<p> Investigation of the variations in aspirant juvenile probation officers' recommendations for a juvenile offender who may suffer from a mental health disorder was the purpose of this study. Two hypotheses were developed to test this purpose: a) there was a significant difference between the recommendations of mental health evaluations and b) there was a significant difference in the recommendations for a mental health evaluation prior to and after the mental health overview administered among two groups. A survey was administered to 13 undergraduate students with an aspiration to be juvenile probation officers. The survey consisted of a pretest and posttest questionnaire following a case vignette where a juvenile offender meeting the criteria for conduct disorder was described to measure if the mental health overview would increase the participant's likelihood of recommending a mental health evaluation. A Chi Square and McNemar Test were completed. The statistical analyses and implications are discussed.</p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to partner with a host agency, locate a potential funding source, and write a grant to fund for a program called Prevention of Maltreatment to address the needs of Vietnamese families that are at risk for maltreatment. The program will be implemented at the Child Abuse Prevention Center located in Orange County, California. A literature review was conducted to examine Vietnamese families' parenting skills, understanding of child welfare system, and the barriers they encountered for child-rearing. The purpose of this Prevention of Maltreatment program is to educate Vietnamese families on child abuse, parenting tools, cultural differences and etc. The actual submission or funding of this grant was not required for the successful completion of the project.</p>

<p> Over the past forty years, responsibility for addressing poverty has shifted to the private sector, a result of elite interests and a changing political culture. Policy changes have eroded the state's effort at providing a social safety net, and replaced this effort with a nonprofit sector that is dependent on a complex mix of private and public funding. Using resource dependency theory, this research considers how grantmakers and field-level actors influence policies within nonprofit organizations. Ethnographic research in Bloomington, Indiana, a community that takes pride in its active citizenry and its robust social service sector, serves as a case study for examining how this mix of private and public effort address poverty. Using data collected from 35 social service agencies and in-depth studies of four nonprofit agencies that reflect the range of funding models, this research examines how the external environment affects participation, governance, and advocacy efforts within agencies. In terms of participation, this research shows that some agencies that rely on volunteers and community donations reflect an empowerment organizational culture, but that the complexity of government funding presents a major challenge to agencies, requiring professional skills and knowledge that exceed what is found in the community. With regard to governance, as agencies have to devote more effort to securing and managing funding, missions shift, services are reduced, and empowerment cultures are threatened. Advocacy efforts, except when considered most broadly as securing additional resources for clients, are of minimal importance among agency directors and board members. </p>

<p> Broadband data networks are becoming increasingly capable of delivering enhanced services and speeds well beyond the capabilities of traditional dial-up. The National Broadband Plan includes guidelines and objectives for broadband development. This study will analyze EAGLE-Net Alliance to determine the extent to which its broadband project is aligned with the relevant goals in the National Broadband Plan. This paper is a case study analyzing a publicly funded broadband project to determine the extent to which it is aligned with the National Broadband Plan. </p><p> This study is important because the success of the National Broadband Plan lies, in part, on periodically checking the progress of its stated goals. The study will attempt to interpret data from the federal grant period to determine the extent to which National Broadband Plan goals are aligned with the objectives and results of the EAGLE-Net Alliance project.</p>

This study assessed the predictors of the decline in physical activity levels observed over the course of a 5 year longitudinal cohort of adults aged 18--65 living in two low-income, inner-city neighbourhoods in Montreal. The current study made use of data collected as part of Coeur en Sante St. Henri, an intervention program designed to decrease cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. A two-stage cluster telephone survey of a representative sample of residents was used to collect information on a variety of lifestyle behaviours. Multiple logistic regression was used to assess the independent predictors of decline in leisure time physical activity in 626 subjects. Significant predictors of the decrease in physical activity include age (OR = 1.0 (1.0, 1.1) and BMI (OR = 2.0 (1.1, 3.6), and a composite index assessing self-efficacy pertaining to physical activity (OR = 2.0 (1.2, 3.2), in males. In females, significant predictors include lack of energy (OR = 2.4 (1.2, 4.6), perceived lack of athletic ability (OR = 2.4 (1.1, 5.2), not using a neighbourhood facility for physical activity (OR = 2.8 (1.6, 4.7), BMI (OR = 2.1 (1.2, 3.7), and a composite index assessing self-efficacy pertaining to physical activity (OR = 2.1 (1.3, 3.5).

<p> Prior research has established a link between SES and early-life health without providing clear theoretical or empirical evidence for using any particular conceptualization or operationalization of SES. Researchers refer to any combination of variables related to economic, educational, and occupational circumstances as SES. This abundance of operationalizations makes it difficult to determine how SES shapes early-life health. Different operationalizations may even cause inconsistent conclusions when comparing the effects of SES on child and adolescent health. Thus, by failing to consider multiple operationalizations of SES, current research is unable to provide a complete picture of how SES shapes early-life health. </p><p> To address this gap, I examined multiple operationalizations of SES derived from two conceptualizations of SES. The distinct components conceptualization views individuals' economic, educational, and occupational circumstances as components of SES and is operationalized with readily available variables related to income, wealth, education, and occupation. However, studies use different operationalizations and combinations of the economic, educational, and occupational components. The unitary conceptualization views SES as an unobservable status of individuals that falls along a single, social hierarchy and is operationalized with a single component or a composite of components. However, researchers rely on different components and different methods to construct composites. </p><p> In analyses, I considered the effects of a broad range of operationalizations related to both the distinct components and unitary conceptualizations of SES on early-life physical and mental health. I also examined the effects of these operationalizations on child compared to adolescent health. I found that different operationalizations and combinations of components could lead to different conclusions about SES and health. I found that certain operationalizations of SES could lead to inconsistent conclusions regarding differences in the effects of SES on child compared to adolescent health. Overall, I found that the distinct components conceptualization of SES provided more detailed information on the economic, educational, and occupational contexts through which SES relates to early-life health. The different operationalizations of SES within this conceptualization provided important insights about SES and health. In sum, my findings suggest that researchers should explicitly conceptualize SES in studies and consider multiple operationalizations before arriving at conclusions.</p>

<p> In just 30 years microfinance has transformed from a credit-based rural development scheme that has claimed to reduce poverty and empower poor women, to a $70 billion financial industry. In the process, the traditional NGO-led model has given way to commercialized institutions, resulting in an increased emphasis on profitmaking. This has also led to confusion in the sector around its mission: is it to alleviate poverty and empower poor women or simply to provide the "unbanked" with access to formal sources of finance? This research considers the main debates in microfinance with regard to its mission and presents empirical evidence on the effectiveness of microfinance. The study is based on the Pakistani microfinance sector, which provides an ideal opportunity for a comparative analysis of two distinct models of microfinance &ndash; the nonprofit microfinance institutions (MFI) and the microfinance banks (MFB). The research compares the depth of outreach, mission, practice, and borrower experiences of MFIs and MFBs, employing a political economy framework. The data includes 140 interviews with policymakers, donors, senior, mid and low-level microfinance officers, and their clients; as well as observations of practitioner-client interactions, including the process of disbursement and collection, group meetings, and field visits with loan officers in urban Pakistan. It also comprises two district-level surveys: the microfinance outreach survey from the Pakistan Microfinance Network (PMN) and the Government of Pakistan's Social and Living Standards Survey (PSLM). The surveys are analyzed econometrically to test whether district-level socioeconomic differences affect patterns of outreach. This study broadens our understanding of the extent to which the local political economy shapes the outcomes of a market-based intervention, such as microfinance. It also provides an insight into the evolution of microfinance, specifically as framed by the global development discourse and subsequent public policy choices. Finally, the study provides an authoritative account of how institutional structure affects microfinance's effectiveness as a tool for poverty alleviation, empowerment and financial access.</p>

<p> This paper proposes that legislation should be used to reduce the occurrence of courthouse violence. It begins with a review of what is known about the nature and costs of court targeted and non-targeted violence, drawing on published materials of the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Secret Service, the Center for Judicial and Executive Security, and others. Previously unpublished materials are also reported. Court security efforts made in response to the violence are described. In the absence of empirical studies of the effectiveness of court security laws, the paper suggests that theories of criminology be used as guides for assessing the effectiveness of existing legislation and formulating new legislation. Criminological theories, including classical theory, rational choice theory, strain theory, and routine activity theory are discussed as models appropriate for use in evaluating court security legislation. Existing state and federal laws on paper terrorism, including false liens and U.C.C. filings; address confidentiality programs; and enhanced punishments for crimes against those involved in the judicial process are described, catalogued, and analyzed.</p>

<p> The goal of the study is to develop an equity-minded theory of college writing readiness. An estimated third of incoming students are academically underprepared for college writing. The majority of these students will not earn a baccalaureate. Because rigorous pre-college preparation is a chief indicator of postsecondary achievement, improving college writing preparation in high schools is strategic to increase graduation rates. The writing disparities linked to the prevailing cognitive model of writing instruction raise equity concerns that hinder successful reform to meet the literacy learning needs of students from all linguistic backgrounds. In redress, this study offers qualitative information to assess the conceptual fit of a sociocultural framework&mdash;known as new literacies theory&mdash;to describe how literacy learning occurred with two groups of students enrolled in high school college preparation. The study employs ethnographic methods to explore how the discourses practiced in college preparation classrooms support college writing readiness across different student groups. New literacies provides the frame for exploring college preparation as it is influenced not only by the local social and cultural patterns instantiated in each classroom, but also by the variant linguistic resources students bring to their respective classrooms. The study's empirical objective is to describe how college preparatory academic rigor is amplified or reduced by students' own classroom language participation. Because how college writing readiness is theorized guides how college preparation is conceptualized in policy and practice, theory development is necessary to support academic writing outcomes (and the postsecondary opportunities these outcomes represent) for all students.</p>

This study develops a missional theology for both process and goals of 'Citywide Transformative Revival.' This has been grounded in the local realities of Auckland as a representative modern/postmodern city. Global discussion among urban missions strategists and theologians have provoked the question: 'What is the relationship of the Spirit of Christ to the transformation of a postmodern city?' This has been examined in a limited manner, using two local indicators: the New Zealand revival (for the work of the Holy Spirit) and Auckland city (for emergent modern/postmodern megacities). This has resulted in an exploration of revival theology and its limitations among Auckland's Pentecostals and Evangelicals and a proposal for a theology of transformative revival that engages the postmodern city. To accomplish this, a research framework is proposed within an evangelical perspective, a postmodern hermeneutic of 'transformational conversations ', an interfacing of faith community conversations and urban conversations. This is used to develop a new theory of 'citywide transformative revival' as an expansion of revival theories, a field within pneumatology. Citywide transformative revival is a concept of synergistic revivals in multiple sectors of a mega-city. This results in long-term change of urban vision and values towards the principles of the Kingdom of God. A theology of transformative process is developed from apostolic and prophetic themes. These are outcomes of gifts released in revival. Transformative revival results in new transformative apostolic and prophetic structures that engage the postmodern city soul. Transformation implies goals. The results of revival, the transformative visions for the city, are developed from themes of the City of God and the Kingdom of God. I expand largely 'spiritual' Western formulations of the Kingdom to a holistic Kingdom vision of the spiritual, communal and material aspects of the postmodern city. These enable conversation spaces with modern urbanism and postmodernism. / Subscription resource available via Digital Dissertations only.