Social Welfare Commons^™

Leaning Out: Exploring Organizational Advocacy Activities From An Open Systems Perspective, Lauri Goldkind

Social Service Faculty Publications

his article explores the effect of organizational culture on engagement with advocacy activities, both traditional and electronic. The Competing Values Framework offers a model for understanding how organization's culture influences behavior. Using a sample of nonprofit providers from across the country, the author hypothesized that organizations that use electronic advocacy tools are more involved with advocacy activities of all types. A paper and pencil survey was used to collect data on organizational culture, advocacy tools and techniques, perceived effectiveness of the advocacy tools, policy goals, organizational sustainability goals as well as barriers and facilitators of electronic advocacy. The study used …

Understanding Vulnerability In Alaska Fishing Communities: A Validation Methodology For Rapid Assessment Of Well-Being Indices, Conor M. Maguire

All Master's Theses

Social well-being indices measure how fishing communities are likely to be affected by social-ecological perturbations, and are a significant tool to identify the primary issues influencing communities’ sustained participation in fishing activities. In an attempt to further our understanding of how communities are affected by such perturbations, we have developed a rapid assessment methodology to test the external validity of a set of well-being indices that measure community vulnerability. This methodology informs how well such indices reflect the communities they represent by measuring elements of well-being through field observations, and comparing them to corresponding index components created from secondary data …

Towards More Efficient Service For Clients, Using Hmis System: Managerial Audit Of Community Technology Alliance, Mohua Chatterjee

Master's Projects

No abstract provided.

Bella Abzug, Queer Rights, And Disrupting The Status Quo, Trevor G. Gates, Margery C. Saunders

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

Workers who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ)-identified have always been a part of the workplace in the United States, yet there has been a lack of awareness about how to advocate for the needs of these people. This lack of awareness was challenged by Congresswoman Bella Abzug. Abzug’s campaign for creating an equal working environment for sexual minorities initiated gradual changes in the public discourse concerning workplace and other broad equality measures for these communities. To frame these gradual transformations within a historical context, we use Lewin’s force field analysis framework to examine the change efforts of …

Consumer Satisfaction With Aging & Disability Resource Connection Of Oregon: Round 4, Diana White, Sheryl Dejoy Elliott

Institute on Aging Publications

The report describes the fourth round of consumer satisfaction surveys that were conducted with people who had been in contact with the Information & Referral/Assistance (I&R/A) Call Center or received Options Counseling (OC) services of Aging and Disabilities Resource Connection (ADRC) of Oregon. Data for this survey were collected in November 2014. This Executive Report summarizes and presents data on overall satisfaction, conclusions, and recommendations for the ADRC program.

Racism Vs. Social Capital: A Case Study Of Two Majority Black Communities, Bruce W. Strouble

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Several researchers have identified social capital as a means to improve the social sustainability of communities. While there have been many studies investigating the benefits of social capital in homogeneous White communities, few have examined it in Black homogeneous communities. Also, there has been limited research on the influence of racism on social capital in African American communities. In this dissertation a comparative case study was used within a critical race theory framework. The purpose was to explore the role of racial oppression in shaping social capital in majority African American communities. Data were collected from 2 majority Black communities …

Would You Choose To Be Happy? Tradeoffs Between Happiness And The Other Dimensions Of Life In A Large Population Survey, Matthew D. Adler, Paula Dolan, Georgios Kavetsos

Faculty Scholarship

A large literature documents the correlates and causes of subjective well-being, or happiness. But few studies have investigated whether people choose happiness. Is happiness all that people want from life, or are they willing to sacrifice it for other attributes, such as income and health? Tackling this question has largely been the preserve of philosophers. In this article, we find out just how much happiness matters to ordinary citizens. Our sample consists of nearly 13,000 members of the UK and US general populations. We ask them to choose between, and make judgments over, lives that are high (or low) in …

Equity By The Numbers: Measuring Poverty, Inequality, And Injustice, Matthew D. Adler

Faculty Scholarship

Can we measure inequity? Can we arrive at a number or numbers capturing the extent to which a given society is equitable or inequitable? Sometimes such questions are answered with a “no”: equity is a qualitative, non-numerical consideration.

This Article offers a different perspective. The difficulty with equity measurement is not the impossibility of quantification, but the overabundance of possible metrics. There currently exist at least four families of equity-measurement frameworks, used by scholars and, to some extent, governments: inequality metrics (such as the Gini coefficient), poverty metrics, social-gradient metrics (such as the concentration index), and equity-regarding social welfare functions. …

Victims' Perspectives Of Their Roles In Unwanted Sexual Experiences When Alcohol Is Consumed, Lindsey C. Grove

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Sexual violence among college students is recognized as a serious public health concern in the United States. Among college students, sexual violence is associated with high levels of PTSD symptoms and psychological consequences (Frazier et al., 2009). For ages 18 to 25 sexual violence is the only crime that is found to occur more frequently among college students than the same age group not attending college and is at its highest rate during the first year of attendance(Baum & Klaus, 2005) Research has already uncovered increased risk of victimization for young college students including heavy alcohol consumption (Messman-Moore, Coates, Gaffey, …

An Exploration Of The Experience Of In-Home Counseling Services, Greg Czyszczon

Dissertations, 2014-2019

This qualitative study explores the lived experience of in-home counseling services by using a phenomenological method. In-home counseling services are used in situations where families experience extreme emotional distress, in part owing to the problematic behavior of a child. A semi-structured interview was used to elicit parents’ experience of in-home services in a geographical area that included a large portion of Virginia. The study found that the whole of parents’ experience of in-home services was dynamically influenced by constituent parts including the parent’s experience of the child, their experience of parenting, their experience of systems of care, and their experience …

Analyzing The Missing Meal Gap Beyond Elementary School, Timothy Loney, Samantha Milheiser, Brittney Wacholz

Public Sociology Publications and Projects

This paper examines ways in which Feeding Our Communities Partners (FOCP) can productively expand on its current work to alleviate hunger in Blue Earth County, Minnesota. This report contains a literature review addressing hunger and food insecurity, a needs assessment of hunger in Blue Earth County, case studies of existing programs, and qualitative interviews with professionals who work with the youth in these programs. We conclude by recommending three potential ways that FOCP can expand their current programs to address hunger among school-aged youth in Blue Earth County.

Into The Red: A Look Into The Reasons Why Refugees Decide To Flee, Settle Or Migrate To And From Morocco, Fadeelah E. Holivay

Master's Theses

This research paper explores some of the main reasons why refugees and asylum seekers, particularly from sub-Saharan African countries, embark on a journey and decide to settle, flee or migrate to and from Morocco. Because of this phenomenon, Morocco has seen a 96% increase of refugees migrating to the borders of Morocco each year for the past three years. Many say that this astonishing increase of migrants choosing Morocco is due to such factors as: wars breaking out regionally across central African and Middle Eastern countries causing them to flee; Morocco being a culturaly diverse francophone country whose laws and …

Challenges Facing The Elderly Care Industry In Hong Kong: The Shortage Of Frontline Workers, Sin Tung, Stella Kwok, Wai Ning Kris Wong, Shun Lai Yang

Practical Social and Industrial Research Symposium

No abstract provided.

Adults With Intellectual Disability Or Autism Spectrum Disorder. Executive Summary, Kimberly I. Snow Mhsa, Ba, Stuart Bratesman Mpp, Taryn Bowe, Julie T. Fralich Mba

Disability & Aging

This chartbook describes Maine’s historical trends in meeting the needs of adults with ID/ASD through institutional and community based services in comparison to other states; a detailed analysis of the population’s utilization of different types of services and their costs in SFY 2010; the implementation of the Supports Intensity Scale (SIS) as a means of identifying the supports needs of the adults with ID/ASD; and the complement of providers serving this population in Maine.

Aging In Place In Marion: A Community Endeavor, Bernard A. Steinman, Hayley Gleason, Maryam Khaniyan, Ceara Somerville, Jan Mutchler

Gerontology Institute Publications

This report describes collaborative efforts undertaken by the Friends of the Marion Council on Aging (FMCOA) and the Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging, within the McCormack Graduate School at the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston). Beginning in Fall 2014, these organizations partnered to conduct a study to investigate the needs, interests, preferences, and opinions of the Town’s older resident population, and the priorities of other stakeholders in the Town, with respect to living and aging in Marion.

In the earliest phase of the project, we met several times with members of the FMCOA to discuss and …

Aging In West County Communities: Coming Together To Age In Place, Bernard A. Steinman, Hayley Gleason, Ceara Somerville, Maryam Khaniyan, Jan Mutchler

Gerontology Institute Publications

This report describes collaborative efforts undertaken by the Towns of Ashfield, Buckland, and Shelburne Consortium of Councils on Aging (hereafter, The Consortium) and the Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging, within the McCormack Graduate School at the University of Massachusetts Boston (hereafter, UMass Boston). Beginning in Fall 2014, these organizations partnered to conduct a study to investigate the needs, interests, preferences, and opinions of older residents in communities in West Franklin County (hereafter, West County), and priorities of stakeholders who interact with older adults in various capacities.

Early in the project, researchers from UMass Boston communicated with stakeholders …

ནང་པ Inside Self & Other : An Interdisciplinary Discussion On “Enemy” In The Tibetan Exiled Community, Mallory Feldman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper focuses on the concept and treatment of “enemy” in Tibetan society. Drawing on interdisciplinary research theories and methodologies, the aim of this paper is accomplished in four progressive parts. First, it identifies the psychological processes and biases that propel “enemy image making,” a sociological concept. Second, it identifies Tibetan Buddhist teachings that may function as tools for combating these psychological phenomena. Third, it investigates how these teachings have been embodied by the Tibetan culture and internalized by the Tibetan people in exile to discern whether these “dharmic tools” have proven efficient. These sections will largely draw upon secondary …

An Examination Of Governmental And Nongovernmental Organizations In Nepal: A Partnership In Managing And Eliminating Waste In The Solukhumbu, Kristen Kelliher

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study, examined whether governmental organizations and nongovernmental organizations in Nepal can effectively work together on eliminating trash and establishing waste management systems in the Solukhumbu region. Historically, the overwhelming presence of discarded items has detracted from tourists’ enjoyment of the Himalayas as well as caused severe environmental ramifications. In the last twenty years however, NGOs and GOs have begun to work together to address these issues and this project looks at whether their working relationship is effective as they often have different objectives and methodology for reaching those goals. Conducting ten personal interviews, visiting GOs and NGOs in Sagarmatha …

Welfare Reform And Children’S Health, Badi H. Baltagi, Yin -Fang Yen

Center for Policy Research

This study investigates the effect of the Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) program on children’s health outcomes using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) over the period 1994 to 2005. The TANF policies have been credited with increased employment for single mothers and a dramatic drop in welfare caseload. Our results show that these policies also had a significant effect on various measures of children’s medical utilization among low-income families. These health measures include a rating of the child’s health status reported by the parents; the number of times that parents consulted a doctor; and …

Go Before You Go: How Public Toilets Impact Public Transit Usage, Kate M. Washington

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

The emphasis on sustainable solutions in Portland, Oregon includes developing multi-modal transportation methods. Using public transit means giving up a certain amount of control over one’s schedule and taking on a great deal of uncertainty when it comes to personal hygiene. Buses, the MAX, and the Streetcar – the cornerstones of public transit in Portland – are not equipped with toilets and rarely are their stations, while most shops and restaurants reserve toilets for patrons only. As a result, many people may bypass public transit in favor of cars, which afford travelers greater autonomy and flexibility. Theories of New Urbanism …