(in English): The thesis deals with the current state of the functioning of the health care system for children and youth in the Czech Republic with regard to the possible consequences of failure to provide basic health care resulting from difficult life situations, and therefore closely related to the social sphere. The main objective is to explore whether the current system is functional enough that there are no socially disadvantaged individuals "falling through a net". The theoretical part deals with the lives of socially disadvantaged individuals, with a focus on the family and its specifics. Furthermore the work deals with pediatric and dental preventive and curative health care. In addition to discussing basic parameters of the care, there are analyzed the risks for the eventual malpractice. Solution of the research uses a qualitative method using interviews with instructions. Not only was the research sample composed of individuals with experience with social disadvantage - particularly parents with children from shelter homes where one can assume such experience, but also practicing doctors who come into the very first contact with children the most often - pediatricians and dentists so that the view on the situation is as complex as possible.

Magister Economicae - MEcon / Entrepreneurship has been regarded as a solution to various developmental challenges such as unemployment, inequality, and poverty, which are inherent among the marginalised populations. However, the high rate of failure of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) remain an impediment to the use of entrepreneurship as a means to ameliorate the challenges. This is especially the case among young entrepreneurs. In addition, given the imperativeness of financial literacy in the success of SMEs, this study determines the influences of financial literacy on entrepreneurial success within the marginalised communities. It also explores and identifies the reasons why failure rates are high among young entrepreneurs in the economically disadvantaged community of Khayelitsha, Cape Town. This study employs a concurrent mixed methods design, making use of both quantitative and qualitative data. A survey is conducted in Khayelitsha using the snowballing sampling technique due to difficulty in accessing young entrepreneurs. The quantitative data from the survey provides demographic and socioeconomic information on young entrepreneurs

This study evaluated three HCOP projects to determine, describe, and assess their overall effectiveness and identify successful strategies used by these projects to reach their specific objectives. Demographic and scholastic data were collected about 393 HCOP participants at the three HCOP projects in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia during the years 1990-1999. Detailed information about the activities used to incorporate the HCOP legislative purposes into the programs was also collected. Sixty-seven percent of HCOP participants were Caucasian and 78% were female. Scholastic data was limited to data from the EKU and ETSU HCOP programs. The average high school GPA score for HCOP participants in this study was 3.34 on a 4.0 scale. The average ACT score was 20.6. When compared with institutional data, HCOP students had a higher GPA than the regular first-year college students at the specific institutions. The average ACT scores were similar for the HCOP and regular students taking into account the standard error of measurement. Ninety-three percent HCOP participants enrolled in college and 77% of them majored in a health profession programs. Fifty-eight percent of the HCOP participants graduated from a program of study and of those who graduated, 87% were from a health profession program. Eighty-seven percent of the HCOP participants were employed in a health profession. HCOP projects were required to conduct activities that addressed two or more legislative purposes. These legislative purposes were recruitment, preliminary education, facilitating entry, retention and dissemination of financial aid information. The activities of each project were summarized and the impact was discussed. Students who participated in HCOP programs were likely to enroll and graduate from a health related major and become employed in a health profession. The researcher recommended the need for (a) individualized retention strategies to prevent or minimize attrition rates among participants, (b) the development of a uniform participant profile that would allow for accurate comparisons across institutions, (c) HCOP grantees to be more supportive of evaluative studies and, (d) dissemination of research findings on HCOP programs and their impact.

Abstract This study aims to carefully and thoroughly examine how private housing companies in Malmö consciously work towards promoting sustainability within areas facing socio-economic challenges. To gain an in-depth understanding of this subject, a qualitative research methodology was used, collecting empirical data through interviews with representatives from four prominent private property companies in the region. The study was analyzed and evaluated using a theoretical framework thoughtfully designed to encompass the comprehensive aspects of sustainability: social, environmental, and economic. This provided an opportunity to study how these companies actively contribute to and promote sustainability within these specific domains.   The results of the investigation reveal a clear and significant insight - private housing companies in Malmö prioritize ensuring economic sustainability as their primary objective, primarily seeking to maximize returns on their investments. It is evident that the economic dimension dominates the decision-making process and guides the investment strategies of these companies. Social and environmental sustainability receive less attention and are not given the same priority as economic profit. This challenges the overarching goal set forth in Agenda 2030 to provide affordable housing for all, where social and environmental considerations are fundamental components.

Political participation is a vital part of modern democracies which can be described as a way to convey the interests and the preferences of citizens and exert pressure on the government to align with the will of the citizens. For this sake it could be considered a democracy problem that citizens participate to varying extents, where people living in disadvantaged areas participate to a lesser extent compared to people in areas with a higher degree of resources. This study sets out to investigate the reasons behind this reality, using the components of the Civic Voluntarism Model as explanatory factors behind political participation within areas of different resource levels and comparing the finding between the areas to see which factors matter the most depending on the area. The research questions used are (1) Which effect do resources, motivation and recruiting network have on political participation in disadvantaged areas, and (2) Do the effects differ between disadvantaged areas and other areas? The questions will be answered using logistic regression on a data set from the 2021 SOM-survey in Gothenburg. The results show that the Civic Voluntarism Model has a higher degree of explanation in disadvantaged areas and that the factor showing the strongest degree of explanation is being a member of a local association, especially in disadvantaged areas. Some of the results are however contradictory to previous research, which gives rise to a discussion whether quantitative methods are appropriate for understanding participation – and the lack thereof – or if this needs to be further examined using qualitative methods. Keywords:

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Underrepresentation among those identified for gifted programs has been a concern in the field of gifted education for over a century, affecting students of color, students with disabilities, English language learners, and economically disadvantaged students. Universal screening has emerged as a possible strategy to increase referrals of students from underrepresented populations and to produce gifted population demographics more reflective of total student enrollment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of universal screening measures on the diversity of students found eligible for gifted education services. The study examined the following research questions: 1. What is the relationship between a referral source and the gifted identification of elementary school students? 2. To what extent do universal screening measures influence the diversity of students eligible for gifted education services? This study used existing referral and eligibility data of elementary school students in a medium-sized school district who were administered a universal screening measure during the 2019-2020 school year. Pearson chi-square tests with Yates' continuity correction were used to determine the existence of possible associations between referral source and gifted identification status, and Cramér's V was used as a measure of effect size. Referral rates, accuracy, and effectiveness of referral sources were also computed. Across all demographic groups, universal screeners referred more students than any other referral source, and the highest number of students identified gifted after the full gifted evaluation came from universal screener referrals. Teacher referrals and universal screener referrals produced the most diverse identified gifted results after evaluation. Universal screeners displayed the highest referral rates and were the most accurate and effective referral source across all demographic groups. This study provides the field of gifted education further research on universal screening, and the findings of this study provide educational leaders data to inform practice. Implications for school and district leaders involve multiple stakeholders and address different areas to promote diversity among the gifted student population. The implications center on parent and community engagement, professional learning, best practices in gifted education, and evaluation of gifted identification processes. / Doctor of Education / Historically, students of color, students with disabilities, English language learners, and economically disadvantaged students have been underrepresented in gifted programs. Universal screening has emerged as a potential practice to refer more students from underrepresented populations and consequentially identify a more diverse gifted population, but few studies exist to support adoption of the practice and to justify the financial expense and amount of instructional time devoted to administering the assessments. This study used existing data of elementary school students in a medium-sized school district who were administered a universal screening measure to investigate the influence of universal screening measures on the diversity of students found eligible for gifted education services. Possible associations between referral source and gifted status were determined, and referral rates, accuracy and identification rates, and effectiveness of various referral sources were calculated. Across demographic groups, universal screeners referred more students than any other referral source, and the highest number of students identified gifted after the full gifted evaluation resulted from these referrals. Teacher referrals and universal screener referrals were found to produce the most diverse identified gifted populations after evaluation; universal screeners displayed the highest referral rates and were the most accurate and effective referral source across all demographic groups. This study adds further research on universal screening to the field of gifted education, and the findings of this study provide educational leaders information regarding the effectiveness of universal screening to translate into institutional practice.

<p dir="ltr">The passing of the Equity Executive Order by the US government in 2021 and the Equity Action Plan developed by the US Department of Transportation have made addressing equity a priority in transportation planning projects. The Equity Action Plan recognizes socio-economically disadvantaged (SED) and rural communities as overburdened and underserved in transportation services and highlights the need to provide basic equality of opportunities and a fair distribution of burdens in transportation. In response, several transportation planning agencies have proposed their own criteria, methods, metrics, and tools to quantify equity issues and use them in planning. However, transport equity is a multi-faceted phenomenon and its quantification faces challenges due to a lack of standards and a comprehensive assessment framework.</p><p dir="ltr">The first objective of this dissertation is to develop a nuanced understanding in three key aspects of transport equity – (i) accessibility to opportunities, (ii) environmental burden, and (iii) health outcomes – based on the concept of ‘compound disadvantage’. A detailed assessment of prominent accessibility measures reveals a substantial measurement bias in the current measures, which can result in inappropriate conclusions such as an overestimating accessibility to opportunities for SED neighborhoods on average by 16%. Despite this, spatial accessibility is found to be high for compact, urban areas which also tend to have higher concentration of SED communities. However, there are significant modal differences in accessibility that reveal a substantial lack of utilization of infrastructure for alternate modes of travel – public transit, walking, and bicycling.</p><p dir="ltr">Evaluation of inequalities in environmental and health outcomes shows substantial disadvantage faced by SED communities, particularly poor people and people of color. A proposed emission equity index shows that low-income and racial minority neighborhoods of Indiana’s largest cities disproportionately experience vehicular pollution from travelers residing in high-income, White-majority areas passing through their neighborhoods. Similarly, essential workers living in low-income areas are observed to have experienced significantly worse COVID-19 infection rates than in high-income areas in Chicago and New York City, and this effect was mediated by their ‘mobility vulnerability’. Together, these results suggest a strong compounding of disadvantage by the current transportation systems for already disadvantaged communities despite their higher accessibility to opportunities owing to their predominantly urban residences.</p><p dir="ltr">The second objective of this dissertation is to integrate the equity measures in an interactive screening tool for identifying the vulnerable and priority areas for investment. ‘Indiana Equity Atlas’, an equity-screening dashboard tool, is developed to allow transportation planners and analysts to identify priority areas in terms of compound disadvantage of two selected indicators of socio-economic, accessibility, environmental burden, and health disadvantage. With this tool and the associated data and metrics, this work seeks to provide a comprehensive framework for identifying vulnerable regions to formally capture equity issues in transportation and urban planning and analysis.</p>

The purpose of the study was to identify the types of library services available in rural areas of Thohoyandou in order to recommend appropriate library services to disadvantaged children in rural areas of the Limpopo Province. Data were collected by means of structured questionnaires in a survey. The problems experienced in rendering library services to children, the factors influencing rural children's information use, and the role that school libraries play in meeting the needs of rural children were investigated. The findings show that rural children's information needs are primarily related to homework assignments. Teachers and learners approach people for information rather than making use of library resources for this purpose. This is due to the fact that most rural schools do not have libraries. Materials are stored in classrooms and storerooms. The existing book stock seems to be outdated, disorganised and inaccessible. Library service rendering is neglected. Most teacher-librarians are not professionally trained to render user services and to teach children information skills. Teachers, teacher-librarians, policy makers and administrators in rural schools seem to be indifferent to providing these services to children. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)