Center For Higher Education, University Of Massachusetts Boston

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

This brief was derived from the discussions of NERCHE’s think tank for coordinators of GEAR UP school-college partnerships. The insights of these coordinators point to the principle that it is the quality of the relationships among the partners that determines the effectiveness of multi-institutional collaborations. This means then that those who support and invest in multi-institutional collaborations should also focus on supporting the process of partnership building. But what does this mean in practical terms? It means being strategic right from the beginning in the design of grant structures, and throughout the relationship with the grantees. This brief provides examples …

University Reporter - Vol. 05, No. 06 - February 2001, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1996-2009, University Reporter

No abstract provided.

Scholarship Unbound: Assessing Service As Scholarship In Promotion And Tenure Decisions, Kerryann O’Meara

New England Resource Center for Higher Education Publications

Scholars of higher education have long recognized that existing reward systems and structures in academic communities do not weight faculty professional service as they do teaching and research. This paper examines how four colleges and universities with exemplary programs for assessing service as scholarship implemented these policies within colleges of education. Case studies suggest that policies to assess service as scholarship can increase consistency among an institution’s service mission, faculty workload, and reward system; expand faculty’s views of scholarship; boost faculty satisfaction; and strengthen the quality of an institution’s service culture.

University Reporter - Vol. 05, No. 05 - January 2001, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1996-2009, University Reporter

No abstract provided.

University Reporter - Vol. 05, No. 04 - December 2000, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1996-2009, University Reporter

No abstract provided.

Toward Improved Support For Research On Delivery Of Home- And Community-Based Long-Term Care, Francis G. Caro

Gerontology Institute Publications

Stronger and more consistent support is needed for research on long-term care. A greater investment in research will strengthen the ability of public and private organizations to provide effective and efficient assistance to people with disabilities and their informal caregivers. This paper provides a rationale for stronger research funding for the field and outlines several options to strengthen research.

Concerns And Recommendations On Implementation Of The Workforce Investment Act Of 1998 In Boston: Summary Of The "Policy Roundtable: Local Implementation Of The Workforce Investment Act And Its Impact On Latinos And Other Communities", Luz Rodriguez, Kevin Whalen, Mary Jo Marion, Rita Lara, Claudia Green

Gastón Institute Publications

The primary public funding vehicle for employment training and workforce education is in the midst of radical change. The transition from the Job Training Partnership Act of 1982 to the Workforce. Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) will have a dramatic impact on providers and clients alike. This impact is likely to be especially challenging for programs targeted to the hardest to serve populations. For example, many practitioners are worried that members of certain groups will be more likely to be "lost" and not receive needed services under the voucher system that will be the primary payment method under WIA. Linguistic …

The Status And Needs Of Small Businesses Owned And Controlled By Disabled Veterans, Paul R. Camacho

William Joiner Institute for the Study of War and Social Consequences Publications

This introduction provides a thumbnail sketch, or landscape, of the history and conditions of veterans’ benefits against which to profile the issue of veterans’ small business opportunities. After years of applied research on issues pertaining to the veteran community, it has become abundantly clear to this researcher that the good people who serve in our federal and state agencies, and as staff persons in various congressional and state legislative offices often lack the data and/or information they need to fully and meaningfully address the needs of veterans and their families. This situation is no doubt a result of demographic facts. …

University Reporter - Vol. 05, No. 03 - November 2000, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1996-2009, University Reporter

No abstract provided.

Alternatives To Incarceration For Substance Abusing Female Defendants/Offenders In Massachusetts, 1996-1998, Carol Hardy-Fanta, Sylvia Mignon

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

In July 1997, the Massachusetts State Legislature, recognizing the challenge presented by the problem of substance abuse for women in the criminal justice system, authorized funds to the Department of Public Health’s Bureau of Substance Abuse Services for a study of substance using female offenders to be conducted by the John W. McCormack Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Since March 1998, a group of researchers at the McCormack Institute and the Criminal Justice Center at UMass Boston has gathered and analyzed a wealth of quantitative and qualitative information on women offenders in Massachusetts.

This information includes data from …

University Reporter - Vol. 05, No. 02 - October 2000, University Of Massachusetts Boston

1996-2009, University Reporter

No abstract provided.

Latino Agenda 2000, Leslie Bowen, Lillian Hirales, Mary Jo Marion, Giovanna Negretti, Andrés Torres

Gastón Institute Publications

Few would argue that our community's position is precarious. On the one hand, we are a growing presence in the Commonwealth. In 1995, there were an estimated 344,068 Latinos living in Massachusetts, representing 5.6% of the total state population, a 20% increase since 1990. It is expected that the 2000 census will confirm that Latinos are indeed the largest minority group in the state. Latinos make up an even larger proportion of the total population of a number of key cities, including Lawrence (48%), Chelsea (39%), Holyoke (37%), Springfield (20%), and Boston (12%). Latino youth have formed the largest minority …

The Longest Commute: The Geography Of Poverty, Employment, And Services, Matthew F. Reidy

New England Journal of Public Policy

The average American commuter, alone in an automobile, has a twenty-five-minute ride to work, a not unpleasant, usually overlooked part of the workday. But for millions of low-income people trying to establish themselves in the workforce, getting to work can be a major hurdle because their jobless neighborhoods are not well connected to areas where jobs are plentiful. Theirs is the longest commute. This is not a new problem. The decades-long decline of inner cities and the public transportation system are fairly well-documented phenomena. The time limits instituted as part of the 1996 welfare reform legislation bring a new immediacy …

Rubella Vaccine And Medical Policymaking: Fetal Rights And Women's Health, Jacob Heller

New England Journal of Public Policy

U.S. vaccine policies, to all appearances, are based on assumptions about cost effectiveness, safety, and public health needs. Analysis of the peer review health professions’ discourse about rubella vaccine between 1941 and 1999 challenges this view. There were four justifications for the development of the vaccine: (1) cost-benefit projections about vaccine use versus anticipated birth defects; (2) the desire to prevent “fetal wastage” by vaccinating women; (3) a professional imperative to ensure healthy babies; and (4) a bias among vocal vaccine advocates against “unnecessary” abortion. The role of a fifth consideration, the “cultural provenance” of vaccines for American medicine, though …