Community-Based Research Commons^™

Building Neuro-Inclusive Community, Strengthening Mental Health: The Autism After 21 Utah Project, Sumiko T. Martinez, Anna Smyth, Ann C. Carrick

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Over two decades of research shows strong positive relationships are a consistently powerful indicator of wellbeing and resilience. However, the U.S. Surgeon General notes that loneliness and isolation is an epidemic in the U.S., and that it is exacerbated for individuals with physical and mental disabilities as well as those with isolating economic or environmental situations. A recent review shows that many autistic adults in particular face challenges in finding the connections they want and need. They also often have compounding mental health conditions, such as depression and mental illness, lower incomes, isolating home environments due to a lack of …

2023-2024 Online Student Survey Of Priority Issues, Heather D. Flick

SACAD: John Heinrichs Scholarly and Creative Activity Days

The purpose of the 2023-2024 Online Student Survey is to provide research backed priorities for the incoming elected senate for the 2024-2025 academic year. Each year the survey is revised based on newly obtained knowledge from coursework as an FHSU Online student as well as past years survey results.

The survey intended to gain insight on what issues are priorities to Fort Hays State University (FHSU) Online students to allow the Online Student Government Association (OSGA) to focus on the most important issues FHSU Online students experience. This is an annual survey which has been evolving each year to best …

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Review Of Making Livable Worlds: Afro-Puerto Rican Women Building Environmental Justice, Ava L. Corey-Gruenes

Feminist Pedagogy

Making Livable Worlds: Afro-Puerto Rican Women Building Environmental Justice, by Hilda Lloréns, highlights Black Puerto Rican women’s efforts to create equitable futures for their communities in the face of capitalism, racism, colonization, and ecological collapse. This review covers key concepts in Making Livable Worlds, including matriarchal dispossession, decolonizing ethnography, the myth of a homogenous Puerto Rico, and myths of inherent economic self-interest. Analyses of these concepts through an absence lens are suggested to enrich formal and informal feminist learning spaces.

Rethinking Resident Perceptions Of Tourism In British Columbia, Canada, Jarrett R. Bachman, Erin Hodgins, Michael W. Lever

ICHRIE Research Reports

This joint academic/practitioner report segments British Columbia, Canada residents to provide destination managers with new ways to better understand resident perceptions of tourism. The data collection was conducted in April and May of 2022 and had a total of 2,265 valid responses. It was also a practical objective to conduct this research in a manner that is repeatable in jurisdictions beyond British Columbia. This report has confirmed five distinct categories of residents’ perceptions toward tourism, including socio-cultural, economic, environmental, job/career, and Indigenous impacts. In addition to the categories of impacts, a cluster analysis has revealed six clusters of residents based …

Pandemic Rendering The Transgender People More Vulnerable, As If It Was Not Already Enough: A Qualitative Exploration From Odisha, India, Prachi Parimita Rout, Ajitesh Mathur, Pranaya Kumar Swain

The Qualitative Report

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted people's livelihoods worldwide to an unprecedented magnitude, the most affected being the socially and economically disadvantaged and marginalized communities, including the transgender people that constitute one of the most vulnerable sections that are often subjected to discriminated in various sectors such as education, health, housing, and livelihood opportunities. The present study attempts to offer insights into the impact of the pandemic on the livelihood of transgender people in India, given that the pandemic adversely affected their primary sources of livelihood, such as begging, sex-work, singing, and dancing, due mainly to the restrictive measures: lockdown, shutdown, social/physical …

Answering The Call

DePaul Magazine

With a strong spirit of service, DePaul initiatives aid displaced populations in Chicago and internationally.

Exploring The Impact Of The Habitat For Humanity Home-Building Process On Partner Families' Holistic Well-Being, Hawkley Pusey, Nikhil Mathur, Kathryn Figliomeni, Nanditha Srinivasan, Keely R. Dehn, Jason A. Ware

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

The purpose of this study was to evaluate how participating in the Habitat for Humanity house-building process influenced participants’ purpose well-being, social well-being, community well-being, physical and mental well-being, and financial well-being, and how effective Habitat for Humanity is in aiding neighborhood revitalization within the Greater Lafayette area. The research project resulted in a presentation of quantitative data and a testimonial video that highlighted the stories of families that had worked with Habitat for Humanity. Quantitative data was gathered through a survey that addressed respondents’ levels of satisfaction within the various categories of well-being mentioned above. Testimonial information was gathered …

Ukrainian Women: Victims Of Putin's War And Sex Industry Predators, Donna M. Hughes

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Sanctuary In The City Of Brotherly Love: Probing The Effectiveness And Broader Implications Of Philadelphia’S Sanctuary City Policies, Thomas A. Koenig

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

Amidst the already fraught politics of immigration, “sanctuary” policies, whereby state and local law enforcement agencies limit their cooperation with federal immigration enforcement authorities to varying degrees, have emerged as a particularly contentious issue. This paper sifts past the political vitriol surrounding the issue of “sanctuary” and uses original survey research in Philadelphia to answer a straightforward question: Are these policies working? That is, are the city of Philadelphia’s sanctuary policies actually building trust between its undocumented residents and local law enforcement, thereby laying the groundwork for higher rates of crime reporting and safer communities? My results from a survey …

Person-Centered Practice As Anchor And Beacon: Pandemic Wisdom From The Ncapps Community, Connor Bailey, Martha Barbone, Lydia X.Z. Brown, Alixe Bonardi, Bevin Croft, Marian Frattarola-Saulino, Karyn Harvey, Miso Kwak, Kelly Lang, Nicole Leblanc, Michelle C. Reynolds, Carole Starr

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Objective: This article summarizes the individual, systemic, and collective challenges and opportunities presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, based on 16 videos solicited by the National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems (NCAPPS) and submitted by NCAPPS collaborators during the first six months of the pandemic.

Method: Informed by participatory action approaches and content analysis, we describe common themes in a series of 16 videos solicited by NCAPPS from subject matter experts with professional and lived experience of disability and human services systems.

Results: The team organized the findings to identify both specific factors within each of the levels and …

Pornography, Its Harms, And A New Legal Strategy: Research And Experience In Japan, Seiya Morita, Caroline Norma

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

In this article we describe pornography’s harms in Japan, which are known about from surveys and research, and from the outreach and consulting activities of Japanese feminist-abolitionist groups. Among these are the Anti-Pornography and Prostitution Research Group (APP) and People Against Pornography and Sexual Violence (PAPS). We then propose a renewed classification scheme for pornography’s harms that centrally considers the experiences of victims in Japan. Lastly, we consider various legal approaches to addressing the myriad harms we describe and suggest possibilities for a new legal strategy. The article’s research comes from Japanese-language materials produced by the above-mentioned activist groups, as …

Attuning To Need: Reconceptualizing “Help” In Poor Rural Areas, Jennifer M. Frank, Laura Brierton Granruth, Brittany Leffler, Rachel Preibisch, Dawn Watson, Heather Girvin, Mary Glazier

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Social isolation is closely linked to overall health and well-being and is a serious concern for those in rural areas. Our research seeks insights into the needs experienced in poor rural areas by utilizing letter writing between students and community agency participants as a research methodology. In the letters, we observed that community participants relied upon friend and family style relationships and even viewed their agency relationships as such. This suggests that transforming "professional helping relationships" into alliances that are less impersonal might be in order. Such relationships and connections seemed conducive to the development of empowering self-efficacy. This finding …

Understanding Factors Contributing To Community Change, Norman Walzer, Sharon Gulick, Connie Loden, Mary Emery, Milan Wall

Community Development Practice

This paper describes the work of the Community Change Network, a collaboration of university researchers and practitioners to understand the factors that contribute to lasting community changes. It describes the resources available as well as what has been accomplished regarding this issue.

Community Development, Quality Of Life, And Community Well-Being: Three Fields Ripe With Opportunities For Future Research And Practice, Craig A. Talmage

Community Development Practice

This perspective piece aims to spur conversations between quality of life, community well-being, and community development scholars and practitioners. The article showcases overlaps in concepts found across journals devoted to those three fields of inquiry. The major themes from those overlaps are discussed, so future directions for interdisciplinary research can be identified. The article finishes with specific attention to exploring how collaborations between the fields of quality of life (QoL), community well-being (CWB), and community development (CD) can better inform community development practice, so that community well-being and quality life can be positively shifted through evidence-based practice.

On Exiting From Commercial Sexual Exploitation: Insights From Sex Trade Experienced Persons, Andrea Heinz

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

As a woman who exited after seven years in licensed commercial sexual exploitation in Canada, I share my reflections on my experience, which led to the development of the Insights from Sex Trade Experienced Persons (InSTEP) Model. The model was constructed based on interviews with “service providers” in the sex trade. Twelve exited women share their experiences inclusively. InSTEP is geared toward a population of quasi-autonomous providers who have alternate economic options. Three levels are introduced in the InSTEP model to describe the continuum of agency among service providers; Level 1: trafficked/controlled; Level 2: quasi-autonomous; Level 3: autonomous. The InSTEP …

Salutogenesis And The Prevention Of Social Death: Cross-Cultural Lessons From Genocide-Impacted Rwandans And Indigenous Youth In Canada, Jobb D. Arnold

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Combining trans-disciplinary theories with cross-cultural ethnographic research, this paper explores community-based approaches to genocide prevention among Canadian-Indigenous groups as well as with Rwandan student genocide survivors. A Salutogenic framework is used to examine community responses to the micro-foundations of genocide (Antonovsky 1987). These processes are explored using first-hand accounts from “New Family” networks of student genocide survivors in Rwanda and members of a Canadian urban-Indigenous “Village.” These perspectives shed light on how locally adaptive, socially networked practices can help promote emergent forms of genocide prevention (Williams 1977). This paper focuses on three areas of local practice that have helped build …

Learning Together To Heal: Toward An Integrated Practice Of Transpersonal Psychology, Experiential Learning, And Neuroscience For Collective Healing, Tatsushi Arai, Jean Bosco Niyonzima

Peace and Conflict Studies

This essay brings together complementary insights from transpersonal psychology, experiential learning, and neuroscience to develop an integrated framework of psychosocial healing in societies affected by conflict and trauma. While transpersonal psychology examines the spiritual and transcendental aspects of psychosocial wellbeing, research on experiential learning examines how people learn from direct experience. Recognizing that both are useful for psychosocial healing, the first part of the essay explores how the two sets of activities can complement each other. Of particular interest is the role of transpersonal exercises such as yoga and meditation, as well as the purposeful use of experiential learning techniques …

Transition Of Multicultural Symbiotic Policies In Japan: Case Studies Analysis Of Tokyo, Toyohashi And Minamiuonuma City, Kozue Kashiwazaki, Ryo Sato

Japanese Society and Culture

How to attract foreign human resources and settle in has been one of the main issues of Japan where is facing depopulation and required to lead local regeneration with diversity. This paper introduces the transition of multicultural symbiotic policies in Japan and case studies at city level based on the collected data by in-depth interview in 2015. Data was collected in three advanced case studies, Tokyo, Toyohashi, and Minamiuonuma city. Through the overview of transition of policies and case study analysis, this paper attempts to find the fundamental and potential gaps between policies and actual condition at national and city …

Social Disorganization Theory: The Role Of Diversity In New Jersey’S Hate Crimes Based On Race And Ethnicity, Dana Maria Ciobanu

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

The purpose of this correlational panel study was to test Shaw and McKay’s theory of social disorganization by examining the relationship between demographic diversity and hate crime rates. The study focused on the relationship between the level of diversity, residential mobility, unemployment, family disruption, proximity to urban areas, and population density in all 21 New Jersey counties and hate crime rates. The existing data of Federal Bureau of Investigations’ hate crime rates and the U.S. Census Bureau’s demographic diversity were operationalized as the percentage of Whites over all other races, and social disorganization from the 21 counties of New Jersey …

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review Fall 2018

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

No abstract provided.

Decriminalization Of Prostitution Policy: Amnesty International Punishes A Dissenting Member, Marcia R. Lieberman

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

In 2016, Marcia Lieberman, a local group coordinator for Amnesty International, USA, was expelled by the board of directors for speaking out publicly against the new Policy on the Decriminalization of Sex Work. Amnesty used a little-known rule that prohibits a member from publicly opposing a position that Amnesty has taken. Lieberman writes about her experience and her view that Amnesty violated its fundamental principle of protecting free speech to silence her dissent.

Gatekeeping Decriminalization Of Prostitution: The Ubiquitous Influence Of The New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective, Janice G. Raymond

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This article explores the activities of The New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective (NZPC) in promoting decriminalization of prostitution and its role in gatekeeping this legislation. The NZPC has loomed large in the government’s evaluations of the decriminalization legislation known as the Prostitution Reform Act (PRA). It has collected information, partnered on the research team appointed by the Ministry of Justice to conduct the research, and ultimately secured seats as evaluators on the Prostitution Law Review Committee (PLRC) charged with assessing the research and making recommendations. Much of its outsized influence on the research and conclusions of this report is demonstrated in …

The Harmful Sexual And Non-Sexual Behaviors Of Trafficked Women And Children In Mexico: A Study Of Victims Of Sexual Exploitation, Arun Kumar Acharya, Lilia Susana Padilla Y Sotelo, Jose Juan Cervantes Niño

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

During the last 17 years, since the adoption of the Palermo Protocol, authorities at international and national levels have investigated and prosecuted trafficking cases, and aided victims. Nevertheless, every day thousands of people around the world are sold, lured with false promises and exploited. In Mexico, 10,000 young girls and women are said to be trafficked into cities for sexual exploitation every year. Trafficked victims suffer a wide range of sexual exploitation, physical and psychological violence, human rights violations including their right to dignity, and cruel and inhumane treatment, creating vulnerability and isolation. To cope, many victims adopt harmful sexual …

Determining Pathways And Connections Between Access To Water And High School Noncompletion Rates For Communities Along The U.S.–Mexico Border, Margie R. Vela, Sarah E. Lind, Paul H. Gutierrez

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

Lack of access to potable water through a conveyance system impacts all aspects of modern life. Many colonias, communities in the Southwestern United States along the U.S.–Mexico border, continue to lack access to piped and treated water. This article discusses a model for the pathway from lack of access to water to lack of high school completion, including intermediary conditions impacting wellness, health, and quality of life for community members. A facilitated discussion with five environmental and public health experts who frequently work in the colonias of El Paso County, Texas (border communities that resemble the developing world), established …

Grandmothers As Child Caregivers: A Unique Child Care Arrangement, Kathy L. Reschke, Susan K. Walker

Occasional Paper Series

This paper draws attention to grandmothers who provide child care and the parents and children they serve, by sharing the results of a study of a group of employed mothers from rural, low-income families who used grandmother care on a regular basis. Although their experiences cannot represent those of all mothers who use grandmother care, they are valuable in understanding the perspective of many women with few feasible options who depend on this type of care.

Beyond Massage Parlors: Exposing The Korean Commercial Sex Market In The United States, Youngbee Dale, Amy Levesque

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This paper describes the Korean commercial sex market in the U.S. beyond massage parlors. Prior to this study, the U.S. anti-trafficking efforts have heavily focused on combating massage parlors to fight prostitution and sex trafficking of Korean women in the U.S. This paper introduces the shift of trends taking place within the Korean sex market as a result of changing culture and policies. It then introduces various brothel models exploiting Korean women in the U.S. It also brings a more holistic view of the Korean sex market in the U.S. by relying on primary and secondary sources available in both …

The First Special Issue Of Dignity, Donna M. Hughes

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Growing Up With Porn: The Developmental And Societal Impact Of Pornography On Children, Gail Dines

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Twenty Reasons To Publish In Dignity, Donna M. Hughes

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.