Public Policy Commons^™

Patterns Of Role Transition: A Taxonomy, A Research Program, And The Three-Body Problem, Paul A. Kowert, Stephen G. Walker

Political Science Faculty Publication Series

In foreign policy, role transition as a process of role change implies at least two roles (a state'ʹs old role and its new role) and a dynamic process of role location in which Ego’s role changes over time. If every role for Ego presumes a counter-role for Alter, a pattern of role transition for Ego implies as well a potential process of role transition for Alter. In order to model the process of role transition, a taxonomy of mutually exclusive and logically exhaustive roles and counter-roles is desirable, in order to identify and specify the possible combinations of old and …

Women’S Municipal Leadership In Massachusetts: Snapshot Of Cape Cod, Center For Women In Politics And Public Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

The center tracks the status of women at all levels of government in New England. It also provides dynamic web resources to inform and support the public leadership of women of color.

Financial Security Scorecard: A State-By-State Analysis Of Economic Pressures Facing Future Retirees, Christian Weller, Nari Rhee, Carolyn Arcand

Public Policy and Public Affairs Faculty Publication Series

As Americans increasingly worry about their retirement prospects, states play an important and growing role in retirement security policy. States already manage long-term care programs for the elderly through Medicaid. Concerned about the impact of future elder poverty on state and local budgets and their local economies, a number of states are exploring the creation of low-cost and low-risk retirement savings plans for private sector workers who lack access to pensions or 401(k)s on the job. Some states have developed programs to help older workers find work.

This report presents the Financial Security Scorecard, designed to inform state-level stakeholders and …

Data Note: State Intellectual And Developmental Disability Agencies' Service Trends, Jean Winsor

Data Note Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

In FY2012, an estimated 605,680 individuals received day or employment supports from state IDD program agencies. This number grew from 457,405 in FY1999. The estimated number of individuals in integrated employment services increased from 108,680 in FY1999 to 111,670 in FY2012. State investment continues to emphasize facility-based and non-work services, rather than integrated employment services.

Data Note: Are Young Adults With Intellectual Disabilities Getting Work Experiences From Participating In The Vocational Rehabilitation Program?, Alberto Migliore, Jean Winsor

Data Note Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

To learn about whether young adults with intellectual disabilities in the vocational rehabilitation (VR) program are getting work experience, we examined the age at application of people with intellectual disabilities who exited the VR program in 2012.

Data Note: Vocational Rehabilitation Closure Trends For Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities: A Snapshot Of Five U.S. Territories, Jean Winsor, Daria Domin

Data Note Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

Beginning in FY2013, the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities requested that each Project of National Significance include the five primary territories of the United States in data collection and analysis efforts. The five territories included in this analysis are American Samoa, Guam, Northern Marianas, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands of the United States.

Statedata: The National Report On Employment Services And Outcomes, 2014, John Butterworth, Jean Winsor, Frank A. Smith, Alberto Migliore, Daria Domin, Jaimie Ciulla Timmons, Allison Cohen Hall, Thinkwork! At The Institute For Community Inclusion At Umass Boston

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

This report provides statistics over 25 years from several national datasets that address the status of employment and economic self-sufficiency for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The authors use abbreviations for both intellectual disability (ID) and intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) in this report. We do this because data sources vary in the specific target groups that can be described.

We provide a comprehensive overview that describes national trends in employment for people with IDD, and the appendices provide individual state profiles with data from several sources. These include the ICI’s IDD Agency National Survey of Day and Employment …

Brief 9: Undp: Reviving A Practical Human Development Organization, Craig N. Murphy, Stephen Browne

Governance and Sustainability Issue Brief Series

Constant reform has characterized the UN Development Programme (UNDP) throughout its existence, say the authors of two recent books on UNDP. Change bespeaks an organization ready to adapt but also fundamentally uncertain about its proper role. It teeters between two sets of tensions—as coordinator of and competitor within the UN development system, and as exerting priorities from the center while seeking to be flexible in its program countries. These tensions should be resolved, and enable UNDP to be the UN’s sustainable human development organization.

Evaluation Of The Jewish Community Housing For The Elderly Memory Support Initiative, Joan Hyde

Gerontology Institute Publications

Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly (JCHE) is a large, multi-campus organization that houses and serves 1,500 residents (80 market rate and 1,420 low income). The average age is 80 years old, with one-third of residents 85 and older. Three quarters of the residents are not native English speakers. Through HUD and other funding, JCHE offers a range of supports to these residents, including translators, interpreters and staff with language and cultural competence, meals, transportation and, through their Service Coordinators, facilitation of resident access to government benefits, home care and other services.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2012 special report …

Cosee Ocean Inquiry Group Report: Opportunities For Creating Lifelong Ocean Science Literacy, Paul Boyle, Vince Breslin, Lisa Craig Brisson, John Fraser, Alan J. Friedman, Katie Gardner, Sarah Schoedinger, Jerry Schubel, Steve Uzzo, Steven Yalowitz

School for the Environment General Publications

This Inquiry Group Report for the Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence Ocean Communities in Education And Social Networks (COSEE OCEAN) provides a fresh look at how broader ocean science literacy can be developed, especially through less-recognized channels such as opportunistic learning, the private and “third” sectors, and the enormously varied activities under the heading of informal science education. The 10 authors of this report (see Contributors section) have been working together for two years to find and review a range of issues and resources for current and potential ocean science literacy providers, both professional and volunteer.

Several chapters provide …

Massachusetts Community Mediation Center Grant Program: Fiscal Year 2013 Year-End Report & Evaluation, Susan J. Jeghelian, Madhawa Palihapitiya, Kaila O. Eisenkraft

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

During Fiscal Year 2013, the first year of the Massachusetts Community Mediation Center (CMC) Grant Program, 15 community mediation centers across the state were awarded state operating grants. This report documents and evaluates the progress of the CMC Grant Program towards its goal of expanding the use of community mediation as an affordable public service for Massachusetts citizenry. The status of program implementation is analyzed, and the program’s success is assessed through its impact on the stabilization and effectiveness of the funded community mediation centers as measured by, among other things, their delivery of high quality mediation services, efforts to …

Producing Space: Block-By-Block Change In A Gentrifying Neighborhood, Jen Douglas

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Gentrification of urban neighborhoods is part of an ongoing restructuring of the city, linked to the emerging occupational structure of the service economy and the remaking of built environments that were created for a production economy. It is the name given to processes in which commodification and reinvestment accompany the in-migration of professional and managerial workers, often displacing prior residents and giving altered spatial form to inequality.

This dissertation is a case study of gentrification in Hyde and Jackson Squares, part of Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood. The emergence of gentrification pressures and their uneven distribution within the area is documented …

Microfinance: A Tool For Financial Access, Poverty Alleviation Or Gender Empowerment ? - Empirical Findings From Pakistan, Ghazal Mir Zulfiqar

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

In just 30 years microfinance has transformed from a credit-based rural development scheme that has claimed to reduce poverty and empower poor women, to a $70 billion financial industry. In the process, the traditional NGO-led model has given way to commercialized institutions, resulting in an increased emphasis on profitmaking. This has also led to confusion in the sector around its mission: is it to alleviate poverty and empower poor women or simply to provide the "unbanked" with access to formal sources of finance? This research considers the main debates in microfinance with regard to its mission and presents empirical evidence …

Reciprocity And Social Capital In Sibling Relationships Of People With Disabilities, John Kramer, Allison Hall, Tamar Heller

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

Sibling relationships are some of the longest-lasting relationships people experience, providing ample opportunities to build connections across the lifespan. For siblings and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), these connections take on an increased significance as their families age and parents can no longer provide care. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study that addresses the question, “How do siblings support each other after parents no longer can provide care to the person with I/DD?” Findings in this study suggest that siblings with and without disabilities experience reciprocity as a transitive exchange, which occurs through the creation of …

Evaluation Of The Family-To-Family Homelessness Prevention Project: Final Report (January 1, 2011-October 31, 2013), Terry S. Lane, Mary Coonan, Arthur Macewan, Risa Takenaka

Center for Social Policy Publications

This report describes implementation of the Homelessness Prevention Project of the Family-to-Family Program in Boston over nearly three years: January 1, 2011 and October 31, 2013. The project intended to help families to avoid imminent loss of their housing units. It selected participants that had good prospects for long-term housing and income stability. Project staff thought that modest financial assistance plus case management would enable these families to regain and perhaps even improve their personal and economic circumstances. The Oak Foundation provided major financial support for the project.

The report describes the administration of the project, and then examines the …

Review Of Proposed Plan For New Police And Fire Facilities, Carver, Ma, Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center For Public Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Edward J. Collins Center for Public Management Publications

The Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston was hired by the Town of Carver to perform an independent assessment of the Buildings Study Committee’s proposals for the construction/renovation of three new public facilities including a fire station, police station, and elementary school. Specifically, the team from the Center was asked to review: 1) the selected and considered sites for the facilities; and, 2) the funding plan recommended by the Buildings Study Committee.

This analysis has been divided into two components. This, first report presents the Center’s findings as they relate to the …

Women’S Political Leadership In Boston, Center For Women In Politics And Public Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

The center tracks the status of women at all levels of government in the New England states. It also provides dynamic web resources to inform and support public leadership of women of color.

This fact sheet presents information and statistics following the 2013 municipal elections in the City of Boston.

Practicum 2012 - 2013: Lift Boston Client Well Being Study, Lisa Kalimon, Buki Usidame, Ryan Kling, Ryan Mclane, Ryan Whalen, Ana M. Sanchez, Tanya Stepasiuk, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Public Policy Practicum Projects

A Boston based non-profit and a team of public policy PhD students engaged in several months of collaborative problem identification and goal setting focused on the effectiveness of the organization’s unique service delivery model. The nonprofit uses volunteer advocates and a goal-oriented process with no eligibility criteria to assist clients in distress. We collected administrative data, administered a survey, and conducted interviews to explore client well-being.

Community-Based Analytics: Big Data And Decision Making For Community-Based Organizations, Michael P. Johnson

McCormack Graduate School General Publications (active until 2013)

Community-based organizations face significant challenges in identifying data needs, and assembling data resources for service provision, strategy design and advocacy. We develop principles by which CBOs can develop and share large datasets in order to formulate and solve decision problems that improve the well-being of localized, often marginalized or distressed communities. We illustrate these ideas using field research from Boston, MA.

Editor's Note, Padraig O’Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

This issue of the journal publishes the proceedings of the two “Youth at Risk” seminars the Family Impact Institute conducted at the Massachusetts State House in April 2012 and March 2013, for state policy makers, including legislators, legislative aides, the governor’s staff, and agency representatives. What makes these seminars unique is that they focus researchers’ attention on what policy makers want and not on what researchers think they should want.

Among the hardest hit by the recession were the poor, whose numbers swelled when tens of thousands of the new jobless and their families joined them. Many of these families, …

Trends In Youth Victimization And Well-Being, And Implications For Youth Policy, Lisa M. Jones, David Finkelhor, Rashmi Nair, Michelle Collett

New England Journal of Public Policy

Youth victimization concerns have engaged educators, public health officials, and the media for many years. Cases of child victimization regularly make headlines, and in recent years public concern has focused in particular on sexual abuse, child abductions, online predators, school shootings, bullying, and cyberbullying. But little attention has been given to evidence for substantial declines in child victimizations over the past 20 years. Even for internet victimization, an area of high current public anxiety, trend data do not suggest a growing epidemic but instead find that some types of online victimization have declined over the past decade.

The failure to …

Global And Local Youth Unemployment: Dislocation And Pathways, Ramon Borges-Mendez, Lillian Denhardt, Michelle Collett

New England Journal of Public Policy

The impact of economic recessions is not felt uniformly across demographic groups, and the detrimental effects of the one-time dislocations can significantly shift the long-term prospects of human development for many years to come. The current recession has been hard on young people in the United States between the ages of 16 and 24, especially minorities (Latino or African American). Labor force participation rates have dropped dramatically and unemployment has reached as high as 30% in some states. Long spells of unemployment and adverse conditions for labor market incorporation further increase the likelihood of other poor life outcomes, such as …

Children And Homelessness In Massachusetts, Donna Haig Friedman, Katherine Calano, Marija Bingulac, Christine Miller, Alisa Zeliger

New England Journal of Public Policy

In Massachusetts, more than half a million children (15% of all children) live in poverty, 30% of all children live with parents who lack secure employment, and 41% live in households with high housing cost burdens. This article examines the root causes of poverty and its links to child homelessness in the state. Though the state has a long-standing progressive political legacy, the well-being of low-income families with children continues to decline. The article offers evidence about the extent of child homelessness and its profound effects on Massachusetts children and youth. The interconnectedness of what are usually thought of as …

Introduction: Communicating Research To Policy Makers—Briefing Report Chapters From The Massachusetts Family Impact Seminars On Youth At Risk, Denise Hines, Karen Bogenschneider

New England Journal of Public Policy

Research and policy should go hand-in-hand. With few exceptions, however, the history of research utilization in policy making has been disappointing. Policy makers typically do not have the resources to seek out the growing body of research on the complex issues they face. Instead, they tend to rely on personal impressions or information from special interests that is often fragmented and biased. This practice occurs despite growing evidence that public policy would be more effective if it were based on hard evidence and dispassionate analysis.

How can we better connect researchers and policy makers? One proven, cost-effective, and replicable model …

Transracial Foster Care And Adoption: Issues And Realities, Fern L. Johnson, Stacie Mickelson, Mariana Lopez Davila

New England Journal of Public Policy

The article places transracial foster care and adoption into a broader perspective that highlights social and cultural factors and the reasons for controversy about this adoption option. The first section describes the demographics of children in the foster care system. This is followed by an overview of requirements for approval as foster and adoptive parents in Massachusetts and information about the laws governing transracial adoption. The controversy over transracial adoption is laid out by explaining the race-blind and race-matching positions. Policy priorities are outlined that take into account the main points of controversy. The final section focuses on growth in …

Food Insecurity Among Children In Massachusetts, Stephanie Ettinger De Cuba, Deborah A. Frank, Maya Pilgrim, Maria Buitrago, Anna Voremberg, Harris Rollinger, Denise A. Hines

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article focuses on the prevalence among Massachusetts children and families of food insecurity, inadequate access to enough nutritious food for an active and healthy life. It summarizes research findings on the association of food insecurity with less optimal children’s health and development from the prenatal period through adolescence. Food insecurity also correlates with other material hardships, such as housing and energy insecurity. Data show families’ participation in public nutrition and other assistance program is associated with decreased prevalence of food insecurity and with mitigation of its impact on children’s health and well-being. The article concludes with recommendations for policy …

Online Predators: Myth Versus Reality, Janis Wolak, Lindsey Evans, Stephanie Nguyen, Denise A. Hines

New England Journal of Public Policy

Media stories about “online predators” who use the Internet to gain access to young victims often give inaccurate impressions of Internet-initiated sex crimes. Most such crimes involve adult men who use the Internet to meet and seduce adolescents into sexual encounters. Most offenders are open about their ages and sexual motivations. Most are charged with statutory rape (i.e., nonforcible sexual activity with victims who are too young to consent). Internet-initiated sex crimes account for a salient but small proportion of all statutory rape offenses and a relatively low number of the sexual offenses committed against minors overall. Victims are often …

Fact Sheet: What Influences Plans To Work After Ages 62 And 65?, Maximiliane E. Szinovacz, Gerontology Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Gerontology Institute Publications

Timing of retirement and, implicitly, plans to work in later life have great policy relevance. They affect Social Security expenditures, employers’ pension expenditures, as well as labor force supply and demand. In light of the recent recession, it is particularly important to explore whether economic downturns and workers’ financial status influence their later-life work plans. To answer this question, we analyzed data from the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study (HRS), which included questions about expectations to work full-time after age 62 and age 65.

Gender And Marital Status Differences In Retirement Planning, Maximiliane E. Szinovacz, Gerontology Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Gerontology Institute Publications

During the past decades, women have increasingly joined the labor force and worked in their later years. Yet women, especially married women, often have shorter work histories than their male counterparts due to taking time off for child care or care for ailing relatives. Are they also different in their retirement expectations? To answer this question, we explore gender and marital status differences in retirement plans.

The Universal Savings Credit, Christian Weller, Sam Ungar

Public Policy and Public Affairs Faculty Publication Series

The financial crisis of 2007 to 2009 took a tremendous toll on household wealth and shattered the sense of financial security for millions of American families. American households lost more than $20 trillion in wealth (in 2012 dollars) in the Great Recession, and households still had $10 trillion less in wealth at the end of 2012 than they had before the crisis. This massive wealth decline contributed to a widespread loss of economic security, particularly among lower-income and moderate-income families, single women, and communities of color.

This economic insecurity can have long-ranging adverse effects on U.S. economic growth as American …