Since the beginning of the Global War on Terrorism in 2001, the United States has relied heavily on volunteer National Guard troops to protect our country. Thousands of youth have been affected by deployment, yet we rarely hear their stories. This thesis explores how digital storytelling, as an applied theatre practice, can help increase youth visibility and voice in the Army National Guard community. Through qualitative research methods of narrative thematic analysis and thematic coding methods, the author examines how digital storytelling can be used to build community among Army National Guard youth, as well as provide an agentive space for youth to name their experiences and perspectives while self-advocating for their needs and desires. Their digital stories became a site for youth to play with the complexity of naming their experiences, as well as a way to increase their visibility within military spaces. The document concludes with a discussion of how digital storytelling and applied theatre functions within National Guard youth communities, the limitations of the research and model, as well as a discussion of sustainability for applied theatre programs in this community. / text

This thesis examined factors that influence three Canadian Nursing Associations’ priority setting and policy advocacy for community environmental health (CEH). The research questions that guided the study were: (a) how do the nature and scope of nursing organizations’ engagement for CEH policies differ according to provincial and federal contexts? and (b) how do nursing organizational factors and external system factors influence the priority-setting and policy advocacy choices for CEH policy? To answer these questions I undertook a qualitative comparative case study. The research was guided by epistemological and methodological principles of interpretative description and informed by whole-systems socio-ecological theory and institutional theory. Data were collected through participant interviews (n=41) and document review. Guided by framework analysis and the use of descriptive and conceptually-oriented matrices, cases were analyzed using an iterative and inductive approach to identify case patterns. These case patterns were then compared to identify cross-cutting factors that influence the Nursing Associations’ priority setting and policy advocacy for CEH. Key findings are represented in an integrated conceptual framework. Nursing Associations’ priority setting and policy advocacy are embedded in a dynamic policy field whereby structures and institutional pressure both create opportunities and narrow the Nursing Associations’ options for engaged CEH advocacy. The findings lead to recommendations for practice, policy, and research that have relevance for the profession, nursing associations, and policy decision-makers.

Recent work has sought to explain the striking variations in municipal hospital provision in the 1930s by quantitative analysis. Such work has not so far provided a hypothesis which satisfactorily explains the range of variations found. This study, grounded in an analysis based on the Advocacy Coalition Framework and the results of three case studies of events in the county boroughs of Plymouth and Exeter and in Devon County Council, uses a qualitative methodology developed by iteration between a deductive approach drawing on recent work and an inductive approach using a computer-assisted analysis of primary source material and proposes a new hypothesis. The hypothesis developed is that where a local authority inherited a Poor Law workhouse as a result of the Local Government Act (1929) development would be more likely to occur in places where councillors exhibited strong progressive beliefs in accountability to the wider community and in their social responsibility towards that community; where they had successful experience of direct hospital provision in other fields; and when they had available a committed entrepreneur able to marshal support for change within the council. In addition to its empirical findings the study contributes to the development of public policy theory by suggesting improvements to the Advocacy Coalition Framework. Such improvements comprise recognition of the importance of ‘deep core’ as well as ‘policy core’ beliefs to policy change, consideration of path dependency as a significant method of policy learning, and of the roles of entrepreneurs and policy brokers. Finally the study draws attention to the relevance of the study to current practice in the implementation of public policy and proposes specifically that local NHS agencies should give greater prominence to identifying and supporting individuals with the skills of policy entrepreneurs.

Evaluations are often an expectation that funders have for non-profit organizations such as Winnipeg’s child advocacy centre, Snowflake Place for Children and Youth (Snowflake Place). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Snowflake Place through the use of a mixed methods case study evaluation employing the tenets of utilization-focused evaluation. A total of 30 interviews were conducted, with individuals from key service providing partners of Snowflake Place and non-offending caregivers of children who were forensic interviewed at Snowflake Place. This study also analyzed the data tracked by Snowflake Place on its service recipients. The results show that although the organization has only been operating for three years, Snowflake Place is able to provide consistent high quality services such as forensic interviews. Results indicate that Snowflake Place has the potential to improve upon the overall positive experiences of both service providing partners and service recipients. / February 2017

This thesis’s purpose is twofold. The first purpose is to present both information about what twice-exceptionality is and to make recommendations based on the existing research as to how parents or guardians can become more effective advocates and advocate for effective programming and services for their children who are twice-exceptional. While this thesis focuses on a specific subset of twice-exceptional students, those who are both gifted and have autism, a good deal of the material presented will be applicable to children who are gifted with learning disabilities. Effective parent advocacy looks the same across exceptionalities: producing the best educational experience based on the child’s unique needs. Strengths-based programming has been demonstrated to benefit twice-exceptional students no matter the disability, however the areas of deficit will vary depending on the specific disability a child has and his/her unique learning profile. The resources for information on special education law and twice-exceptionality will be useful to parents regardless of the twice-exceptional child’s disability. The second, and I feel most important, purpose of the thesis is to provide those parents/guardians with a “Quick Start Guide to Advocacy” to help them get started on the path to becoming the most effective advocate they can be for their child(ren). While educators and school administrators are expected to have a solid understanding of the rights and responsibilities of all stakeholders, many times parents are thrust into the world of special and gifted education with no preexisting knowledge. The aim of this thesis is to help bridge this gap for parents and guardians of this unique subset of students.

This thesis explores the significant contribution Walter Rudnicki (1925-2010) made to the pursuit of social justice for Indigenous people in Canada through his use of archival records. Rudnicki took on the role of archivist by acquiring, organizing, disseminating, and keeping records that document government-Indigenous relations. Totaling 90.25 metres in extent, the Walter Rudnicki fonds at the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections is an impressive private collection amassed in order to make injustice visible. As a federal public servant working to develop innovative government policies with Indigenous people between the 1950s and 1970s, Rudnicki had bitter personal experience with document creation and access to records practices in the Government of Canada that thwarted Indigenous aims. Thereafter, he stressed that accessing and archiving records play an indispensable role in protecting Indigenous peoples’ interests. He spent the rest of his life creating and employing an archive that would be used in advocacy for Indigenous rights. / October 2016

My work is an exploration of new media that demonstrates the influence a community has on visual communication. The community reveals content as objects go unnoticed after they become a permanent part of the landscape and assumptions are made from cultural archetypes. Through exploration, immersion, and reflection, I am able to recognize the invisible and expected, establish a familiarity with a community, and design responses that communicate directly to it.

This PhD by published work consists of: • 1 single authored monograph; • 1 single authored paper in a refereed journal; • 4 main authored articles in refereed journals; • 3 joint authored articles in refereed journals; • 1 joint authored paper in a non refereed journal; and • 3 joint authored published reports. It covers the period 2009-2014 This thesis and the papers submitted demonstrate my significant contribution to a body of knowledge that provides a rich and unique insight to the development of changes in legislation and protocols in child protection practice. Particular expertise is threefold: the impact on the practice of all professionals involved with vulnerable families and children; the impact on the assessment of risk and working with families and children; and the impact on the ‘timetable for the child’. The publications reflect an examination of pre-proceedings protocols over a 5-year period. Throughout, the work demonstrates a theoretical and practical commitment to fairness and justice for families. The rationale that underpins this thesis is the need to explore the impact of procedural changes to the lives of children and their families. The rhetoric of improving pre-proceedings work in an attempt to divert cases away from court, and to ensure decisions that are made for children are both rigorous and timely, is at odds from the reality of practice on the ground. The recent hegemonic concern with the timetable for the child (Holt and Kelly, 2014) reinforces a change agenda that was ushered in ahead of the Children and Families Act that became law on 22nd April 2014. The President of the Family Division, Sir James Munby, has stated that 26 weeks completion time when cases progress to court is ‘a deadline not a target’, reinforcing the message that only a ‘comparatively small number of exceptional cases’ will fall outside it (Munby, 2013:4). This leaves little time for the court to intervene when cases have not been properly progressed at the pre-proceedings stage. The evidence from detailed observations of practice at all levels within pre-proceedings protocols affords an opportunity to send a clear message to legislators, policy makers and practitioners. Front-loading and diverting more cases into pre-proceedings protocols is quite simply a strategic measure to reduce the financial burden away from the courts and to place this elsewhere. Local authorities have child protection systems that are properly designed to support children who are in need of protection, and where it has been decided by professionals from a range of agencies working with families that the risk cannot be managed without the need to seek the involvement of the court, there should be no further delay. My concern is that in many instances children are already left holding the risk for too long. The question must be raised as to why, when a range of professionals working with the child and their family make the decision that an application to court should be made, a system that purports to hold children and families at the heart builds in further delay.

Den svenska skogspolitiken sammanfattas till de jämställda målen av miljö respektive produktion. När dessa mål riskerar att motverka varandra är det möjligt att motstånd inför politiska åtgärder uppstår. Syftet med denna studie har därmed varit att undersöka vilken roll idésystem har för acceptansen av skogspolitikens målsättningar med avgränsning till nyckelbiotopspolitiken, samt att pröva huruvida egenintresse har någon inverkan. För studien har det teoretiska ramverket Advocacy Coalition Framework samt Rational Choice perspektivet tillämpats. Resultatet från den kvalitativa textanalysen visar att både idésystem och egenintresse förklarar policyacceptans i lika stor utsträckning. Det antyds även att korresponderande idésystem tillsammans med egenintresset samtidigt har varit styrande hos två aktörer. Vidare tyder resultatet på att mekanismerna kompletterar varandra genom att förklara policyacceptans när den andra misslyckas. De slutsatser som dras är att vidare forskning krävs för en fördjupad förståelse av dessa mekanismer och huruvida det existerar någon bakomliggande koppling sinsemellan föreställningar och egenintresse.

Syftet var att utforska vad som är viktigt i ett krisstöd till barn efter ett barnförhör. Metodensom användes var semistrukturerade intervjuer med fyra krisstödjare ur kristeamet i en svenskkommun. Resultatet analyserades utifrån systemteori och salutogenes. Resultatet visade attden juridiska processen, som ska tillvarata barnens rättigheter, även bidrar till krisen, samt attdet är föräldrarna som behöver byggas upp för att kunna stötta sitt barn. Ett tredje resultat varatt krisstödjarna upplever att de gör stor nytta i den akuta krisen, men att den dörr som dåöppnas in till familjen ofta hinner stängas innan det sätts in fortsatta resurser som kan leda tillverklig förändring. Utifrån grundantagandet att barnen ska hamna i en bättre situation efteråtän de gjorde innan, diskuterades sedan om krisstödjarna kunde fullgöra denna uppgift medmetoden de använder. / The aim of this study was to explore what is considered important in a crisis supportintervention after child interrogation at a child advocacy center. The method used was semistructuredinterviews with four social workers in the crisis support team. The analysis wasbased on systems theory and salutogenesis. The result showed that the legal process,constructed to protect children’s rights, also contributes to the crisis. It showed that the parentsneed to be strengthened in order to support the child. The social workers feel that they help thefamilies in the first crisis, but a lack of resources prevent them from continuing the support,missing the chance to real change. We discusses how well the social workers could helpputting children in a better position than before, with the crisis support method.