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Evaluation Of The Community Child Health Research Network (Cchn) Community-Academic Partnership, Rhonda Belue, Peter Schafer, Bowen Chung, Maxine Vance, Robin Lanzi, Patricia O'Campo, Child And Community Health Network (Cchn)

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Background: The Community Child Health Network (CCHN) is a research collaborative network of five communities in the U.S. formed to study maternal and child health disparities, via a community-based participatory research study design. CCHN studies how community, family, and individual level influences interact with biological processes to affect maternal stress, resilience, and allostatic load; ultimately, the study evaluates whether such factors result in health disparities in pregnancy outcomes and infant and early childhood mortality and morbidity. The purpose of this paper is to assess the community-based participatory research (CBPR) process that governs the CCHN and offer lessons from our experiences. …

Environmental Health In Southern Nevada, Courtney Coughenour, Jennifer Pharr, Shawn Gerstenberger

Nevada Journal of Public Health

There are a multitude of environmental factors that influence public health. The purpose of this manuscript is to evaluate the Southern Nevada community with respect to environmental conditions and health, including both positive and negative traits, and develop realistic goals and strategies aimed at improving these conditions. Southern Nevada is located in one of the most arid regions of North America. Since annual rainfall averages less than four inches per year, Southern Nevada depends upon the Colorado River for its water supply. It is predicted that water flow to the area will decrease by 5% to 20% by 2050. As …

Community Health Indicators In Southern Nevada, Courtney Coughenour, Jennifer Pharr, Shawn Gerstenberger

Nevada Journal of Public Health

Community design and access to services are essential components of healthy and sustainable communities. The purpose of this manuscript is to evaluate Southern Nevada with respect to community design and access, including both positive and negative traits, and to suggest realistic changes that could be made to improve these conditions. The region’s network of parks and open space recreation areas is one of its strongest assets. Clark County enjoys over 42 million acres of federal and state lands which offer a large variety of recreational opportunities. The region has an extensive trail system, with a total of 179 miles of …

Education And Educational Attainment In Southern Nevada, Jennifer Pharr, Courtney Coughenour, Shawn Gerstenberger

Nevada Journal of Public Health

Failure to complete high school has a direct impact on a person’s earning potential and quality of life. Higher levels of education are associated with better health. Because of this association, it is important for children and adults to have access to quality education. The percentage of adults who have successfully pursued higher education in Southern Nevada is lower than the peer Mountain West metropolitan areas and the national average. Nevada high school graduation rates are the lowest in the nation. High school graduation rates and dropout rates vary by race/ethnicity in the Clark County School District. High school graduation …

Community Advanced Data And Research Analysis: A Mixed Methods Capstone Project, Michael Bernarndo, Brandie Green, Amber Konold, Kathryn Weavil

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Community Advanced Data and Research Analysis project, or CADRA, is project that houses an interdisciplinary research team located at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The vision of CADRA, as defined by its stakeholders, is to create positive community outcomes by encouraging and engaging nonprofit organizations, as well as student and professional researchers, to develop and evolve their data management practices. CADRA offers three program options including Nonprofit Audits, Program Development and Grant Writing, and Community Data Mining. The purpose of this program evaluation will be to evaluate the Community Advanced Data and Research Analysis (CADRA) Project, with a …

Predicted Performance Of A Skytherm North, A Highly Insulated Building Envelope System And A Frost Protected Shallow Foundation, Kitrina Ann Stratton

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

How do you design a durable, sustainable, and financeable Net Zero Energy house for a cold weather climate using little or no external energy that is also affordable? Reviewing all of the factors that would influence the design and materials selection of an appropriate response to the issues, the perfect system for housing people, whether it is in response to affordability, durability, comfort, cultural sensitivity, appearance or being locally appropriate, is using some kind of straw bale construction system with an integrated frost protected shallow foundation and a SkyTherm North design.

The focus and intention of this research is to …

Developing An Action Learning Community Advocacy/Leadership Training Program For Community Health Workers And Their Agencies To Reduce Health Disparities In Arizona Border Communities, Kenneth A. Schachter Md, Mba, Maia Ingram Mph, Laurel Jacobs Drph, Mph, Hannah Hafter Mph, Jill Guernsey De Zapien Ba, Scott Carvajal Phd, Mph

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Community health workers (CHWs) make unique and important contributions to society. They serve as patient advocates, educators, and navigators in our health care system and a growing body of research indicates that they play an important role in the effective delivery of prevention and treatment services in underserved communities. CHWs also serve as informal community leaders and advocates for organizational and community change, providing valuable insiders' insights about health promotion and the interrelatedness of individuals, their community, its institutions, and the surrounding environment. Accion Para La Salud or Action for Health (Accion) is a CDC-funded community based participatory research (CBPR) …

Sentiments Of Community Stakeholders Living In Southern Nevada Neighborhoods, Erin Sheehy

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Community stakeholders provided insight to their local neighborhoods and shared their thoughts about the potential redevelopment of their neighborhoods. This study utilized data from the Southern Nevada Strong ethnographic research project. Ethnographic research was conducted over ten weeks in Summer 2013. Neighborhood observations and interviews with community stakeholders were conducted to understand how neighborhoods are utilized, how residents feel about potential redevelopment, and what areas of the neighborhoods residents would like to see improved in the future. Photographs were also collected to further examine the characteristics, aesthetics, and spatial landscape of the neighborhoods. The purpose of this qualitative research project …

Employment And Economic Development In Southern Nevada, Jennifer Pharr, Courtney Coughenour, Shawn Gerstenberger

Nevada Journal of Public Health

Wealth influences a person’s health. People who are higher on the socioeconomic scale tend to have better health outcomes. To improve the health of a community, it is important to understand the employment opportunities of the people living in the community.

Southern Nevada’s economy was hit hard between 2008 and 2012. Unemployment rates in the region exceeded national and peer regions between during this time period. Construction; leisure and hospitality; trade, transportation and utilities; and professional and business service sectors experienced the greatest job loss during the recession. The Education and Health Services sectors did not experience a decrease in …

Healthcare Access And Health Outcomes In Southern Nevada, Jennifer Pharr, Courtney Coughenour, Shawn Gerstenberger

Nevada Journal of Public Health

In a publication from the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, it was recognized that a person’s zip code was a more important predictor of health than their genetic code. Where we live influences not only our access to health care, but other health indicators as well. Clark County has a low primary care physician to population ratio compared to other counties in Nevada and in the US. Clark County also has highest rates of uninsured in the Mountain West and among the highest in the nation.

Southern Nevada fared worse than other Mountain West Metropolitan areas in health indicators and preventative …

Demographic Makeup And Population Projections For Southern Nevada: Understanding The Emerging Healthcare Needs In Our Community, Jennifer Pharr, Courtney Coughenour, Shawn Gerstenberger

Nevada Journal of Public Health

Even with a leveling-off of population growth from 2008 to 2011, Southern Nevada had one of the fastest growing populations in the nation over the past decade. While population growth is projected to increase for the next ten years, the rate of growth will be slower than in the past decade. The Hispanic population, as a percentage of the total population, is projected to surpass the White population somewhere near the year 2030. The Southern Nevada population is aging, as the median age in the region increased between 2000 and 2010. The 65+ age group is projected to increase as …

Building A Sustainable Community Through Public Engagement: A Study Of Southern Nevada, Jennifer Pharr, Courtney Coughenour, Shawn Gerstenberger

Nevada Journal of Public Health

This manuscript is the first of a series written for the Nevada Journal of Public Health. The series is result of research conducted for the Southern Nevada Strong, Sustainable Communities Grant. During Year One of the planning process, we created a Southern Nevada Existing Conditions Report. This report highlighted where the region stood on key metrics including: demographics and population projections, access to healthcare and health outcomes, healthy community, housing, environment, economy and education. For this special issue of the Nevada Journal of Public Health, the report was separated into seven articles related to each of these metrics. The articles …

Engagement Of Academic Libraries And Information Science Schools In Creating Curriculum For Sustainability: An Exploratory Study, Maria A. Jankowska, Bonnie J. Smith, Marianne A. Buehler

Library Faculty Research

In 2010, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education released, “Sustainability curriculum in higher education: A call to action,” encouraging infusion of sustainability topics into universities' teaching and research. Since then, academic programs and research related to social, economic, and environmental sustainability have enriched university curricula. An exploratory study was conducted to determine the position and engagements of academic libraries and information science schools in their contributions to scholarly sustainability activities and curricular initiatives. This article presents the results of the study which reveals a number of engagements by library professionals in the areas of sustainability, such …

Spatial Health Indicator Analysis Data Collection Unlv Study, Amelia Gulling, Jeff Greer, Tom Stewart

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Southern Nevada Strong (SNS) is a collaborative regional planning project between local public agencies and NGOs throughout the Las Vegas Valley. This project is headed by City of Henderson on behalf of the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Committee. SNS received a $3.5 million Sustainable Community (SC) grant from HUD which is set to expire in 2015. SNS member agencies receive preference for future HUD grants by participating in successful SC grant, which could be considered a motivating factor for participation for outside agencies.

The Las Vegas Promise Neighborhood Initiative: A Community-Based Approach To Improving Educational Opportunity & Achievement, Sonya D. Horsford, Carrie Sampson

Lincy Institute Reports and Briefs

Since the 1980s, the standards and accountability movement in U.S. education has focused heavily on reform at the classroom and school level, with insufficient regard for how social, political, and community contexts impact student learning and achievement (Berliner, 2006; Horsford, 2010; Noguera, 2003; Oakes, 1989; Wells et al., 2004). This emphasis on standardization and high-stakes testing has stigmatized, and in many instances, penalized low-income and historically underserved students and communities through the use of student subgroup and school designations. It also largely has ignored the research literature documenting the significant impact poverty, neighborhood context, and related out-of-school factors such as …

Claiming Citizenship: Las Vegas' Conventional Women's Organizations Establishing Citizenship Through Civic Engagement, Cynthia Cicero

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Many historians of American women portray women's organized civic engagement and work to attain social, economic, and legal equality as feminism. American feminism has been expanded and applied in scholarship. The American feminists of the 1960s wanted to alter the male power structure and redefine conventional notions of womanhood. However, many middle-class women who participated in community and civic organizations valued their roles as wives, mothers, and homemakers, expressing their citizenship and community work as an extension of these roles. Their motivation in pursuing equality was to gain full citizenship status.

In this thesis, I argue that viewing women's civic …

2012 Southern Nevada Existing Conditions Report, Southern Nevada Regional Planning Coaltion, Lincy Institute, Unlv Urban Sustainability Initiative, Unlv School Of Community Health Sciences, Jennifer Pharr Phd, Courtney Coughenour

Lincy Institute Reports and Briefs

No abstract provided.

The Utah Model: Lessons For Regional Planning, Brenda C. Scheer

Brookings Mountain West Publications

Utah has become an unlikely leader in regional planning through a voluntary partnership of key leaders, agencies, local government, and the general public. Given that regional planning efforts around the nation have generally evoked strong reactions from residents concerned about losing local control, the success of Envision Utah—the organization that emerged as a key driver of regional planning in Utah—in building a consensus around regional growth management holds lessons for other regions.

Envision Utah adopted several strategies that have distinguished Utah’s regional planning efforts from other regions and given rise to what can be called the “Utah model” of collaborative …

Eliminating Racial/Ethnic Health Disparities: Reconsidering Comparative Approaches, Shawn M. Bediako, Derek M. Griffith

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

The focus on eliminating racial/ethnic health disparities has brought critical attention to the poor health status of minority populations. Assessing the health outcomes of racial minority groups by comparing them to a racial majority standard is valuable for identifying and monitoring health inequities, but may not be the most effective approach to identifying strategies that can be used to improve minority health outcomes. Health promotion planning models and public health history both suggest that minority health promotion is more likely to be derived from interventions rooted in culturally and historically grounded contextual factors. In this essay, we highlight limitations of …

Pastors’ Influence On Research-Based Health Programs In Church Settings, Shirley M. Timmons

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Churches, in the United States, are recognized essential players in addressing our mounting health and social service needs. Yet, even though they implement a relatively large number of programs, few are research-based. Focus groups were conducted with pastors from 11 Baptist churches in a small Southeastern town to explore factors that influence the implementation of research-based health programs. Transcripts were coded for domains resulting in four themes: congregant needs, shared programming ethics, common understanding of programming processes, and care for the church and congregation. Pastors value research and seek church-based programs that enhance the health of congregants. Yet, future study …

Halos, Alibis And Community Development: A Cross National Comparison Of How Governments Spend Revenue From Gambling, Lynn Gidluck

Occasional Papers

This paper provides a cross-national comparison of how governments around the world distribute revenues from state-directed gambling and how these choices have been justified by proponents and vilified by critics. Case studies where governments have popularized gambling expansion by “earmarking” revenues for particular good causes and where the state has collaborated with the voluntary sector to deliver programs from this revenue stream are examined. Lessons learned from challenges of various approaches are considered.

Evaluating The Impact Of Social Determinants On Pedestrian Injury In Clark County, Nevada, Jonathon Lavalley, Courtney Ann Coughenour, Michelle Chino

Health Sciences Graduate Research

In order to understand the social determinants which may impact pedestrian injury rates in an urban, sprawling, western community we conducted an ecologic investigation to compare pedestrian crash rates by social determinants available for census tracts in Clark County, NV.

Sustainability And Climate Models For The Intermountain West: An Annotated Bibliography, Marianne A. Buehler, William E. Brown Jr.

Brookings Mountain West Publications

This resource on climate models and sustainability in the Intermountain West, a region that includes the states of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah, is a collaborative effort between the UNLV Libraries (http://library.unlv.edu/) and Brookings Mountain West (http://brookingsmtnwest.unlv.edu/).

The selected citations include academic, government, and non-profit information that highlight ongoing research on climate models and sustainability efforts in the region. The websites, government studies, independent reports, scholarly articles, and media reports reflect the diversity and complexity of climate change and sustainability issues in a region that contains widely varying ecosystems. The Intermountain West, with its deserts, basins, mountains, …

Unlv Stars Unabridged Report, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Reports (USI)

University of Nevada, Las Vegas, by earning a 2011 Silver Rating in the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Ratings System (STARS), is ahead of the curve among public universities – and improving.

STARS is a voluntary, self–reporting framework developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) to help measure sustainability performance over time and among colleges and universities nationwide. The UNLV Sustainability Council oversaw STARS, which by measuring sustainability can help UNLV to reduce energy consumption and waste, improve education, attract research, and generate jobs.

A rating of Silver puts UNLV in great company – with …

College Of Engineering Senior Design Competition Fall 2010, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Fred and Harriet Cox Senior Design Competition Projects

Part of every UNLV engineering student’s academic experience, the senior design project stimulates engineering innovation and entrepreneurship. Each student in their senior year chooses, plans, designs, and prototypes a product in this required element of the curriculum. A capstone to the student’s educational career, the senior design project encourages the student to use everything learned in the engineering program to create a practical, real world solution to an engineering challenge.

The senior design competition helps to focus the senior students in increasing the quality and potential for commercial application for their design projects. Judges from local industry evaluate the projects …

Making The Rounds In Research, Tony Allen

UNLV Innovation

Increasing the number of graduates is still a priority, but UNLV’s School of Nursing also seeks to build its research and enhance understanding of the endeavor.

Sustainability: Focusing On Quality Of Life, Suzan Dibella

UNLV Innovation

UNLV introduces initiatives supporting research and outreach designed to help the community, state, and region address issues most critical to sustaining and enhancing quality of life.

How Corporate Social Responsibility Influences Employee Job Satisfaction In The Hotel Industry, Chia-Chun Saprina Chiang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether strategic CSR programs in the hotel industry influence individual job satisfaction. Based on Valentine and Fleischman’s study in company ethics programs and employees’ perceived CSR, job satisfaction is related to many significant organizational factors and is usually a major concentration of business research that investigates employee-based phenomena (Valentine & Fleischman, 2008, p. 160). In addition, this paper will seek for the literature supporting the positive correlation between a company’s strategic CSR activities and its employees’ job satisfaction. In other words, this study will identify whether and how employees’ perceptions of their …

Las Vegas Metropolitan Area Social Survey 2010 Highlights, Robert Futrell, Christie D. Batson, Barbara G. Brents, Andrea Dassopoulos, Chrissy Nicholas, Mark J. Salvaggio, Candace Griffith

Reports (USI)

UNLV sociologists conducted the Las Vegas Metropolitan Area Social Survey (LVMASS) to identify the socio-spatial distribution of attitudes and attributes relevant to urban sustainability in the Las Vegas Valley. The project goal is to understand how Las Vegas residents think about urban sustainability issues across three dimensions: 1) natural environment; 2) community and quality of life; 3) economy.

Sustainability Booklet, Paul Andricopulos, Ned Thomas

Publications (SD)

An online booklet highlighting the responsible efforts being made by the City of Henderson to foster a sustainable community.