The purpose of this review is to demonstrate the growth of a family agency, The Calgary Family Bureau. This growth is related in a general manner to that of the Family Welfare Movement which had its roots within the Charity Organization Societies. In portraying this development, only the salient points are discussed, relating them as closely as possible to the functions of a family service agency. These functions which are two in number, are the accepted purposes of a modern family agency. They are, first, to provide a skilled case work service on problems of family living and individual social adjustment; and second, to provide and stimulate those resources that contribute to healthy social living in the community. It is desired that the specific study of the development of the Calgary Family Bureau will: first, portray a parallel to the growth of other family service agencies as outlined in the first chapter; and second, to demonstrate those processes by which the past has influenced the agency at present; and third, to provide a basis upon which an assessment can be made of the present and the future of the agency. In respect of the latter, an attempt is made to evaluate and assess the agency, not only in terms of the past, but particularly in terms of the present. The assessment being geared to the functions of an accepted family service agency. The reconstruction of the growth and development of family agencies in general terms was formulated through research of available authoritative sources relating to the general movement and the accepted standard of purposes for a modern family agency. The specific analysis of the antecedents of the Canary Family Bureau and the events leading to it becoming an independent family agency was undertaken after a study of historical data in the form of documents such as Minutes, Annual Reports, letters and an independent Survey. These were supplemented by personal sources of authentic observers. The same method was applied in a study of the present status of the agency but in this case also supplemented the personal observations of the writer. The findings attempt to show that the needs of the Calgary community not only dictated the development of a social agency but lent themselves to its character and the service it provided. These needs were recognized and the forces of social action to meet them were implemented because of the concern and character of responsible personalities in the community. Personal attributes played a considerable role in the formation of and development of the Calgary Family Bureau. The Calgary Family Bureau was also a product of pressures within the community and its standard of service was influenced by changing concepts. These concepts being the acceptance of the purposes of a recognized family agency. It has not been concluded, however, that the Bureau has reached the standards set for such agencies. It has acquired a foundation as a family agency. It must now acquire the techniques and policies inherent of the case work and community functions of a modern family agency. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Alberta, 2010. / Title from pdf file main screen (viewed on Feb. 1, 2010). " A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Department of English and Film Studies."

This thesis presents one aspect of urbanization, the country-residential phenomenon. In the study the country residential process and pattern are defined and described in the context of the urban system. Various factors influencing the location of the country residences in this system and the implications of country residential growth to the agricultural industry, the rural municipality, and the resident himself are analyzed. Based on this analysis a strategy for controlling ex-urban growth is suggested. The Calgary Region offers an interesting case study of the process of country residential growth, since this process is the only form of urban decentralization outside the legal City permitted by public policy. Because of this the familiar residential suburbs and industrial parks found around Canadian cities are absent, and instead, isolated residences dot Calgary's periphery. Country residential growth or ex-urbanization is a term describing a process of fringe development in which the individual decision-maker opts out of the mainstream of the residential growth process, suburbanization, but nonetheless chooses to remain part of the urban system and identifies with that system. The country resident is differentiated from the suburbanite by motivation. The suburbanite is in the fringe because that is where the available housing is. The country resident, on the other hand, is there because that is where he wants to be. The country resident values the rural landscape and activities associated with it. By far the most important activities are equestrian. In this study, albeit the survey population was only equivalent to a small city neighbourhood, every occupational grouping was represented. Even though, the randomness and heterogeneity of the country residential pattern implies that no underlying process was responsible for the extant pattern, an analysis of consumer preference did uncover some order in the determinants and the constraints of location. These include (1) the physical environment, (2) the existing road network, (3) accessibility, (4) government policy, and (5) the land market. Presently, the country resident is shown to be less a burden on municipal resources than the city resident is, principally, because the main cost of country residential living fall on the resident himself. Country residential growth, or as it usually is called in this context sprawl, is very much a problem of consumer economics. The cost picture will remain more or less the same up until a suburban form of residential growth occurs in the fringe, wherein the costs are shifted to the public. When this happens the rural municipalities will suffer financial difficulties tantamount to or greater than the central citys’. Aside from the ameliorating cost structure, land resources in the fringe around Calgary are being allocated in a wasteful and completely undirected fashion. The procedure of resource allocation is almost the antithesis of planning but typifies what is occurring throughout Canada. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

Across Canada, municipalities have been struggling to alleviate the poverty of increasing numbers of homeless people and panhandlers on city streets. Simultaneously, tensions have risen between these street people and the general public. This thesis is a narrative study of the current conflict between panhandlers and other community stakeholders in Calgary, Alberta. This study presents the diverse viewpoints and voices of people who panhandle, homeless people, the general public, the downtown business community, social service providers, city bureaucrats and police officers. This study examines how identity politics and broader social ideologies shape face-to-face street encounters and influence debates over public policy at an institutional level. The relationship between panhandlers and the public is typically one marked by social distance. The current approach to panhandlers involves treating them as "strangers within our midst." This approach undermines their citizenship and heightens tensions within the community more so than would an approach that emphasizes their commonality with the larger society and their rights within civic space.

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Low achievement, low attendance, and high dropout levels characterize immigrant student populations in cosmopolitan Canadian schools. This thesis identifies the lack of understanding in the community in urban multicultural Alberta as the prime cause of the struggle encountered by new immigrant students in school. The thesis incorporates the experiences of six new immigrant students to promote an authentic curriculum of learning and teaching to meet the needs of these learners. It posits that an authentic curriculum is unlikely without input from learners. The method used Hans-Georg Gadamer’s approach to hermeneutics and phenomenology, with the researcher asking the six African participants to share their stories in the African storytelling fashion in which no one dominates the discussion. The conversations were analyzed and interpreted to provide insight into the life-worlds of the participants. Ted Aoki’s multilayered curriculum of curriculum-as-planned, curriculum-as-lived experience and the “zone of between” are seen as a beneficial practice inclusive of all students. / viii, 139 leaves ; 28 cm

Family-centered care (FCC) is important within the practice of pediatric oncology nurses. Such nurses face challenges and barriers when attempting to provide FCC. The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of pediatric oncology nurses in relation to FCC; identify how pediatric oncology nurses implemented FCC into their practice; identify what facilitated and enabled pediatric oncology nurses to implement FCC; and discern the barriers and challenges that were present in their setting when implementing FCC. A qualitative approach utilizing person-centered interviewing was used to collect data. Nurses (N=20) from the Alberta Children‟s Hospital were recruited through purposeful convenience sampling and were then interviewed. Five major themes were identified from the data set: ACH support f FCC, How participants defined FCC, Establishing FCC, Enhancing FCC, and Barriers and Challenges to providing FCC. Recommendations for future research and implications for practice and education are offered. / xii, 191 leaves ; 29 cm

The property development industry in cities such as Calgary, Edmonton, Denver and Houston experienced a boom characterized by compulsive speculative growth in the 1970's and then a dramatic collapse in 1982. In the wake of the collapse came a crisis in the financial as well as the development sector, which to 1987 is nowhere near resolved. The expansion and decline in the property development industry is seen as a subset of a classical business cycle fueled by the world oil and gas economy, Canadian government regional and economic policies, and changes in money supply and interest rates. These factors are recognized as being contributory, but not a sufficient explanation for the property boom and bust. Additional understanding is offered by an analysis of the decision making process in the development industry. The research, focusing on key decision makers, revealed that repeated decision errors made by developers on strategies related to growth, diversification, and financing contributed significantly to the industry problems. The sources of strategic errors were found to be associated with the key developers' personalities and their perception of the business environment, as well as group and organizational behaviour. In 1976-77 opportunities to gain windfall profits in real estate development encouraged developers to travel from city to city continent wide in search of opportunities. Their fast-paced activity brought key developers stunning successes. Their perceived brilliance attracted followers from the rest of the industry and captured the imagination of the financial community. In 1979-80, as land values began increasing at rates far faster than interest rates, land banking superceded land development as a principal activity. Developers not only borrowed to the maximum under conventional project lending, but they also invented the concept of "appraisal surplus" (the difference between market value and debt) as a measure of their enormous "equity". This in turn permitted them to raise additional capital corporately through debentures and share offering to purchase even more land. By 1981 companies were highly levered financially making them extremely vulnerable to the slightest changes in the marketplace. Rather than recognizing that they were swept up in a property' boom developers, individually and as a group, chose to continue to believe that their "exceptional ability" to turn a profit was the basis for their successes. As the boom accelerated developers abandoned all caution committing to some of their largest and most daring acquisitions at the very peak of the boom. Then, in 1982 the inevitable happened, the bust in the property market. Those public companies with huge financially levered land banks, whose strategies were predicated on continuing inflation and ever increasing market share failed. Those companies, often private, with low debt to equity ratios, conservative financial practices, and income property portfolios survived. Since both sets of companies operated in a similar environment, but one failed and the other survived, the argument that decision making was a crucial factor in understanding the boom-bust property cycle is strengthened. The understanding of change in the activity patterns and in the structure of the built environment is elucidated by the study of decision processes. Insights into decision making and business cycles create a new awareness of the development process. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

This thesis discusses the issues that are prioritized in policy documents, and the concerns which appear in newspaper stories, concerning housing issues in Calgary, Alberta. It holds that certain, ‘voices’ are accounted for and accommodated over other, more vulnerable, ‘voices’ in the policy arena. The ways in which these voices are constructed, and how particular agents, subjects, objects, and ‘truths’ are formed, all result from particular uses of language. The thesis maintains that those who have the most to gain from supportive housing policies are often excluded from the process of developing, or commenting on, policy altogether. It also suggests that their discursive construction as objects of policy, as moral examples, or as constituent elements of an “issue,” has implications both for actions undertaken in relation to them by governments and other agencies, and for their own ability to act effectively to articulate and to address their own concerns. / ix, 311 leaves ; 28 cm. --

No description available.