Digital Commons Network^™

African Aid And Success: Four Keys, Susan Paganelli

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Aid to Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has occasional success stories, but they are intermingled amongst tales of waste and failure. The stark reality is that more of the population of SSA is chronically undernourished in the present decade than it was in 1992 and 50 percent of the population is still considered to be living in extreme poverty. These problems persist in spite of the $650 billion given in aid to Africa by the world’s concerned countries since 1960 (Sunderberg and Gelp 2006). It is clear that money and good intent are not sufficient to alleviate the suffering in Africa.

Sticky Thickets: Local Regulatory Challenges For Small And Emerging Sustainable Businesses, Lisa M. Lesage

Western New England Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Greening Of Community Economic Development: Dispatches From New York City, Carmen Huertas-Noble, Jessica Rose, Brian Glick

Western New England Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cooperation, Coordination, And Connection: Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Intersectoral Collaboration Through The Lens Of Stormwater Management, Robin Miller

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

This paper describes an emerging organizational phenomenon called intersectoral collaboration as a means for delivering public services. Collaboration, and intersectoral collaboration specifically, present a new way to organize over traditional hierarchical organization. The conflict between structured and nonstructured organizations is one that has existed since people began organizing themselves (Olsen, 1965; Abrhamasson, 1993). This paper is composed of three sections. The first provides a literature review on collaboration including discussion of the benefits and roadblocks to collaborative efforts. The second portion builds on this analysis of collaborative efforts in other functions with a case study of collaboration between the city …

Metropolitan Planning Organization Reform: A National Agenda For Reforming Metropolitan Governance, Myron Orfield, Baris Gumus-Dawes

Studies

This policy brief recommends significant reform of Metropolitan Planning Organizations to promote fair and sustainable metropolitan growth nationally.

Making The Writing Center A Writing Environment, Samantha A. Howard, Ellen Schendel

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

Do writers' environments affect their work and their productivity? If so, how, and why? My

presentation outlines what an ideal writing space could and should be for various kinds of

writers.

Presently, writing centers do not necessarily encourage writing within their spaces. I explain

reasons why writing centers should remodel their spaces so that writers can write in the center,

rather than simply drop by for tutoring help, as is the typical writing center practice. Writing

centers already pride themselves by running on a model of active and social learning, which

would only be expanded by creating spaces for writers …

Conflict Transformation, Cultural Innovation, And Loyalist Identity In Northern Ireland, Lee A. Smithey

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Empowering Rural Citizen Journalism Via Web 2.0 Technologies, Marco A. Figueiredo, Paola Prado, Mauro A. Câmara, Ana M. Albuquerque

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

Once acquainted with the modern information and communication tools made available with the advent of the Internet, five Brazilian rural communities participating in a pilot project to develop a self-sustaining telecenter model, engaged in citizen journalism using inexpensive digital video cameras. Community members used Web 2.0 collaborative tools to post short videos on the telecenter portal. The 95 video blogs published between September 2006 and May 2008 recorded various aspects of community life,including religious celebrations,oral history arts and crafts traditions,folklore,and envirnmental concerns. This study evaluates the impact of video blogging in these communities.

The Future Of Fair Housing And Fair Credit: From Crisis To Opportunity, Symposium: New Strategies In Fair Housing, John A. Powell, Jason Reece

Cleveland State Law Review

The following paper provides an assessment of the current housing and credit crisis from a racial justice lens. The paper explores how race was interwoven into the current crisis and demonstrates the racialized impacts of the housing and credit crisis. We also explore some of the current challenges facing fair housing in our society, presenting concepts and models of reform to promote true integration with opportunity. We close with a new paradigm for addressing fair housing in the future and utilizing the opportunities presented by this crisis to produce a fair housing opportunity and a just society for all.

The Role Of Nonprofits In Ced, Dana A. Thompson

Book Chapters

Nonprofit institutions play an integral role in community economic development (CED) in the United States. These entities initiate and implement most CED activities, and the CED movement would be significantly weakened without their existence. This chapter briefly explores the historical context of various nonprofit organizations in assisting low- and moderate-income communities across the United States, the ways in which modern-day nonprofit organizations are effecting change in their communities, and the challenges to their effectiveness.

The first section of this chapter discusses community development corporations (CDCs), neighborhood-based organizations that are the primary instruments used to drive and implement revitalization in low- …

Community-Engaged Scholarship In Ffigher Education: An Expanding Experience, Judith A. Ramaley

Higher Education

Higher education in this country has always been expected to serve the public good. Sometimes, the emphasis is on preparing educated citizens or practitioners in especially critical fields and how public service can deepen and enrich learning and prepare students to lead purposeful, responsible, and creative lives. Sometimes the focus is upon institutions themselves as major intellectual and cultural resources for a community. In this paper, based on the keynote presentation at the Community Engaged Scholarship for Health Collaborative's invitational symposium, the author explores four levels of engagement: the individual, the academic community and its concepts of scholarship, the institution …

Creating Collaborative Partnerships To Support Teacher Growth: Mapping The Partnership Process, Lynda Kennedy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The urban setting has tremendous resources for the support of teaching and learning social studies and history but many teachers do not know how to make use of them. Collaborations centered on teacher professional development between cultural institutions such as museums, historical societies, historic houses, libraries, etc., universities and k-12 schools can create wider communities of practice that can support the professional growth of history and social studies teachers from their pre-service education throughout their careers.

This qualitative case study - grounded in the social/historical context of teacher education and a century of history/social studies pedagogy both in school and …

Best News User Guide: Coalitions, Center For Public Health Systems Science, Sarah Moreland-Russell, Erin Black, Laura Brossart

Center for Public Health Systems Science

This user guide was created to help tobacco control staff and partners implement evidence-based best practices by translating research into practical guidance. The user guides focus on strategies (e.g., programs and interventions) that have shown strong or promising evidence of effectiveness. Recommendations in this guide are suggestions for utilizing coalitions in comprehensive tobacco control programs.

The Rise Of Private Equity Media Ownership In The United States: A Public Interest Perspective, Matthew Crain

Publications and Research

This article examines the logic, scope, and implications of the influx of private equity takeovers in the United States media sector in the last decade. The strategies and aims of private equity firms are explained in the context of the financial landscape that has allowed them to flourish; their aggressive expansion into media ownership is outlined in detail. Particular attention is paid to the public interest concerns raised by private equity media ownership relating to the frenzied nature of the buyout market, profit maximization strategies, and the heavy debt burdens imposed on acquired firms. The article concludes with discussion of …

Global Cities And The Governance Of Climate Change: What Is The Role Of Law In Cities?, Heike Schroeder, Harriet Bulkeley

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Article examines how global cities are governing climate change. Part I of this Article provides an overview of the national and international contexts of urban climate governance focusing on the United Kingdom and the United States. Parts II and III analyze London and Los Angeles, respectively, as examples of global cities. They provide a thorough examination of climate change policies and actions in these two cities, based on approximately thirty in-depth interviews with government, business and civil society representatives during 2007-08, as well as official documents and grey literature. Part IV then examines the modes of governance to understand …

Democratic Institutions Create Civic Health: How Local Jurisdictions Can Enhance Their Problem-Solving Capacities Through Inclusive Governance, Including A Case Study Of Newark, Delaware, Ezra Temko

SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Civic health is a community’s economic, civic, and social infrastructure – its capacity to solve its problems. This paper explores how contemporary local governments address the opportunities and challenges facing their communities and how local governments could utilize civic engagement to enhance civic health. It also evaluates the status of Newark, Delaware’s civic health and offers pragmatic steps Newark’s government can take to enhance the community’s civic health. Democratic governance is the 21st century engine for communities like Newark, Delaware to enhance their civic health. Collaborative and inclusive governance can improve a community’s abilities to solve problems. The Newark community …

Integration, Reconstructed, Olatunde C.A. Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines Parents Involved for the light it sheds on integration's continuing relevance to educational and social equity. Part I examines the story of school integration in Jefferson County and shows how this largely successful metropolitan integration plan challenges claims of racial integration's futility. Part II puts forward the empirical evidence that plaintiffs in Parents Involved used in seeking to establish that school boards have a compelling interest in promoting racial integration and avoiding the harm of racially isolated schools. This part argues that the empirical case for racial integration, while not without limitations, moves beyond stigmatization, psychological harm, …

Looking At Sustainability On The Lakeshore, Paul M. Lane, John P. Farris, Ann Marie Fauvel, Lisa Miller

Seidman Business Review

A new team-taught course with a focus on interdisciplinary teaching and integrative learning was offered at the Holland Meijer Campus. Faculty from Engineering and Marketing developed a community-focused course with an alternative schedule to engage students in the question: What will the community look like in ten years? A unique course emerged — Socially Conscious Innovation — that took place in an intense four-week semester. Students spent a significant amount of time in the community exploring local markets for innovation in the realms of sustainability, globalization, and active aging. This article focuses on issues relating to the sustainability segment of …

Assessing Ethnobotanical Knowledge And Resources To Develop A Sustainable Management Plan For The Lokaro Reserve In Southeast, Madagascar, Ashley Davis Lehman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This research assessed ethnobotanical knowledge in two villages and locally important plant resources in an adjacent private, littoral forest, the Lokaro Reserve in southeastern Madagascar. Two hundred and five plant species were identified through “walk-in-the-woods” interviews with three local experts (an ombiasa, a traditional healer) and two material healers who identified four distinct vegetation communities within the Reserve (lowland forest, higher forest, grassland, and rocky coast). I collected herbarium specimens and identified all plant species found in the four vegetation types through use of random sample plots. I gathered information about local plant uses through a village map-making exercise in …

Learn And Serve America Year (3 Progress Report For Period Of September 6,2008 - June 30, 2009), Learn And Serve America

Project Summaries

At the end of Year 3, there were a total of 1,748 economically disadvantaged youth beneficiaries and 502 college students who were served through the LSA supported activities as reported through our LASSIE data. These figures both exceed our annual targets. Our cumulative figures to date are as follows: Disadvantaged youth beneficiaries, Year 1: 1334 and Year 2: 1775 and Year 3: 1748 for a total of 4857.

How Can Information And Communication Technology Bring About Development? An Information Architecture For Guiding Interventions In Developing Regions, Mehruz Kamal, Sajda Qureshi

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

While a great deal is known about how Information and Communication Technologies are used in developing and underserved communities, there are still gaps as to how ICTs may enable development outcomes to be achieved. It appears that the majority of businesses in developing regions are micro-enterprises which employ between 1-5 people and face challenges of limited resources. This research investigates what is known about how ICTs bring about development and uses these insights to develop an information architecture adapted from the Zachman Framework that integrates the different perspectives. In this research, the key stakeholders are the micro-entrepreneurs who adopt technology …

A Comment On Making Sustainable Land-Use Planning Work, Peter Pollock

University of Colorado Law Review

Many models exist for creating better communities: for example, smart growth, new urbanism, and sustainable development. City planners have at their disposal a number of model ordinances and policies that could help communities meet the challenges of climate change and looming changes in transport and energy supply. The problem is not the lack of tools, but other policy issues that stymie their effective application. The localized nature of community planning, the inability to overcome local opposition to redevelopment within existing city boundaries, the lack of rigor in assigning costs to new development, the local competition for taxes, and the legacy …

Cultural Characteristics Of Western Educational Structures And Their Effects On Local Ways Of Knowing, Cheryl L. Woolsey Des Jarlais

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This critical ethnography is a study of how the interfaces between Western educational structures and Native cultural structures function in the daily operations of a privately owned school in a Native community, how these functions have evolved, drawbacks and strengths of both Western and Native cultural structures, and current challenges in relating to the mixtures of philosophy, value systems and socialization expectations of these systems.

The review of literature exposed a variety of assumptions regarding individualism, bureaucratization, homogenization, universalism, meritocracy, and rationalization reflected in Western educational structures. The study done at Valley Grove Mission School illuminated the assumptions and expectations …

Implementation Of Maternal Health Financial Scheme In Rural Bangladesh, Md. Moshiur Rahman, Ubaidur Rob, Tasnima Kibria

Reproductive Health

The maternal mortality ratio in Bangladesh has declined from more than 600 per 100,000 live births in 1980 to 322 in 2004, yet it is still unacceptably high. Economic barriers are an important factor in deterring pregnant women from seeking services at health facilities. To achieve the country’s Millennium Development Goal of reducing the maternal mortality ratio to 143 by 2015, the Population Council conducted an operations research study to test the feasibility and effectiveness of introducing an innovative model of health care financing to increase utilization of maternal health services by poor, rural women. As this report notes, “Voucher …

Mine Action Strategy (2009-2013) - Azerbaijan, Gichd

Global CWD Repository

The mine/UXO problem in Azerbaijan is mainly resulted from the military aggression of Armenia over the territory

of Azerbaijan. Although the hostilities had ceased in May 1994, a permanent peace is yet to be achieved

(negotiations are underway with the assistance of OSCE Minsk Group, chaired by the USA, France and Russia).

Despite this, the rehabilitation of accessible war-torn areas are continuing since 1996.

The Scope of the Problem in this publication refers to problems in the accessible war torn territories. This is where

the presence of mine/UXOs are impacting livelihoods of population and impeding development and rehabilitation

efforts of …

Campus Triple Bottom Line: College Sustainability And Grand Valley State University, Mary J. Brown

McNair Scholars Journal

No abstract provided.

Sustainability Significance: An Analysis Of A Community Assessment Survey Distributed By The Bluegrass Regional Planning Council, Kyle Scott

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

PURPOSE:

To analyze information gathered from community leaders and representatives to assist the Bluegrass Regional Planning Council (BRPC) in understanding how the policy issue of sustainable development is prioritized and perceived locally and regionally.

BACKGROUND:

The BRPC conducted a survey as a response to growing interest in the planning community involving sustainable development and more specifically the adoption of sustainable development code. Sustainable development is being defined as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”1 A. How do public officials and other community representatives prioritize sustainability among other policy …

Community Managed Rural Water Supply Systems In The Dominican Republic : Assessment Of Sustainability Of Systems Built By The National Institute Of Potable Water And Peace Corps, Dominican Republic , Ryan W. Schweitzer

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

In the Dominican Republic economic growth in the past twenty years has not yielded sufficient improvement in access to drinking water services, especially in rural areas where 1.5 million people do not have access to an improved water source (WHO, 2006). Worldwide, strategic development planning in the rural water sector has focused on participatory processes and the use of demand filters to ensure that service levels match community commitment to post-project operation and maintenance. However studies have concluded that an alarmingly high percentage of drinking water systems (20-50%) do not provide service at the design levels and/or fail altogether (up …

Goodman & Epstein, Listening To Battered Women: A Survivor-Centered Approach To Advocacy, Mental Health And Justice, Julie Goldscheid

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

North Dakota's Renaissance Zone Program : Evaluating Success In Northeastern North Dakota, Jordan L. Neau

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.