Social Policy Commons^™

Measuring Poverty In Singapore: Frameworks For Consideration, John A. Donaldson, Jacqueline Loh, Sanushka Mudaliar, Mumtaz Md Kadir, Biqi Wu, Lam Keong Yeoh

Social Space

Singapore does not have an official poverty line. Should there be one? And what are the frameworks that have been used or could be adopted for the measurement of poverty in this country? The Lien Centre for Social Innovation and SMU School of Social Sciences report on their investigation into the complex issue of domestic poverty. Team: John Donaldson, Jacqueline Loh, Sanushka Mudaliar, Mumtaz Md Kadir, Wu Biqi and Yeoh Lam Keong.

Measuring Poverty In Singapore: Frameworks For Consideration, John A. Donaldson, Jacqueline Loh, Sanushka Mudaliar, Mumtaz Md Kadir, Biqi Wu, Lam Keong Yeoh

Social Space

Singapore does not have an official poverty line. Should there be one? And what are the frameworks that have used or could be adopted for the measurement of poverty in this country? The Lien Centre for Social Innovation and SMU School of Social Sciences report on their investigation into the complex issue of domestic poverty.

Unmet Needs In Portugal: Tradition And Emerging Trends, Helena Gata, Sara Almeida

Social Space

An indepth study on the unmet needs in Portugal was conducted by Tecnologia, Educação, Saúde e Engenharia (TESE ) with Dinamia-CET from the Lisbon University Institute from 2008 to 2010. Helena Gata and Sara Almeida offer us the first English translation on its findings and update us on the programmes created in response to the needs and vulnerable groups identified.

The Poverty Line: A Visual Examination On What It Means To Be Poor In Singapore, Stefen Chow, Hui-Yi Lin

Social Space

The Poverty Line project explores a simple question: What does it mean to be poor? Through photos of daily amounts of food that could be bought if one’s income lies at the poverty line, the project creates a visual impact on the choices faced by a poor person in a country.

Imágenes Imaginarias: La Ficción De España Bajo Francisco Franco, Joseph H. Mccann Iv

CMC Senior Theses

This essay deals with the use of censorship in propaganda in Spain during the reign of Francisco Franco.

Institutional Lending Models, Mission Drift, And Microfinance Institutions, Bethany L. Paris

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Microfinance is a development tool used to reduce poverty among extremely poor households. Impoverished households can access lines of credit through microfinance institutions (MFIs), in order to create a new business, smooth household consumption, fund medical emergencies, etc. Many authors postulate that MFIs are drifting from a welfarist to an institutionalist approach to lending.

Using MIXMarket data on specific MFIs in 118 countries between 1995 and 2011, the average loan balance of these organizations will be regressed against measure of outreach and sustainability of these institutions by charter type through a series of four, fixed effects models. The main research …

Managing The Polarities Of Democracy: A Theoretical Framework For Positive Social Change, William J. Benet

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

People around the globe have embraced democracy to bring about positive social change to address our environmental, economic, and militaristic challenges. Yet, there is no agreement on a definition of democracy that can guide social change efforts. The Polarities of Democracy model is a unifying theory of democracy to guide healthy, sustainable, and just social change efforts. The Polarities of Democracy model consists of ten elements, organized as five polarity pairs: freedom & authority, justice & due process, diversity & equality, human-rights & communal-obligations, and participation & representation. In this model each element has positive aspects and negative aspects and …

The National Elder Economic Security Standard Index, Gerontology Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Gerontology Institute Publications

The Elder Economic Security Standard Index (Elder Index) is a new tool for use by policy makers, older adults, family caregivers, service providers, aging advocates, and the public at large. Developed by the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW), the Elder Index is a measure of income that older adults require to maintain their independence in the community and meet their daily costs of living, including affordable and appropriate housing and health care. The development and use of the Elder Index promotes a measure of income that respects the autonomy goals of …

"Where Are My Rights?" Compromised Citizenship In Mixed-Status Marriage A Research Note, April M. Schueths

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Immigration policy has shifted its focus from family reunification to strict enforcement of "illegal" immigration. It has become much more difficult for U.S. citizens to adjust their non-citizen spouses' legal status, especially spouses who are undocumented. This paper examines the vulnerabilities of female U.S. citizens married or partnered with undocumented Mexican men. Findings challenge the simplistic notion that marriage with a U.S. citizen creates automatic legalization for undocumented individuals and highlights the creation of a second class citizenry for native-born partners. This study argues that punitive immigration law and policies have profound negative implications for the lives of U.S. citizens.

Cooperation, Competition And The Development Of Institutional Capacity: Civil Rights And Public Transportation In Southern Nevada, Bruce Erwin Turner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examines the implementation of social goals through government action and the context and relations of agencies charged with demonstrating and enforcing equality in transit. Specifically, I explain complexities involved in the top-down federal mandate to demonstrate equal transit service for minority communities and low income residents. Institutional entrepreneurship by local government agencies influenced the legislation and regulation that they were charged to enforce. The local Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), created to enable a local voice in major capital road projects, acquired new institutional capabilities as federal agencies tasked them with implementing new social goals. Engineers and planners, initially …

How Is The Most Segregated City In The Country Addressing Disproportionate Minority Contact With A Juvenile Burglary Restorative Justice Program And What Implications Exist For Community Based Restorative Circles? : Conflict Analysis And Recommendations, Lauren Thrift

Capstone Collection

Milwaukee, Wisconsin is considered the most segregated city in the country and has the most disproportionate rate of minorities in Wisconsin’s juvenile justice system. The State of Wisconsin recognizes disproportionate minority contact (DMC) is a product of both differential offending by minorities and the racist differential processing by the juvenile justice system. Milwaukee’s residents are locked in a conflict about the role of racism in the high rates of minority crime and whether to address DMC with more stringent punishment or increasing alternatives to incarceration. The entrenched segregation between African American and Caucasian neighborhoods and social groups reinforces polarization, increasing …

Supporting Healthy Lives And Vibrant Places: Learning About And Living The Collaborative Leadership Model, Lisa Deangelis, Maureen A. Scully, Andrea Wight

Emerging Leaders Program Team Projects

The 31 fellows in the 2012 UMass Boston Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) worked with community partners to investigate the theme, “Supporting Healthy Lives and Vibrant Places.” They worked in peer self-managed teams, in order to learn collaborative leadership skills first-hand, while engaging with stakeholders and issues where collaboration makes a difference. Their team projects addressed: best practices in corporate wellness initiatives, outreach to support health care access for homeless people, ways to grow awareness of the wide need for affordable housing, ideas for arts-based local economic development, broader funding sources to support innovative research on poverty, and ways to continue …

Police Use Of Force: A Review Of The Literature, Portland State University. Criminology And Criminal Justice Senior Capstone

Criminology and Criminal Justice Senior Capstone Project

Our research led to 22 articles with information relevant to the subject of police use of force. The studies explored a variety of topics, ranging from media coverage of force to characteristics of deadly force encounters and many issues in between. The information presented below is a summary of the most significant and useful data gathered from these studies. The material has been divided into five categories: Definitions and Prevalence, Suspects (those who experience force), Officers (those who use force), Patterns of the practice, and Implications, which include best practices or prevention over abuse. The “Definitions and Prevalence” section provides …

How Youth Are Put At Risk By Parents’ Low-Wage Jobs, Lisa Dodson, Randy Albelda, Diana Salas Coronado, Marya Mtshali

Center for Social Policy Publications

In this report, we present a first-ever overview of what is known about the relationship between the status of youth and their parents’ low-wage jobs. Of the 20 million adolescents with working parents, 3.6 million (one out of every six) are in low-income families where parents have low-wage jobs. We identify several ways that young people are harmed by their parents’ low-wage, low-quality jobs that point to the urgency of this issue.

“Yo Apoyo Al Tipnis ¡Y Qué!”: El Surgimiento De Apoyo Urbano Para La Viii Marcha Indígena En Defensa Del Tipnis, Jeanne Stuart

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Después de la autorización por el Presidente Evo Morales de la construcción de una carretera que atravesaría el Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro-Sécure (TIPNIS), la VIII Marcha Indígena en Defensa del Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro-Sécure (TIPNIS) por la Vida, Dignidad, y los Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas caminó 600 kilómetros por sesenta y seis días en oposición a la construcción de la carretera y a la falta de una consulta previa con las comunidades que viven allí. La Octava Marcha inspiró un apoyo urbano y una movilización social sin precedentes, a través de una amplia variedad de …

Pemberdayaan Keluarga Dan Masyarakat Melalui Pelatihan Komunikasi Dalam Keluarga Yang Mengedepankan Kepentingan Anak, Ety Rahayu

Jurnal Ilmu Kesejahteraan Sosial

To be able to realize child welfare, the family, society and the government should pay attention to the rights and needs of children. To ensure the psychological dan social development, children need love, understanding, recreational atmosphere, creative stimulation, self-actualization, and intellectual development. Therefore they require early socialization and basic education, the teaching of social responsibility, social roles and basic skills in order to become useful citizens. Children from poor families are often raised with parenting less conducive to their growth and development. One of the efforts undertaken is through communication training for mothers from poor families. Through this training the …

Homelessness: Causes, Culture And Community Development As A Solution, Kaitlin Philipps

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

This thesis seeks to explain the reasons that homelessness occurs, and how it is currently being dealt with in public policy. Triggers and predictors of homelessness are explored and it is shown that triggers are almost always compounded, indicating a multitude of factors that lead to homelessness. The culture and community surrounding the homeless lifestyle is seen as playing a significant role in how the individual copes with their homelessness. The norms and values of their culture are investigated and its role in rehabilitation is explored. Current institutions for helping the homeless are analyzed for different success rates. Additionally, initiatives …

Age, Period And Cohort Effects On Social Capital, Philip Schwadel, Mike Stout

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Researchers hypothesize that social capital in the United States is not just declining, but that it is declining across generations or birth cohorts. Testing this proposition, we examine changes in social capital using age-period-cohort intrinsic estimator models. Results from analyses of 1972–2010 General Social Survey data show 1) that informal association with neighbors declined across periods while informal association with friends outside of the neighborhood increased across birth cohorts; 2) that formal association was comparatively stable with the exception of relatively high levels of formal association among the early 1920s and early 1930s birth cohorts; and 3) that trust declined …

Juvenile Delinquency: An Investigation Of Risk Factors And Solutions., Lauren Cardoso

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

This article proposes that educational and community based programs can help juveniles stay away from crime and prevent recidivism. A presentation of federal and state statistics, along with an analysis of the risk factors for delinquency, will be provided in order to illustrate the important areas that should be addressed in successful programs. Testimonies, including personal interviews with those who have experience working at the RI Training School, DCYF, Boys' Town, Child and Family Services will be shared as evidence of the research found. Finally, recommendations based on the findings will be proposed.

2012 Maine Child Support Guidelines: Review And Recommendations, Sally Ward Mppm, Janice Daley Msw, Barbara Fraumeni Phd, George Shaler Mph, Eileen Griffin Jd, Melanie Knox Ba, Laurie Hallett, Louis Mandeville Ms

Children, Youth, & Families

This report summarizes the quadrennial review of Maine's child support guidelines conducted by the USM Muskie School , which complies with federal law requiring each state's child support guidelines be reviewed at least once every four years. Principle findings of the extensive review by the Muskie School show that many aspects of Maine's child support system work well. Maine's low deviation rate reflects a reasonably high level of consistency in apply the guidelines, and in large part, protect the needs and interests of the children. The report provides background and overview of child support modes and the Maine guidelines, and …

It Will Be An Ugly Winter (Again) This Year: A Case Study Of The Vermont Community Action Partnership's Perennial Fight For Low-Income Fuel Assistance Programs, Elizabeth H. Bennett

Capstone Collection

Despite the extraordinary need for the vital Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), the program has seen major budget cuts as part of the Federal Budget’s Discretionary spending, even as fuel prices rise and incomes fall. The Vermont Community Action Partnership (VCAP – also known as the Vermont CAP Directors) has been the primary advocate for LIHEAP in Vermont. This case study examines VCAP’s measures to advocate for level funding of the LIHEAP program at the federal level, as well as influencing state level decision makers to improve service delivery to Vermont’s eligible low-income households.

This study combines in-depth …

Changing Faces, Changing Voices: Hispanics And Georgia’S Spanish-Language Media Environment, D. Xavier Medina Vidal

Georgia Journal of Public Policy

Nathan Deal’s successful 2010 campaign to become Georgia’s 82nd governor included a promise to enact an Arizona-style immigration enforcement law in Georgia, a promise he kept when he signed HB 87 into law in May 2011. To be sure, the high saliency of immigration law enforcement and policy reform in Georgia has much to do with rapid growth of the state’s Hispanic population in recent years.

Calling Out The Persistence Of Racism, Sanford F. Schram

Political Science Faculty Research and Scholarship

In this issue New Political Science begins a new tradition, printing an extended review essay of the book that received the Michael Harrington Book Award at the most recent American Political Science Association Meeting. The Michael Harrington Award is given for an outstanding book that demonstrates how scholarships can be used in the struggle for a better world. In 2011, the award went to Michelle Alexander for her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in an Age of Color-Blindness. Sanford Schram, a member of the award committee, has contributed the below review.

An Alternative To Temporary Staffing: Considerations For Workforce Practitioners, Linda Kato, Françoise Carré, Laura E. Johnson, Deena Schwartz

Center for Social Policy Publications

As the national economy inches toward recovery, risk-averse employers are increasingly turning to temporary workers to fill their hiring gaps. In fact, the temporary staffing industry has been a fixture of the US economy for decades. But the industry added a striking 557,000 jobs from June 2009 to November 2011 — more than half of the jobs created during that period. Growth is likely to continue: A 2011 McKinsey survey of 2,000 firms of differing sizes and across various sectors found that more than a third foresaw their companies increasing their use of temporary workers over the next five years. …

The Californians Against Sexual Exploitation (Case) Act: A Case Study In Policy Advocacy, Bailey Mannisto-Ichés

Capstone Collection

In any given year in the United States of America at least 100,000 domestic youth are sexually exploited through the commercial sex industry. Current national and state laws do not adequately protect these children from being groomed, pimped, and exploited over and over again in their young lives. A majority of these children are trafficked from, into or within the nation’s most populated state of California. In 2003 the FBI identified three of the country’s 13 high-­‐intensity child sex trafficking cities as being in California. The cycle of violence these children endure is not being brought to justice through the …

A Failing Correctional System: State Prison Overcrowding In The United States, Susan M. Campers

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

State prison overcrowding has grown into a detrimental problem within our American penal system, such that after decades of being ignored by politicians, media outlets, and the lower court system, it has resulted in an ineffective and overcrowded correctional system that craves reformation.

Geographic Information Systems Facilitate Youth, Youth Workers And Community Stakeholder Efforts, Helenmary Hotz

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

A large population of underserved students and residents in the City of Boston suffer from behavioral and/or discipline problems, as well as substance and/or alcohol abuse. A side effect of this behavior is the increasing instance of trash such as cigarette butts, condoms, syringes and packaging being discarded in public areas. The South Boston Youth Action Center (SBYAC) is tackling this problem by making the community aware of the locations and probable sources of this problem. The SBYAC is implementing an effort to rid South Boston parks, playgrounds and areas frequented by children of refuse associated with substance abuse. And, …

Project Hope; Negotiation To Unify Advocacy For Successful Passage Of Foreclosure Legislation To Protect Low Income Households In Massachusetts, Donna Friedman, Center For Social Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Project Hope is a multi-service agency at the forefront of efforts in Boston to move families beyond homelessness and poverty. It provides low-income women with children with access to education, jobs, housing, and emergency services; fosters their personal transformation; and works for broader systems change. The Center for Social Policy was asked by Project Hope to carry out collaborative action research to help them identify viable employment pathways, accessible in the neighborhood or through use of public transportation, for parents with children who have limited workforce experience and education. Together, the research involved: working with agency staff to survey families …

Give Us Your Poor: A National Public Education Campaign Addressing Homelessness, Barbara L. Graceffa, Center For Social Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The objective of this campaign to create awareness that the Government alone cannot solve homelessness. The campaign also creates awareness that corporations need to be involved to help bring to scale solutions as well as promote innovation. The aim of the project is to create an awareness that collaboration between government, non-profits, academia, corporations, faith communities, and individuals is key to solving the issue.

Evaluating Economic Security For Massachusetts Seniors, Jan Mutchler, Ellen A. Bruce, Alison Gottlieb, Jiyoung Lyu, Yao‐Chi Shih, Gerontology Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Elder Economic Security Standard Index measures the income that Massachusetts’ seniors need to maintain independence and meet basic living expenses. The sizable gap between Social Security benefits and living expenses occurs throughout Massachusetts, but is more substantial for singles than for couples. Those who are older, single, female or a member of a racial or ethnic minority group are exposed to especially high risk of falling short of Index values. The Elder Index estimates the living costs for seniors in every locality in the country and serves as a valuable tool for community members, policy makers, and those working …