The purpose of this study is to explore the role of social entrepreneurs or core visionaries in generating conceptual, financial, and community support and acceptance for a Healthy City/Community initiative in the Bryan/College Station area. This initiative affords all community members the opportunity to participate in long-term regional goals. Crucial questions were: what criteria were seen as beneficial to the community that would garner support to proceed with a Healthy City initiative, what would be desirable and more feasible - to enter into an agreement with an existing entity, an existing medical health provider, related entity or subsidiary, or to set up a new, independent entity to oversee the initiative, where would funding come from, what was the time commitment, and who would evaluate the initiative's success? Another purpose of this study is to explore how a Healthy City's process was adapted and developed for use in the Brazos Valley and how the initial community leaders or initiative "champions" went about initiating and organizing the movement, including identifying manpower needs, whether through the use of volunteers or the hiring of professionals, consultants, or full time staff to coordinate the various activities. Also of interest were the criteria that the initiative's leaders would use to divide their Healthy City's agenda or potential goals into topical components to be studied and analyzed by community representatives for inclusion (or not) into the final, formal Vision Statement for the community for succeeding by 2020. This was a qualitative study; interviews and observations of meetings were the information gathering methods used. According to the results, most participants found their involvement meaningful and enjoyable, but they also feared that no actions would come from the goals set by the community. Areas for further research or investigation might include: subsequent phases enacted by the Brazos 2020 Vision, changes made in dealing with future options after the Final Report was completed or distributed, resulting funding opportunities and movement of key leaders after the Brazos Valley initiative had entered subsequent phases. Another focus might be to continue to research or investigate the timeline for Brazos 2020 Vision up to the year 2020.

This study focused on the perceptions students have about the effectiveness of learning communities, a focus of the First-Year Success initiative at Texas A

In response to the myriad of problems confronting society including climatic changes on our planet numerous individuals, organizations, and governments are reinventing themselves forging a new pathway towards a more sustainable future. Facilitated by a variety of different conferences, initiatives, and strategies an increasing global trend has focused on the urban context addressing environmental, economic, and economic issues by developing sustainable communities. Sustainable communities are commonly guided in this process by a pre-existing framework formed on an underlying set of principles, ideas, and stages. Worldwide, a variety of frameworks exist. At first glance, the frameworks may appear to have certain advantages over others in respect to their area of focus. For instance, some of the frameworks appear to place a focus on the physical built environment of communities as opposed to other which may accentuate ongoing community participation and collaboration. Although, numerous organizations and networks claim to be committed to the shared learning experiences of sustainable communities little published literature has emerged considering the opportunity of using multiple frameworks or considered integrating portions of the frameworks together. The purpose of this study is to compare three commonly implemented frameworks against eleven elements viewed, as integral to the development of sustainable communities to determine what opportunities may exist for collaboration/ integration of frameworks when developing sustainable communities. Based on previous research and literature these elements include community change process, stakeholder identification and evaluation, strategic planning, education; environmental, economic, and social responsibility, built environment and green design, sustainability indicators and evaluation tools, local government, and knowledge transfer. From these elements a conceptual framework has been developed on which a comparison of the Natural Step Framework, New Urbanism, and the Melbourne Principles has been conducted. Through a deductive research approach five interviews have been conducted with experts in the field of sustainable community development on which a number of advantages and disadvantages have been identified with these frameworks. These have included advantages acknowledging frameworks provide a common platform to begin speaking about issues related to sustainability. However, a noted disadvantage is that frameworks fail to account for and incorporate the majority of stakeholders who comprise communities. While the frameworks due appear quite diverse in the way they approach developing sustainable communities as well as what they view sustainable communities as being by seeking to limit the gaps of these views through continuous learning, education and the transfer of knowledge opportunities do exist for the collaboration and integration of frameworks.

The intent of this thesis is to conduct an empirical study of social capital in a single resource dependent fishing community, Petty Harbour, Newfoundland. The community under study, Petty Harbour, has a 335 year attachment to what was its primary fishery, Northern cod (Gadus morhua). This ended in 1992 when the Canadian government implemented an indefinite moratorium on Northern cod. Historically the community has exhibited high levels of activism aimed for the most part at protectionism of its primary economic mainstay, the fishery. Social capital by definition implies available resources embedded in social structures such as informal networks that can be accessed and mobilized by individuals or groups for either personal or communal gain (Coleman, 1988; Putnam, 2000; Krishna, 2002; Onyx, 2005). High levels of social capital can lead to collective activism, which according to some, is the single most important contributing factor to sustainability because without activism, an outcome of social capital, there maybe no hope for recovery and sustainability. My hypothesis is that the extent to which one is socially connected through network ties to close friends and/or family (structural social capital) and the level of trust in neighbors (cognitive social capital) will positively correlate with their involvement with activism. Leadership and sense of ownership are introduced as additional independent variables to further explore explanations for the community's level of collective activism and stewardship of the resource. Treating activism as a dependent variable, I am going to examine social capital indicators, suggesting network ties (weak, strong) as independent variables that can partially explain the historically high level of activism. I am also going to propose that the independent variables leadership and sense of ownership will also positively correlate with activism.

Graduation date: 1991

Little is known about Registered Nurses (RNs) and their work in northern Canada and the care of older adults with dementia in this setting. As the prevalence of dementia is predicted to increase over the next 30 years, the purpose of this project was to discover key concepts that depicted salient issues in dementia care in northern Saskatchewan from the perspective of RNs working in northern health care facilities. A sequential exploratory mixed method design was chosen for this study with a qualitative lead complemented by a secondary analysis of quantitative data. <p>Interviews were conducted with 14 RNs, employed in small northern Saskatchewan communities, about their experiences with dementia caregiving and their perceptions of dementia care resources. The grounded theory method used in analysis of the interview data resulted in the construction of the theory, Insulating and Expanding the Awareness of Dementia in Northern Nursing. The study identified three categories of conditions that influenced awareness of dementia: Dementia Care and Community Caregiving, Characteristics of the Northern RN, and Northern Nursing Worklife. The quantitative secondary analysis, using a north-south comparison of data from the national survey (Stewart et al., 2005) in the multi-method study The Nature of Nursing Practice in Rural and Remote Canada (MacLeod et al., 2004), was used to explore contextual elements identified in the grounded theory analysis. The comparison of nursing practice in northern (n = 597) and southern (n = 2154) rural and small town communities found that fewer RNs in northern Canada reported dementia as a client characteristic, worked in long-term care, or in home care nursing positions, compared to RNs in southern Canada. Findings from both the qualitative and quantitative studies contribute to an understanding of the RNs awareness of dementia. Recommendations for increasing the awareness of dementia in northern nursing practice include enhancing the resources and services available to older adults with dementia in small northern communities. It is hoped that further exploration of dementia within northern communities will result in improved care for individuals with dementia and their families.

Successful knowledge transfer is all about relationships. As anyone who has conducted research with non-academic partners knows, it takes a considerable amount of time and effort for these relationships to be fruitful. The great benefit of placing this work within the context of a community of practice is that it gives researchers and decision makers a structure within which to interact.<p> This study explored ways in which a community of practice framework can be used to develop and nurture relationships between researchers and decision makers. Further, it investigated how these communities of practice can be supported by online communications technologies. Its major contribution is the development, testing and refinement of a checklist of six ways that researchers can connect with decision makers in communities of practice, both in person and online. This checklist provides concrete, practical suggestions on how to develop an effective community of practice. Items in the checklist are based on both the academic literature on knowledge transfer and communities of practice, and the authors experience as part of an academic research unit focused on conducting collaborative research with community and government partners. Each item in the checklist was validated through interviews with members of two communities of practice. While the initial checklist had five items, a sixth was added following analysis of the interviews.<p> This checklist is generalizable, in that it can help guide any kind of community of practice, not just those in which members work on early childhood development issues, nor those communities in which researchers and decision makers interact. It is a valuable contribution to knowledge transfer methods at a time when both interest levels and efforts to improve knowledge implementation are widespread. The final checklist reads as follows:<p> A community of practice should:<p> 1. provide opportunities for regular interaction between community members;<p> 2. allow members to participate at varying levels that can change over time;<p> 3. provide both public and private spaces for interaction;<p> 4. document its goals, activities and outcomes, in order to develop a knowledge repository;<p> 5. identify and document the value of the community itself; and <p> 6. enlist the guidance of a technology champion in order to use online communications technologies effectively.

This study investigates impacts on Western Canadas rural communities that may result from land usage change from conventional agriculture to that of forestry, in part or in whole. Many of Western Canadas rural communities in the agriculture regions near the tree line have developed around cash crops (cereal/oilseeds) and livestock production. Through the Government of Canadas commitments to achieve targeted greenhouse gas emission levels, a market may develop where landowners will be adequately compensated to initiate a switch from conventional agriculture to that of forestry. This study finds that forestry and agricultural regions have over time developed different business structures to support local industry demands. Because of this, converting land use to forestry from agriculture will likely have a significant impact on the rural communities that serve the local economy. Results also showed that population change is significantly influenced by the percentage of people employed in agricultural and by proximity to larger urban centres.

ABSTRACT The manner in which we design and build our communities can affect our physical and mental health. When we think about urban planning, we reflect on the form and arrangement of community, of urban, city and town planning. Urban form looks at the integration of land use and explores a complex range of the built and social environment: the environment, infrastructure, people, form and economics. The research recognizes cultural behaviours and activity patterns that affect air quality and environmental conditions; a lack of physical activity, community cohesion, highlights safety issues, and places individuals at risk for health illness. The research evaluates the built form of the neighbourhood community and asks ‘What are the attributes of a healthy community’? The research will verify the extent to which the neighbourhoods selected in the study replicate these attributes and focus on how these neighbourhoods could be improved from a ‘healthy city’ perspective. Key urban form features related to healthy communities focus on the relationship between land use mix, network connectivity and street design, site design, and density. Sustainable planning of communities and efficient land use planning are relevant to healthy communities with the trend towards increasing population density. While the research reinforces the connection between built form and public health planning, it also provides future direction for urban form policy; with improvements towards street connectivity, non-motorized transportation, expansion of regional trail and cycle networks, increasing transit access, encouraging mixed land use and greater land density to shorten travel distances. The research provides a basis for future studies in Canadian growth policy and healthy neighbourhood form, with significance as a Southwestern Ontario study.

ABSTRACT The manner in which we design and build our communities can affect our physical and mental health. When we think about urban planning, we reflect on the form and arrangement of community, of urban, city and town planning. Urban form looks at the integration of land use and explores a complex range of the built and social environment: the environment, infrastructure, people, form and economics. The research recognizes cultural behaviours and activity patterns that affect air quality and environmental conditions; a lack of physical activity, community cohesion, highlights safety issues, and places individuals at risk for health illness. The research evaluates the built form of the neighbourhood community and asks ‘What are the attributes of a healthy community’? The research will verify the extent to which the neighbourhoods selected in the study replicate these attributes and focus on how these neighbourhoods could be improved from a ‘healthy city’ perspective. Key urban form features related to healthy communities focus on the relationship between land use mix, network connectivity and street design, site design, and density. Sustainable planning of communities and efficient land use planning are relevant to healthy communities with the trend towards increasing population density. While the research reinforces the connection between built form and public health planning, it also provides future direction for urban form policy; with improvements towards street connectivity, non-motorized transportation, expansion of regional trail and cycle networks, increasing transit access, encouraging mixed land use and greater land density to shorten travel distances. The research provides a basis for future studies in Canadian growth policy and healthy neighbourhood form, with significance as a Southwestern Ontario study.