<p> The purpose of this project was to locate a potential funding source and write a grant to support funding for the Emergency Response Team (ERT) program. The ERT will use solution-based practices within the Mendocino County Health and Human Services Agency to support family stabilization. An ERT would enable children and families to access multidisciplinary team services, including mental health and alcohol/drug services, immediately after a referral to Child Protective Services. This approach will allow families to address their needs for stabilization and ensure streamlined support, thus reducing the potential for children to be removed from the home or shorten the duration of the removal. Ultimately, this approach will ensure families access to appropriate levels of mental health and alcohol or drug service supports to enhance the well being of children, families, and the community. The actual submission and/or funding of this grant were not a requirement for the successful completion of this project.</p>

<p> The focus of this qualitative study was to explore the parental experience of raising an undocumented child, particularly during the transition from high school. The sample consisted of 11 parents. Parents reported several negative feelings, including <i>impotencia</i>, guilt, fear, worry, and frustration. Many stated that their undocumented children's challenges increased as they entered high school. These challenges included school trips, driving without a license, and planning for further education. Coping methods for parents included hope, faith and spirituality, and seeking information about educational and immigration options. Parents spoke of instilling in their children a drive to not give up despite the barriers ahead of them. Several mentioned that their undocumented children's experiences inspired their other children to succeed. The results suggest that social workers should provide information and counseling to these families and should advocate for policy changes to help this vulnerable population.</p>

<p> Fathers are affronted with consistent and systematic barriers and frequent discrimination in their interactions with child welfare entities. The unique set of challenges that these fathers face in parenting evidences a need for father-specific services. A local agency by the name of Families Uniting Families has made attempts to provide for these needs and began implementing the Project Fatherhood program in the greater Long Beach, California area in 2010 to support these fathers. The hope of this agency is to offer a Spanish-language section to their current program to meet the ever-increasing need for providing services to Latino fathers. A review of current and past literature was performed to highlight the need for programs that focus on the unique needs that fathers face, specifically Latino fathers. Neither successful receipt of funding nor submission of the grant proposal is a requirement for successful completion of this thesis project.</p>

<p> This project evaluates the effectiveness of life coaching and seeks to prove that coaching can be a better method of producing disciples who fulfill their ministry purposes than the methods currently being employed in small churches in the urban areas of Greater Cleveland. Specifically, this project will address three separate hypotheses that are all related to demonstrating the importance of the coaching ministry at Hope Alliance Bible Church (HABC). <b> Hypothesis 1:</b> The HABC coaching program will be successful in enabling spiritual transformation to occur within the eight participants. <b>Hypothesis 2:</b> The HABC coaching program will be successful in increasing church ministry training and/or church ministry participation for the eight participants. <b> Hypothesis 3:</b> The HABC coaching program will be successful in increasing participation in activities that connect with the community around HABC for the eight participants. </p><p> Chapter 1 gives the rationale for the researcher's interest in discovering how to best incorporate a coaching paradigm into the ministry environment of small urban churches. Examples from Scripture are given to support the importance of coaching in the process of bringing disciples to maturity and preparing them for ministry. Proof is given to show why the church should be involved in bringing positive change to the community. </p><p> Chapter 2 provides the literature review of the resources used in or relative to the study, and insights from previous research related to the subject of life coaching for urban leaders. The researcher presents a wide-array of excellent resources from accomplished practitioners in the areas of coaching, urban ministry, discipleship, and leadership development. Leaders who desire to become change agents in the church and community will need to stay abreast of current best practices in all of these areas, and the books and articles mentioned will prove to be of great assistance for growing leaders. </p><p> Chapter 3 is the record of the procedures and research methods used in this study. </p><p> A summary timeline is given to provide an overview of how the research was conducted from start to finish. Information is given to show how the participants were selected, and general information about each of them is also revealed. The topics of discussion are presented in chapter three, along with how they related to the objectives of the coaching sessions. A general description of how the sessions were conducted is also included, along with the assessment criteria from each session and why there were deemed significant in the outcomes of the three hypotheses. Individual and corporate coaching sessions were held twice monthly, using topics that would help the participants discover God's will and follow through on a life plan to fulfill the God-given purpose for their lives. </p><p> Chapter 4 provides the findings and results of the study, showing the hypotheses, accumulated data, and responses of the participants involved in the project. The objectives met by each participant are presented, how meeting those objectives contributed to the increased level of participation in the areas related to the three hypotheses, and how coaching was instrumental in those achievements. The data provides a record of the progress made by each participant. Evaluations were based upon the steps taken to continue spiritual growth, preparation for ministry, and involvement in ministry outside of the church. </p><p> Chapter 5 provides the Conclusions and Research Implications of this project. Results are given and conclusions drawn that show the value of performing life coaching for aspiring leaders in small urban churches. The coach compared the pre-assessment data with the post-assessment data, and the participants performed a self-evaluation at the end of the pilot period. Based upon the data, conclusions are given as to why the coaching program had low, medium, or high levels of effectiveness in the areas of spiritual transformation, church ministry involvement, and activities that connect with the community. Conclusive reasons are given to show why further research should be done in this area, using variables such as accumulating data from a longer period of time, coaching preachers only, and allowing the community to assess whether or not the church is making a difference in their lives.</p>

<p> Human trafficking and prostitution for commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) happens every day, in every country. Women and female children are the predominate targets of this type of exploitation. This research looked at CSE women and how the Organization for Prostitution Survivors (OPS), a Seattle nonprofit, approaches their work with victims. The action research study question was: What creates successful collaboration and best practices sharing within a Seattle social services nonprofit organization serving the domestically prostituted and trafficked survivor community? Data were collected through an online research survey, consisting of 11 questions in total. Survey demographics included nine OPS board of directors and staff participants. The completed findings were shared with OPS in a feedback session during the spring of 2014, indicating a need for more robust organizational development practices and strategy beyond OPS's current framework, including standardization of communication and self-care practices, financial development, fundraising, and clearly defined roles.</p>

<p> To what extent is it possible for a social movement to transform a public education system in order to promote an alternative social vision? Under what conditions can this implementation occur within the bureaucratic state apparatus, at the regional and national level? How does state-society collaboration develop, in contexts where civil society groups and the state have opposing interests? This dissertation addresses these questions through an investigation of the educational initiatives of the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (<i>Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra,</i> or MST), a national social movement of rural workers struggling for agrarian reform. MST activists have been able to implement educational proposals in rural public schools that encourage youth to stay in the countryside, foster a sense of belonging to the movement, promote collective forms of work, and practice participatory governance. </p><p> Part I provides an overview of the multi-level and multi-sited political ethnographic approach used to conduct this research. It then reviews the literature on social movements and state-society relations, and considers how a Gramscian framework can be used to analyze how social movements implement educational proposals in public schools that are opposed to the interests of the dominant class. Part II examines the history and national expansion of the MST's educational initiative: how activists first developed their educational proposals; why the movement went from promoting popular education to participating in the public educational sphere; and why and how the federal government appropriated these ideas as a new approach to rural schooling, known as <i>Educa&ccedil;&atilde;o do Campo</i> (Education of the Countryside). Part III explores the MST's attempt to transform public schools in three state educational systems and two municipalities, and why the MST's success differs drastically across the country depending on the state capacity, government orientation, and level of MST mobilization in each region. </p><p> Comparison of the outcomes in these subnational cases yield new and unexpected insights into the relationships and conditions that lead to or impede participatory governance: (1) low-capacity governments and weak institutions can offer unusual openings for social movements to implement participatory initiatives; (2) high-capacity state antagonism negates the positive effects of mobilization; (3) not-so-public forms of contention are an effective strategy that social movements can use to engage the state and participate in the provision of public goods; (4) technocracy is a significant barrier to participatory practices, even among supportive governments; and, (5) state-society collaboration is not possible if the leadership of a social movement does not have a strong connection to its base. </p><p> Significantly, this research shows that the implementation of a social movement's goals through the state apparatus does not always lead to movement cooptation or decline. Additionally, public schools, normally institutions reproducing state power, can be used by marginalized communities to support alternative social visions. However, the case of the MST also illustrates that this process is never straightforward, easy, or permanent, as it requires communities to first develop a common vision, and then work with, in, and through the ever-changing power structures to implement this vision.</p>

In this research study, I sought to understand and describe the Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS) Program at Berea College by exploring it through the experiences of students, faculty, administrators, and alumnae. I designed and implemented a feminist organizational ethnography. Organizational ethnography is a naturalistic, qualitative research tool for understanding organizational communication and culture in organizations. I used qualitative research methods to create a portrait of the WGS Program at Berea College by observing and interviewing students, administrators, faculty, and alumnae, and interpreting their stories using constant comparative analysis. Standpoint theory is the theoretical framework that guided how I collected data because it requires the researcher to begin with the lives of marginalized peoples. It also requires inclusion of multiple perspectives. The overarching research questions of this study are: 1) How is the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Berea College perceived or experienced by its stakeholders (students, administrators, faculty, and alumnae)? 2) How is its reality constructed through the overlapping lenses of each? 3) How does the WGS Program approach, prepare for, and respond to political and economic challenges? I concluded that the WGS Program at Berea College is a model program because the leadership uses student-centered feminist pedagogy and they celebrate diversity, succeed with low resources, and clearly value the experiences and voices of the students. The leadership in the WGS Program at Berea College creates a home on campus where students go to learn about things they can’t find anywhere else on campus. / Department of Educational Studies

<p> The purpose of this thesis project was to partner with a host agency, identify a potential funding source, and write a grant proposal for an educational support program for youth in foster care. A literature review was conducted in order to identify the educational needs and barriers to success faced by youth in care and identify methods to address this issue. A program was designed that utilizes individualized strategic tutoring and mentoring services to address the educational, social, and emotional needs of youth and facilitates collaborations between the education and child welfare systems to improve the educational outcomes of this population. A grant proposal narrative was completed for the Stuart Foundation in order to fund this program for secondary school students in foster care in the Garden Grove Unified School District. The actual submission or funding of this grant was not a requirement for the successful completion of the project.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of public child welfare social workers focusing on the relatively new law The Fostering Connections to Success Act, otherwise known as AB-12. A questionnaire was designed to investigate research questions regarding workers perceptions on caseload, training, supervision, court, and ability to work with youth from 18 to 21 years old. The researcher distributed the questionnaire in two Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services regional offices where 38 respondents participated.</p><p> The study found the respondents reported positive attitudes regarding the AB-12 program and about their new role. Most respondents agreed that AB-12 was a much needed program and that it will increase life outcomes for youth. In addition, most workers reported that they were confident in their abilities to engage with the AB-12 population and agreed that they are confident in their abilities to meet the needs of nonminor dependents and find it rewarding. </p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-07, Section: A, page: 2891. Adviser: William T. Trent. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 496-500) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.