Digital Commons Network^™

A Vision For Berwick: A Case Study Of The Citizen Initiated Visioning Process For Downtown Redevelopment In Southern Maine, John Stoll

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

This Capstone follows the downtown redevelopment visioning process in Berwick from the initial presentation to Town Officials up until formal adoption as an addendum to the Comprehensive Plan. Berwick has a monumental task ahead of it as the Town looks to redevelop an 11 acre abandoned factory site that is located directly where a downtown should be. Residents of Berwick had to work with Town Staff to navigate a considerable amount of lingering controversy and to rebuild trust between the public and local government. Members of the Downtown Vision Committee worked tirelessly to reach out to the community through education …

Attitudes Towards Climate Change And Sustainability, Sammy Easby, Tess Manning

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

Climate change is an important issue in the world today and the University of Richmond has the ability to make a difference. The purpose of this project was to gain information about University of Richmond students’ awareness, attitudes, and behaviors related to climate change and sustainability on campus. A short survey was composed and sent to students via email. Over the course of two weeks, 274 students completed the survey. The data from the survey was composed and analyzed. Based on the data, for the most part our community’s behaviors have stayed consistent. Student awareness has slightly increased but they …

Food Policy Councils: Integrating Food Justice And Environmental Justice, Danielle M. Purifoy

Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum

No abstract provided.

Extension Educators' Perceptions About The Nc 10% Local Food Campaign: Impacts, Challenges, And Alternatives, Kati Ingerson, Ksu Jayaratne, Teisha Wymore, Nancy Creamer

Journal of Extension

This article reports on the perceptions of Extension educators who served as the Local Food Coordinators (LFCs) in promoting the North Carolina Local Food initiative. The study determined Extension agents' perceptions about the local food campaign, its impacts, campaigning partners, campaign materials, challenges, and alternatives. It was a descriptive survey research conducted with all LFCs in NC. The findings of the study support the notion that promoting local foods has positive impacts on local economies and communities, and has implications for other Extension Services to promote local food campaign as a sustainable community development initiative.

A Food Policy Council Guide For Extension Professionals, Nurgul Fitzgerald, Kathleen Morgan

Journal of Extension

Public interest in food systems and national prevention strategies focusing on cross-sectoral, community and systems level approaches paved the way for growing numbers of food policy councils. These councils function as organizations to discuss food-related problems, foster coordination across sectors, and influence food policies. Extension professionals can serve as "change agents," bring a wealth of experience and knowledge, form cross-sectoral collaborations, take leadership roles, and build community capacity through food policy councils. Based on expert interviews and our experiences in establishing a council, we present practice recommendations to serve as a concise how to guide for Extension professionals.

Advancing Community Engaged Scholarship And Community Engagement At The University Of Massachusetts Boston: A Report Of The Working Group For An Urban Research-Based Action Initiative, Mark Warren, John Saltmarsh, Patricia Krueger-Henney, Lorna Rivera, Miren Uriarte, Donna Friedman, Richard Fleming, Diana Yadira-Salas, Luciano Ramos

Public Policy and Public Affairs Faculty Publication Series

The University of Massachusetts Boston has a rich history of mission-driven commitments that engage the campus with local, state, regional, national, and global communities. In the context of a public urban research university, a mission of community engagement is most clearly expressed through community-engaged scholarship. The University is positioned to build upon its strengths in community engagement and strengthen its community-engaged scholarship to become an international model for community engagement.

Intimate Partner Violence Among Lgbtq+ College Students, Katie Edwards, Kateryna Sylaska

Carsey Publications

Drawing from a survey of 391 college students in same-sex relationships, this brief documents the rates and patterns of intimate partner violence, and responses to it among LGBTQ+ youth. Authors Katie Edwards and Kateryna Sylaska report that four in ten LGBTQ+ college students in the sample reported intimate partner violence victimization or perpetration within a current relationship and that more than one-third of the victims told no one about the abuse, a rate that is higher than what is generally found among heterosexual college students. Victims most frequently turned to friends when revealing the abuse, followed by family members. Only …

Montana Kaimin, March 21, 2014, Students Of The University Of Montana, Missoula

Montana Kaimin, 1898-present

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.

Vol.41 N.34 March 20th 2014, Brown Publishing Company

Black Voice News

No abstract provided.

Walking Builds Community Cohesion: Survey Of Two New Hampshire Communities Looks At Social Capital And Walkability, Shannon H. Rogers, Kevin H. Gardner, Cynthia H. Carlson

Carsey Publications

This brief reports the results of a survey conducted in 2009 of approximately 2,000 households in Portsmouth and Manchester, New Hampshire, to examine the connection between walkability and social capital. Authors Shannon Rogers, Kevin Gardner, and Cynthia Carlson report that higher levels of social capital are found in areas that are perceived to be more walkable, as measured by the number of places people can walk to in their community. In addition, walkability is influenced by concerns of safety, access, time, and health and by physical characteristics such as proximity, scale, and aesthetics. Given the link between walkability and greater …

Grand Valley Forum, Volume 038, Number 24, March 10, 2014, Grand Valley State University

2013-2014, Volume 38

Grand Valley Forum is Grand Valley State's faculty and staff newsletter, published from 1976 to the present.

Global Engineering Competency In Context: Situations And Behaviors, Brent K. Jesiek, Qin Zhu, Sang Eun Woo, Julia Thompson, Andrea Mazzurco

Online Journal for Global Engineering Education

Engineering graduates encounter worlds of professional practice that are increasingly global in character. This new reality poses challenges for engineering educators and employers, who are faced with the formidable task of preparing engineers to be more effective in diverse national and cultural contexts. In response, many commentators have proposed lists of attributes or competencies deemed important or even essential for global engineering work. However, such lists have tended to lack explicit grounding in empirical studies of engineering practice, including typical kinds of work situations and related behavioral requirements. As a step toward establishing a more robust definition and developmental theory …

Building A Lifetime Of Economic Security: Mobilizing For Change, Center For Social Development

Center for Social Development Research

Building a Lifetime of Economic Security: Mobilizing for Change

March 3rd 2014, Csusb

Coyote Chronicle (1984-)

No abstract provided.

Sense Of Community In A Blended Technology Integration Course: A Design-Based Research Study, John Buckley Harrison

Theses and Dissertations

This design-based research study explored whether Sense of Community was maintained while flexibility in the course was increased through an adoption of a unique blended learning model. Data collected in this study show a significant drop in the sense of connectedness score from a mean of 50.8 out of 66 to a mean of 39.68 in the first iteration. The score then began to gradually increase, reaching 50.65 in the third iteration. Results indicate that transitioning to a blended learning environment may be a suitable option to increase flexibility while maintaining a Sense of Community in a project-based course. Future …

Aesthetics For Green Roofs And Green Walls, Richard K. Sutton

Landscape Architecture Program: Faculty Scholarly and Creative Activity

Do green roofs and green walls have aesthetic benefits? Most green roof proponents would say so. But what are they and how do they relate to green roof design in terms of species selection, planting arrangement, viewable context, access, maintenance and other factors? Aesthetics according to the Green Roof Design 101 Manual 2^nd Ed (GRHC 2006) provides “pleasure- and psycho-physiologically-oriented benefits” but, this narrow understanding suggests that the aesthetic potential of green roofs is limited to what one might experience looking upon any garden. We suggest other ways that need exploring to make aesthetics more relevant and understandable to …

Quantifying The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Of Hazards: Incorporating Disaster Mitigation Strategies In Climate Action Plans, Michael Germeraad

Master's Theses

Reconstruction after natural disasters can represent large peaks in a community’s greenhouse gas emission inventory. Components of the built environment destroyed by natural hazards have their useful life shortened, requiring replacement before functionally necessary. Though the hazard itself does not release greenhouse gasses, the demolition and rebuilding process does, and these are the emissions we can quantify to better understand the climate impacts of disasters.

The proposed methodology draws data from existing emission and hazard resource literature and combines the information in a community scale life cycle assessment. Case studies of past disasters are used to refine the methodology and …

Teaching Culturally Sensitive Care To Dental Students: A Multidisciplinary Approach, Evelyn Donate-Bartfield, William K. Lobb, Toni M. Roucka

School of Dentistry Faculty Research and Publications

Dental schools must prepare future dentists to deliver culturally sensitive care to diverse patient populations, but there is little agreement on how best to teach these skills to students. This article examines this question by exploring the historical and theoretical foundations of this area of education in dentistry, analyzes what is needed for students to learn to provide culturally sensitive care in a dental setting, and identifies the discipline-specific skills students must master to develop this competence. The problems associated with single-discipline, lecture-based approaches to teaching culturally sensitive care are outlined, and the advantages of an interdisciplinary, patient-centered, skills-based approach …

Preserving The Historic Garden Suburb: Case Studies From London And New York, Jeffrey A. Kroessler

Suburban Sustainability

The garden city or garden suburb was a response to the social and environmental ills of cities at the turn of the twentieth century. Letchworth Garden City, Hampstead Garden Suburb, and Welwyn Garden City were built outside London in the early 1900s, and each remains a highly desirable place of residence today. From the start, each was tightly regulated, and remains so a century later. By protecting the appearance and enhancing property values, the strict application of historic preservation principles contribute to the long-term sustainability of each place. Similar garden suburbs were built in the borough of Queens in New …

Usm Direction Package Recommendations, Direction Package Advisory Board

Direction Package

No abstract provided.

The Changing Focus Of Education: How Rowan University Professors View The Shift Toward Online Education, Genevieve Cross

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores Rowan University professors' attitudes toward online education and its increasing prevalence. The researcher used an online survey program by which participants' feedback was gathered. The survey was sent to 201 Rowan University professors, and the data was analyzed with the computer program, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to obtain calculations and percentages. The survey results are presented in both narrative and chart form. The researcher concluded that from the results of the study that Rowan University professors' have diverse opinions about online education, but also recognize the value in this asset to higher education. Specific …

The Importance Of Outdoor Activity And Place Attachment To Adolescent Development In Coös County, New Hampshire, Jayson Seaman, Sean R. Mclaughlin

Carsey Publications

This brief discusses the rates of participation in structured and unstructured outdoor activities as Coös County youth age, along with the relationship between outdoor activity involvement and indicators of place attachment throughout this period. The analysis is based on data collected between 2008 and 2013 as part of the Carsey Institute’s Panel Study of Coös County youth. Authors Jayson Seaman and Sean McLaughlin, who concentrate on a subsample of 222 youth who completed surveys in both eighth and twelfth grade, report that Coös County youth participated in outdoor activities at a rate 20 percent higher than national averages for youth …

Planning Sustainable Food Hubs: Thinking Beyond Economic Viability To Democratize Local Food Access, Ashley Bahlkow

Capstone Collection

In light of an increasing awareness of the detrimental public health impacts of conventional food systems, the New Hampshire Endowment for Health (NHEH) funded a food hub feasibility study to develop a local food hub in the southeastern region of New Hampshire. The study centered on conceptualizing a food hub that would be both viable from a small business standpoint as well one that would increase access to local food, especially for marginalized communities in the city of Manchester--the major population center in the region.

The project work plan contained several activities for determining feasibility, which were completed over the …

Urban Ecology & Conservation Symposium 2014: 12th Annual (Abstracts), Urban Ecosystem Research Consortium Of Portland/Vancouver

Urban Ecosystem Research Consortium of Portland/Vancouver

The UERC is a consortium of people from various universities and colleges, state and federal agencies, local governments, non-profit organizations and independent professionals interested in supporting urban ecosystem research and creating an information-sharing network of people that collect and use ecological data in the Portland/Vancouver area.

UERC Mission Statement:

To advance the state of the science of urban ecosystems and improve our understanding of them, with a focus on the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan region, by fostering communication and collaboration among researchers, managers and citizens at academic institutions, public agencies, local governments, non-profit organizations, and other interested groups.

The principal organizers span …

Grand Valley Forum, Volume 038, Number 19, February 3, 2014, Grand Valley State University

2013-2014, Volume 38

Grand Valley Forum is Grand Valley State's faculty and staff newsletter, published from 1976 to the present.

Lleap 2013 Survey Report : Leading By Evidence To Maximise The Impact Of Philanthropy In Education, Michelle Anderson, Emma Curtin

Leading Learning in Education and Philanthropy (LLEAP)

There are people who wish to give in a structured and planned manner, money, time or talents to advance the education of students in need. However, they may not know what schools and their communities need or what prevents them from accessing this additional support. Conversely, what those from schools know and understand about philanthropy is limited. Historically, not-for-profit organisations, with their various programs or services, have been the intermediary between school communities and philanthropy.

The Leading Learning in Education and Philanthropy (LLEAP) survey provides a comprehensive study on these issues.

Among the 2013 LLEAP survey findings:

The good news …

The Baysider : February 2014, Bayside Neighborhood Association

The Baysider

The Baysider (1999 - 2018) a community newspaper, published by the Bayside Neighborhood Association. Bayside is an inner-city Portland neighborhood flanked by Parkside, Back Cove, Downtown (a.k.a. Intown), and the East End. Feature articles focused on Bayside, though also included many city themes.

Stories To Live By, Martin Ogle

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

Oh, for a story to explain the times we live in and guide us down saner paths! In the midst of ever-heightened awareness and concern about the unsustainable course of human society, we seem to be heading, with increasingly deadly speed, down an environmentally and societally destructive track. Laudable actions to change direction, or at least slow down, often seem to have the opposite effect. In this paradoxical predicament, we would do well to reexamine the subtly entrenched narratives that drive our individual and collective actions.

Critical Sustainability In Outdoor Education, Jeff Rose And Adrienne Cachelin

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

The socioecological challenges we face have never been so complex, so intractable, and so urgent. And while both justice-oriented education and education for sustainability are growing in colleges and universities across the United States, normative perspectives of outdoor experiential education have fallen behind. In this paper, we offer critical sustainability as a conceptual basis for engaging students in the beauty, perversity, and complexity of our world. Critical sustainability, integrating sociopolitical systems of privilege and oppression with the socioecological imperatives of global health and justice, provides an exciting and promising pedagogical direction. With this conceptual framework, we explore perspectives of “nature,” …

Resources, Coalition For Education In The Outdoors

Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

This section lists teaching resources of all types for those who work in outdoor education at the time of publication. Some items include the books: "The Essential Urban Farmer" and "The Soul of Capitalism."