This thesis is an exploratory study of the Kitchener John School Diversion Program. As a primarily community-based initiative, this program has been developed in response to a particular social problem, street prostitution. The primary focus of the program is to address the problem by targeting the clients of prostitutes. Using a contextual constructionist framework, eight qualitative, semi-structured interviews and three participant observation sessions were conducted to explore and understand how the John School works within the context of its objectives and mandate. Four research questions have been developed to achieve this and focus on (1) how program objectives are implemented within the operation of the diversion program, (2) how stakeholders problematize prostitution and its social actors, (3) what the social conditions and characteristics related to the social construction of prostitution are, as perceived by the social actors, and finally, (4) how the diversion program addresses the problem of prostitution. Through analysis of the data collected, key findings emerge that help to contextualize the diversion program within a broader understanding of its mandates and operations. Specifically, four objectives are identified as the primary goals of the school, being knowledge dissemination, accountability, diversion and change. There are notable discrepancies, however, in terms of how program staff interpret these objectives within the context of their program lectures and materials. Additionally, while strong themes and typifications emerge with respect to how prostitution and its social actors are problematized by the program staff, these themes and typifications have a tendency to conflict with one another when presented to the participants. For example, where prostitution is understood to be a social problem with a number of victims and perpetrators, the participants are frequently typified simultaneously as both victim and villain. In light of these discrepancies, however, it appears that the intended objectives and the actual operation of the diversion program both work towards the same, ultimate goal: change.

ABSTRACT DANA L. GREEAR The STEPS to Atlanta Streets Alive Activity Guide (Under the direction of Professor JOHN A. STEWARD, M.P.H.) Atlanta Streets Alive (ASA) is a continually developing ciclovía recreativa based program occurring in urban Atlanta. Creating multi-sectoral partnerships and providing complementary activities to participants are key to ciclovía program sustainability. The objective of this capstone project was to create the STEPS to Atlanta Streets Alive Activity Guide (STEPS guide) by using a process method of evaluation framework for planning, conducting, and evaluating activities performed within ASA events. A pilot activity was conducted during the Atlanta Streets Alive event on October 17, 2010. The STEPS guide was assembled by using information collected during the pilot activity, with secondary analysis of the STEPS guide, including expert and focus group critique, to ensure accuracy and feasibility of use. The STEPS guide is a structured method of collecting static information about the individual activities conducted within ASA events. This information can be used by future activity partners to develop dynamic complementary activities within ASA events.

Context. Software products are usually developed for either a specific customer (bespoke) or a broader market (market-driven). Due to their characteristics, bespoke and market-driven development face different problems, especially in the requirements engineering areas. Moreover, many of these problems are caused by an inadequate requirements engineering process. Hence, in order to improve the process and subsequently the software quality, the maturity of the RE process must be evaluated. Although there are many process assessment initiatives done in bespoke development, there is a need for models covering both approaches. Uni-REPM, which can assess the RE process maturity in all environments, is such a model. Objectives. This study presents an academic and industrial evaluation of the Uni-REPM model before transferring it to industry. Methods. The first validation was conducted in the form of interviews with seven academic experts in which the model was scrutinized for its correctness and completeness. Subsequently, the model and the assessment method were applied and validated in 4 industrial organizations locating in Denmark, Spain and Singapore. Results. Based on the feedback obtained in the validation, refinements were made to the model to improve its quality. In addition, the evaluation result analysis of each industrial project is useful in indentifying weak areas in the process and suggesting possible improvement practices. Conclusions. The study shows that Uni-REPM is a quick, simple and cost-effective solution to assess the maturity level of the Requirements Engineering process of projects. Moreover, the assessment method using checklist is highly usable and applicable in various international development environments.

The area of Requirements Engineering is often underestimated in value in the area of Software Engineering. According to certain sources the failure rate of IT investments is over 60%. In addition problems introduced through the Requirements Engineering of a project accounts for something like 50% of the total debugging costs. The main reason for this is a low level of maturity pertaining to the Requirements Engineering process. This thesis introduces a model that can help organizations improve their Requirements Engineering process. A first step in process improvement is process evaluation. The REPM model has the purpose of measuring the maturity level of the Requirements Engineering process in projects, and to give a basis for what steps to take in order to improve on it. In addition to the model a method for using the model is introduced. The model and method are subsequently designed, implemented and validated. The validation takes the form of interviews and case-studies in industry featuring four companies and four projects of varying size. The project evaluations were conducted on-site in both Sweden and in Ireland. It is shown that the REPM model in combination with the method is a good way to evaluate the Requirement Engineering process of a project. It gives a picture of the current state of the Requirements Engineering process in a project and, more importantly, how the results of the evaluation can be used for process improvement. / Kravhantering är ett ofta underskattat område inom programvaruteknik. Det här arbetet beskriver och testar en metod för att utvärdera mognadsgraden för kravhanteringen i mjukvaruprojekt. Det presenteras en modell att utvärdera mot, en metod för att utföra utvärderingen, och ett sätt att presentera resultaten från en utvärdering på ett sådant sätt att det lätt gå att se vad man kan göra för att förbättra kravhanteringsprocessen och få en enhetlig nivå på alla delmoment inom kravhantering.

The Hope Scholars Programme (HSP) is an after-school programme implemented by the South African Education and Environment Project (SAEP) in Cape Town, South Africa. After-school programmes (ASPs) are widely described as programmes that are implemented independently of the school day and are aimed at improving the learning outcomes and advancement of kindergarten and high school learners. The HSP began in 1998 with a goal to equip HSP learners with foundational literacy and numeracy skills for the future education and training (FET) phase and subsequent education. HSP activities are implemented under four broad service areas: (a) academic tutoring sessions; (b) experiential learning; (c) psychosocial support services; and (d) community engagement. The scope of this evaluation was the academic component under which the programme offers intensive tutoring in mathematics, natural science and English literacy. The objective of the evaluation was to assess the implementation fidelity of the academic component for programme quality and effectiveness improvement purposes. A conceptual framework for measuring implementation fidelity by Carroll, Patterson, Wood, Booth, Rick and Balain (2007) was used to guide this evaluation. Using the logic model for the programme, the evaluation focused on examining whether the HSP sessions were implemented with the intended process mechanisms through which the programme was designed to lead to its desired academic outcomes. Both primary and secondary data were used to conduct the evaluation. Primary data were collected through oneon-one in-depth interviews with HSP staff members and the volunteer tutor and focus group interviews with the HSP learners. Secondary data were obtained through the review of the HSP documents. An inductive content analysis was employed to analyse the data. The results indicated that the academic component of the HSP was implemented with limited fidelity and poor quality. Programme implementation challenges identified need to be resolved to enhance the quality of the HSP services and programme effectiveness. This evaluation contributes to the literature on: (a) the duration and frequency of the tutorial sessions; (b) the extent to which learners attend; and (c) dropout from the programmes and causes for dropping out in the context of after-school programmes. Among the contributing factors of learner dropout from the HSP, influences that were found unique to the South African context were mistrust between the learners and their parents (mistrust at home) and sweeping of classrooms.

Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / Societies today are rapidly expanding, both demographically and politically, thereby causing adolescents who are HIV positive to be faced with multifaceted challenges. For these societal demands, young people need to acquire the relevant skills. The life skills approach has been found to improve adolescent changes by building skills that are necessary components of healthy development and enables adolescents to deal with life challenges. Evidence suggests that the life skills approach promotes social, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral competencies that are important in decreasing negative or high-risk behaviours (Pearlstein et al.,2013, Mellins et al.,2012) . The aim of this research was to evaluate the life skills programme utilised by social workers, social auxiliary workers and community workers at an NGO that deals with HIV positive adolescents.

Ambitionen i denna studie är att synliggöra hur en lokal kvinnojour i Malmö arbetar med ett barnperspektiv samt vilka faktorer som kan ha försvårat respektive främjat implementeringen av det. Detta då kvinnojouren under tre år haft ett barnprojekt, vilket syftat till att implementera ett barnperspektiv i jourens verksamhet. Denna kvalitativa studie är inspirerad av processutvärdering som metod och baseras på intervjuer med socialsekreterare, anställda på jouren och en representant från Rädda Barnen. För att analysera hur de arbetar med ett barnperspektiv har jag utgått från delaktighetsperspektivet och omsorgsperspektivet, båda centrala begrepp i Barnkonventionen. För att analysera vilka faktorer som kan ha främjat respektive försvårat implementeringen av ett barnperspektiv har jag bland annat utgått från organisations- och implementeringsteorier. Det framkommer i studien att kvinnojouren idag arbetar utifrån ett barnperspektiv, men i vilken utsträckning är med utgångspunkt i empirin inte möjligt att precisera. Att det finns flera faktorer som kan ha både främjat och försvårat implementeringen är tydligt. Bland annat var de anställdas vilja en främjande implementeringsfaktor, medan avsaknaden av krav på ett barnperspektiv från socialsekreterarna troligen har påverkat implementeringen negativt. / The ambition of this study is to shed light on how a women’s shelter is working with the Child Perspective. The shelter has internally operated a three years long project with the specific aim of implementing the Child Perspective in all of its activities. Thus, the study highlights the influencing factors that support and/or hinder the realization of the Child Perspective in the organization’s actions. This study uses qualitative methodology, inspired by the approach of Process Evaluation. Empirical findings are based on interviews with employees working at the women’s shelter, social workers, as well as a representative from the organization Save the Children. The Participatory Approach and the Care Perspective, two central concepts in the internationally recognized Child Convention, are decisive tools in enabling the analysis of how the interviewees apply the Child Perspective in their daily work. While analyzing the influencing factors, concepts from two theories have been applied: Organization and Implementation Theory. The study reveals that the staff at the women’s shelter does apply a Child Perspective in much of its work, but in which extent is hard to pin down. In the study several factors that might have affected the implementation, both negatively and positively, appear. One supportive factor in the implementation was that the staff at the women’s shelter, wanted to implement a Child Perspective in their daily work. A potential hindering factor was the social workers ́ lack of demand on the shelter to apply a Child Perspective.

No description available.

Yes / Considerable effort has been made in recent years to gain a better understanding of the effectiveness of different interventions for supporting breastfeeding. However, research has tended to focus primarily on measuring outcomes and has paid comparatively little attention to the relational, organisational and wider contextual processes that may impact delivery of an intervention. Supporting a woman with breastfeeding is an interpersonal encounter that may play out differently in different contexts, despite the apparently consistent aims and structure of an intervention. We consider the limitations of randomised controlled trials for building understanding of the ways in which different components of an intervention may impact breastfeeding women and how the messages conveyed through interactions with breastfeeding supporters might be received. We argue that qualitative methods are ideally suited to understanding psychosocial processes within breastfeeding interventions and have been under-used. After briefly reviewing qualitative research to date into experiences of receiving and delivering breastfeeding support, we discuss the potential of theoretically-informed qualitative methodologies to provide fuller understanding of intervention processes by focusing on three examples: phenomenology, ethnography and discourse analysis. The paper concludes by noting some of the epistemological differences between qualitative methodologies and the broadly positivist approach of trials, and we suggest there is a need for further dialogue as to how researchers might bridge these differences in order to develop a fuller and more holistic understanding of how best to support breastfeeding women.

Yes / The implementation of robot-assisted surgery (RAS) can be challenging, with reports of surgical robots being underused. This raises questions about differences compared with open and laparoscopic surgery and how best to integrate RAS into practice. Objectives: To (1) contribute to reporting of the ROLARR (RObotic versus LAparoscopic Resection for Rectal cancer) trial, by investigating how variations in the implementation of RAS and the context impact outcomes; (2) produce guidance on factors likely to facilitate successful implementation; (3) produce guidance on how to ensure effective teamwork; and (4) provide data to inform the development of tools for RAS. Design: Realist process evaluation alongside ROLARR. Phase 1 – a literature review identified theories concerning how RAS becomes embedded into practice and impacts on teamwork and decision-making. These were refined through interviews across nine NHS trusts with theatre teams. Phase 2 – a multisite case study was conducted across four trusts to test the theories. Data were collected using observation, video recording, interviews and questionnaires. Phase 3 – interviews were conducted in other surgical disciplines to assess the generalisability of the findings. Findings: The introduction of RAS is surgeon led but dependent on support at multiple levels. There is significant variation in the training provided to theatre teams. Contextual factors supporting the integration of RAS include the provision of whole-team training, the presence of handpicked dedicated teams and the availability of suitably sized operating theatres. RAS introduces challenges for teamwork that can impact operation duration, but, over time, teams develop strategies to overcome these challenges. Working with an experienced assistant supports teamwork, but experience of the procedure is insufficient for competence in RAS and experienced scrub practitioners are important in supporting inexperienced assistants. RAS can result in reduced distraction and increased concentration for the surgeon when he or she is supported by an experienced assistant or scrub practitioner. Conclusions: Our research suggests a need to pay greater attention to the training and skill mix of the team. To support effective teamwork, our research suggests that it is beneficial for surgeons to (1) encourage the team to communicate actions and concerns; (2) alert the attention of the assistant before issuing a request; and (3) acknowledge the scrub practitioner’s role in supporting inexperienced assistants. It is beneficial for the team to provide oral responses to the surgeon’s requests. Limitations: This study started after the trial, limiting impact on analysis of the trial. The small number of operations observed may mean that less frequent impacts of RAS were missed. Future work: Future research should include (1) exploring the transferability of guidance for effective teamwork to other surgical domains in which technology leads to the physical or perceptual separation of surgeon and team; (2) exploring the benefits and challenges of including realist methods in feasibility and pilot studies; (3) assessing the feasibility of using routine data to understand the impact of RAS on rare end points associated with patient safety; (4) developing and evaluating methods for whole-team training; and (5) evaluating the impact of different physical configurations of the robotic console and team members on teamwork. / National Inst for Health Research (NIHR)