Civic and Community Engagement Commons^™

Ua3/9/3 President's Office-Ransdell Reading File, Wku Archives, Virginia Brothers, Aaron Shuford

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Reading file of outgoing correspondence regarding the administration of WKU, fund raising, thank yous and letters of condolence.

An Exploration Of The Motivations Behind Committee Membership In Food Networks, Denise O'Leary, Mary Rose Stafford

Conference papers

Food Tourism has been recognised as a fast growing niche area where Ireland can gain competitive advantage. In recognition of the importance of collaboration among diverse stakeholders in the development of food tourism, networks have been identified as essential. This article presents findings from research conducted with three networks and reveals the motivations for committee membership. Data was gathered in 2012 through participant observation and interviews with steering committee members on three food networks using an action research approach.

A framework for examining motivations for collaboration is offered in this article which will contribute to effective network management. Motivations are …

A Critique Of Single-Issue Campaigning And The Importance Of Comprehensive Abolitionist Vegan Advocacy, Corey Lee Wrenn, Rob Johnson

Animal Rights Movement Collection

A popular tactic in the professional nonhuman animal rights movement is to utilize species-specific or issue-specific campaigns to increase public concern, motivate participation and extend movement support. This article challenges this traditional tactic of moderate nonhuman animal organizations in critiquing the issue-specific approaches to abolition advanced elsewhere and calls for a holistic abolitionist method that requires advocates to relinquish confusing piecemeal campaigns and instead challenge the underlying problem of speciesism in order to influence lasting and meaningful social change. The article applies Francione's radical theory of nonhuman animal rights, which recognizes the importance of vegan education in challenging this oppression. …

Health Care Reform: Perceptions Of Nonmetropolitan Nebraskans, 2013 Nebraska Rural Poll Results, Rebecca J. Vogt, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Randolph L. Cantrell, Bradley Lubben

Nebraska Rural Poll

Most rural Nebraskans currently have health insurance. Only nine percent of rural Nebraskans do not have health insurance while the majority of residents have health insurance through job benefits. These responses are nearly identical to 2004 when this question was last asked.

Persons living in the North Central region, persons with lower household incomes, persons who have never married, persons with lower education levels and persons with food service or personal care occupations are the groups most likely to be uninsured.

Most rural Nebraskans expect to have health insurance next year. Only two percent of residents do not plan on …

Contesting The North Williams Traffic Operations And Safety Project, Amy Lubitow, Thaddeus R. Miller

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

The North Williams Traffic Safety Operations Project, overseen by the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), was proposed in 2010. With an initial budget of $370,000, the project was designed to reduce conflict between buses, bicycles and motor vehicles on North Williams Avenue and improve the overall safety and accessibility of the street. As is common practice, PBOT’s first step in this project was to organize a stakeholder advisory committee (SAC) of interested business owners, neighborhood association representatives, residents, and key stakeholders living or working along North Williams Avenue who would be tasked with advising the city on the project. However, …

Social Work, Yoga, And Gratitude: Partnership In A Homeless Shelter, Jennifer Davis-Berman, Jean Farkas

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

This narrative explores the personal lessons learned about life and practice from YogaHome, a yoga program for homeless adults. The yoga program, taught in partnership by a social worker/professor of social work (Jenny) and a yoga teacher (Jean) with 17 years of experience, exemplifies the merging of social work and yogic practices , but also illustrates the evolution of these two professionals in their chosen fields as many of their traditional views, values, intentions, and expectations unraveled and led to a re-revaluation of their professional practices, transforming their personal perspectives on life. This reflection is based on the YogaHome program, …

Sharing What Works Through South-South Cooperation: The Case Of The Risk Reduction Management Centre Replication Project, Rachel M. Cohn

Capstone Collection

The Risk Reduction Management Centre (RRMC) Replication Project, an initiative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), aims to take a Cuban best practice in disaster risk reduction and adapt it to the local context of five other Caribbean countries. This project differs from most development projects in that the individuals and institutions providing the assistance (in this case technical training and know-how) are themselves from a developing country (Cuba). This model, wherein developing countries provide resources, information, and training to other developing countries, is known as South-South Cooperation (SSC).

This capstone uses the case of the RRMC Replication Project …

Eliminating Sexual Harassment Of Adolescent Girls In Bangladesh: A Comparative Analysis Of Multi-Level Strategies, Kristan Bakker

Capstone Collection

As a result of civil society and the government of Bangladesh’s commitment to reach universal education and gender equality, great strides have been made in secondary school enrollment with the number of girls attending now on par with that of boys. However, a consequence of the increased mobility of adolescent girls in public places is increased incidences of sexual harassment. In 2009 and 2010 there was a rash of suicides. Adolescent girls who had been victims of sexual harassment took their own lives to escape the pain and shame brought on by a culture that blames girls for men’s unwelcomed …

The Third Sector Is Missing, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This article offers a detailed critique of Antonin Wagner's (2012) discussion of market, state and the intermediate institutions of civil society. It was one of 7-8 articles critiquing Wagner's previously published piece. It is argued that Wagner's perspective dissolves the third sector into a set of phenomena subordinate to markets and states; that the third sector essentially dissolves into market and state components. The article also offers an outline for a broader, multi-faceted third sector.

Emotion, Community Development, And The Physical Environment: An Experimental Investigation Of Measurements, George E. Boone

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

A wide range of research fields have studied how emotions and behavior are affected by the physical environment. This gestalt theorist approach of experimental research as well seeks to measure emotion (using the valence-arousal scale) and micro-scale community development interactions when weighted physical environment factors are adjusted. Community development (CD) interactions at the micro-scale have received but slight attention from scholars in the CD research field and this study aims partially to investigate developing objective measures from social observations. CD interactions from recordings along with self-reported emotion through surveys in four quasi-experimental groups (where the environments were constructed based on …

Diversity And Equity...Community Building Strategies In Public Libraries For Multicultural Communities, Rajeswari Chelliah

Research outputs 2013

The research project focused on the community building potential in the public library due to increasing diversity in multicultural groups. Diversity in Australia and the world at large, is challenged by groups with backgrounds of traditionally embedded mind-sets, civil unrest, war, intolerance and poverty, and who live within the socio-cultural framework of the host culture. Building cohesion and integration among the residents is vital for all nations. The exploratory research project investigated the current level of public library services to Multicultural groups to obtain library staff views. The views of Multicultural individuals about their local public library experiences and information …

The Development Of Community Cable Television In Taizhou And The Rise Of The Chinese Middle Class, Shangling Lin

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis looks at the development of community cable television in the eastern coastal town of Taizhou in China from its beginnings in the 1990s to 2007. The establishment of community cable television can be seen as a new form of media production in China, by which changes in economic and political power and social identity can be traced. My hometown of Taizhou serves as a good example of this societal development. Taizhou is famous for private economy. Its average income is ranked in the top six among more than three hundred cities in China, making the middle class the …

Service Learning Students’ Perceptions Of Citizenship, Audrey Falk

Education Faculty Publications

This study examines the conceptions of citizenship held by students engaged in a service learning course. Open-ended responses to instructor-developed surveys were analyzed. Results indicated that students primarily viewed good citizenship in terms of community service; however, their ideas about service were limited to passive kinds of service such as helping others and volunteering, rather than active kinds of service such as community organizing. Results were compared with conceptions of citizenship held by students engaged in another course with a smaller volunteering component. Opportunities for broadening service learning students’ understanding of citizenship are discussed.

Forum Magazine, Orientation Issue

Forum Magazine

No abstract provided.

Untangling Neoliberalism’S Gordian Knot: Cancer Prevention And Control Services For Rural Appalachian Populations, George F. Bills

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

In eastern Kentucky, as in much of central Appalachia, current local storylines narrate the frictions and contradictions involved in the structural transition from a post-WWII Fordist industrial economy and a Keynesian welfare state to a Post-Fordist service economy and Neoliberal hollow state, starving for energy to sustain consumer indulgence (Jessop, 1993; Harvey, 2003; 2005). Neoliberalism is the ideological force redefining the “societal infrastructure of language” that legitimates this transition, in part by redefining the key terms of democracy and citizenship, as well as valorizing the market, the individual, and technocratic innovation (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999; Harvey, 2005). This project develops …

Take Pride In America Phase Iii - Further Development Of A Local Litter And Desert Dumping Cleanup Program: Project Compendium, Margaret N. Rees

Anti-littering Programs

The Take Pride in America in Southern Nevada project began as a collaboration of four federal agencies committed to working together to combat the litter and desert dumping problem on the nearly seven million acres of public lands in Southern Nevada. In 2005, with funding from the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act (SNPLMA), SNAP created an interagency anti-litter and desert dumping team and developed a partnership with the Public Lands Institute (PLI) at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. SNAP and PLI managed the Take Pride in America in Southern Nevada project and launched the Don’t Trash Nevada messaging …

Yogahome: Emotional, Physical And Social Impacts Of A Yoga Program On Community Homeless Shelter Residents, Jennifer Davis-Berman, Jean Farkas

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

This article reports on a qualitative analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with 12 women and 2 men who participated in a community-based yoga program, run by a certified yoga teacher and a social worker, at a homeless shelter in a medium-sized city in the Midwestern United States. This restorative yoga program was developed in the shelter in response to the severe stress of being homeless and the chaotic nature of shelter life. Based on an analysis of transcribed interviews, the following themes were generated and discussed: Yoga as Relaxation, Stress Relief, Pain Relief, and Future Practice. The challenges and …

15th And 16th Tshl Supporting Documents, Texas Silver Haired Legislature Foundation, Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

Supporting documents of the 15th and 16th TSHL sessions, 2013-2017

Engaging The Homeless Through Technology And Information Literacy, Fannie Cox

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The University of Louisville (U of L) Libraries' outreach mission is to encourage the development of information literacy (IL) and critical thinking in individuals. In March 2010, a community engagement partnership began between Ekstrom Library and the Wayside Christian Mission for the libraries to provide a basic computer skills class to its clients (referred to as students), many of whom had never used a computer. Now in its fourth iteration, the class named Wayside 100 provides students an opportunity to develop skills that may assist them with increasing their educational level, succeeding in college, as well as overcoming homelessness.

The World Is Not Yet Completed: Moral Imaginaries And Everyday Politics In Progressive Religious Communities, Todd Nicholas Fuist

Dissertations

How religion shapes political and civic engagement has been a consistently fruitful question for American social theorists. Religion has often been understood as providing the moral underpinnings of civil society, traditionally in ways that promote cohesion or preserve the status quo. Despite this, there has been a long tradition of progressive religious engagement in American civic and political life, including the abolitionist movement, civil rights movement, and anti-nuclear movement. Through an ethnographic examination of six politically progressive religious communities, including two communes and four congregations, I examine how religion is put towards progressive ends. Through this, I develop the concept …

Being Prepared And Staying Connected: Scouting’S Influence On Social Capital And Community Involvement, Edward C. Polson, Young-Il Kim, Sung Joon Jang, Byron R. Johnson, Buster Smith

Faculty Publications - Department of Sociology

Objectives

In recent years, scholars have become concerned about the effects that declining levels of social capital are having on community life in the United States. Data suggest that Americans are less likely to interact with neighbors and less likely to participate in community groups than they were in the past. Nevertheless, researchers have found that participation in some types of organizations has a positive impact on social capital and civic involvement. Each year, millions of American youth participate in programs designed to promote positive youth development. Here, we examine the effect that participation in one of the largest youth …

Bonding Alone: Familism, Religion, And Secular Civic Participation, Young-Il Kim, W. Bradford Wilcox

Faculty Publications - Department of Sociology

This study examines the influence of familism, religion, and their interaction on participation in secular voluntary associations. We develop an insularity theory to explain how familism and religion encourage Americans to avoid secular civic participation. Using data from the first wave of the National Survey of Families and Households, this study finds that familism reduces participation in secular organizations. Moreover, religion moderates the effect of familism: specifically, religious involvement tends to increase the negative effect of familism on secular civic participation. Although religious involvement in and of itself fosters secular civic participation, strong familism tends to dampen positive impacts of …

The Psychological Benefits Of Participating In Group Singing For Members Of The General Public, Marianne D. Judd, Julie Ann Pooley

Research outputs 2013

The last decade has produced a growing number of studies examining the potential psychological benefits of singing in a choir. Studies have tended to focus on the benefits for groups that might be described as marginalized or criminal. In contrast, the current study focused on members of the general public who regularly participate in choral singing. An in-depth qualitative design was utilized to explore the meaning and importance of group singing for 10 participants. Thematic analysis based on an interpretive approach was utilized to analyse the data. Psychological benefits emerged as two themes: individual and group. A third theme, mediating …

Generations Apart: A Mixed Methods Study Of Black Women’S Attitudes About Race And Social Activism, Carolyn D. Love

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Since the beginning of slavery in the United States, Black women have been actively involved in the creation and formation of Black civil society. The abolitionist, Black women’s club, and civil rights movements challenged White supremacy and created institutions that fought for political, social, and economic justice. Historically, Black women have engaged in the struggle for group survival while at the same time fighting for institutional transformation to eliminate or change discriminatory policies, practices, and procedures. With each passing generation, Black women have led efforts of resistance against racial discrimination, gender bias, and class exploitation. However, with each passing generation, …

Nevada Interagency Volunteer Program: Helping Hands Across Public Lands—Phase Ii: Final Project Report, December 31, 2012, Margaret N. Rees

Get Outdoors Nevada

• Maintained a central clearinghouse created for Southern Nevada public lands volunteers, including: ─ an online volunteer data-management application (Volgistics) adopted and customized for the program and populated with 8,500 active and 961 mailing list volunteer records ─ a community outreach Web site that currently averages 8,230 pages viewed per month since July 2007 and has aided in the recruitment of 11,943 volunteers ─ updated website to word press for sustainability ─ branding development and marketing and outreach tool creation
• Updated Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all areas of Interagency Volunteer Program Management—recruitment, training, recognition, retention of volunteers, event planning, and …

Sndo Hector's Helpers Youth Engaging The Community Through Social Media: Annual Progress Report, Period Covering June 1, 2012 - December 31, 2012, Margaret N. Rees

Anti-littering Programs

The Hector’s Helpers Youth Engaging the Community through Social Media project was designed to develop civic and environmental stewardship skills as students receive training in administering social media accounts (e.g., Facebook, twitter, Youtube). The project is an extension of the Hector’s Helpers program developed through a cooperative agreement and run under the branding of Don’t Trash Nevada. Participants in the project are known as the Social Media Squad (SMS). The following activities were completed:

• Supervision of youth completing the pilot program initiated in an earlier cooperative agreement
• Recruitment of youth to apply for the Social Media Squad
• Training of Social …

Women's Mobilization In Latin America: A Case Study Of Venezuela, Brianna Russell

Master's Theses

Abstract

I examine the following elements in regards to women’s mobilization in Latin America and Venezuela from the late 1950s to the present: (a) the influence of the state and economy on times when women mobilized (b) class division within the movement (c) women’s demands during different time periods (d) the ways in which women were successful in working towards gender equality. This thesis reviews the literature on women’s mobilization in Latin America during the second half of the twentieth century. I find that women mobilized across class lines with the masses to end dictatorships. Women demobilized during transitions to …

On The Social Construction Of Hellenism Cold War Narratives Of Modernity, Development And Democracy For Greece, Despina Lalaki

Publications and Research

Hellenism is one of those overarching, ever-changing narratives always subject to historical circumstances, intellectual fashions and political needs. Conversely, it is fraught with meaning and conditioning powers, enabling and constraining imagination and practical life. In this essay I tease out the hold that the idea of Hellas has had on post-war Greece and I explore the ways in which the American anti-communist rhetoric and discussions about political and economic stabilization appropriated and rearticulated Hellenism. Central to this history of transformations are the archaeologists; the archaeologists as intellectuals, as producers of culture who, while stepping in and out of their disciplinary …

Developing A Water Management Plan: Exploring Water Conservation Strategies On The Illinois Wesleyan Campus, Tim Griffin '13

Outstanding Senior Seminar Papers

The primary purpose of this research was to collect the information necessary to one day develop an environmentally sound and economically feasible water conservation management plan for the Illinois Wesleyan University campus. Freshwater resources are steadily being depleted due to pollution and climate change, while demand for potable water continues to rise alongside an exponentially growing global population. Due to this reason, water conservation is becoming an ever-important practice for municipalities, institutions, and even individuals in pursuit of maintaining a sustainable freshwater supply. Reducing demand upon the water supply of a community remains the best practice for maintaining sustainable freshwater …

The Rattler (Volume 100, Issue 11, Edition 1), St. Mary's University

The Rattler (Previous issues)

Founded in 1919, The Rattler is the student voice of St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. The newspaper documents campus life, academic and social issues, student opinion, and local and national events as they relate to the University community. Content typically includes news articles, editorial commentary, arts and culture coverage, sports reporting, and advertisements.