<p> Many Latino immigrant families are often marginalized, making them vulnerable to facing academic, cultural, and economic barriers. Therefore, the purpose of this project was to develop a mentoring program for Latino youth at risk for not completing high school to increase their interest in pursuing higher education. The proposed program would provide one-to-one mentorship for Latino youth who are currently involved with activities at Youth Collective Speaks in San Fernando, California. The goal of this mentoring program is to improve students&rsquo; and their parent&rsquo;s awareness of higher education availability and to help these youth and their families become more aware of financial resources for college. The potential funding source for this grant is the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation as this program coincides with the goals of this foundation. The actual submission and/or funding of this grant was not required for the successful completion of the project.</p>

<p> The purpose of this constructivist study was to gain information about a criterion sample of atheist social work students concerning their experiences and perspectives of spirituality and curriculum content on spirituality. Most of the twenty-two participants formed their atheist worldviews against the tide of a religious upbringing, primarily due to their assessment of a dissonance between their evaluations of reality and religious beliefs. From the findings and the literature, suggestions are made for curriculum content on spirituality: (a) educators should frame worldviews as constructions and treat mystical elements as cultural phenomena; (b) content should have a professional focus with academically appropriate content; (c) curriculum content should be planned around the goal of training social work students to effectively address issues about worldviews in practice; (d) inclusive language and content should be utilized that covers all worldviews, including atheist and other naturalist worldviews; (e) biases, stereotypes, and privilege should be addressed and countered; (f) specific dialogic techniques should be developed for use in the classroom; (g) educators who will teach content on worldviews should have specific training for teaching material on spirituality and worldviews; and (h) a task force should be formed to create guidelines for curriculum content on spirituality.</p>

<p> The purpose of this thesis project was to write a grant proposal to fund the peer mentoring component for the College Success Program at Operation Jump Start (OJS) in Long Beach, California. The program will provide emotional and academic support to first-generation, low-income, college students, who would not necessarily know how to access or sustain this kind of relationship during their first year in college. The literature will discuss barriers that would otherwise increase retention and focus on the positive aspects of college mentoring that could improve retention rates for this population. Submission and/or funding of this project was not a requirement for the successful completion of this project.</p>

No description available.

No description available.

This study first examines the nature of Social Work from a historical perspective, with reference to previous attempts at definition. It then proposes a sociological basis for explaining Social Work as a social system, with reference to the concepts of duality, structural functionalism, evolutionary functionalism, ultimate values, conflict theory, change, power and authority. These concepts are applied to the Social Work system. Education and training and practice are viewed as sub-units of the Social Work system and tension between the sub-units is analysed with regard to one area of interdependence - qualifying training for field social work. One social work training course is used as an evaluative study, and six areas of interdependence and conflict are identified by a paper analysis of all documentation available from the beginning of the course onwards. The findings are converted to a series of exploratory questions posed in questionnaire form to respondents representing each of the sub-units. The questionnaire is also presented to a comparison group. The identified six key areas of interdependence and conflict are confirmed, namely: theory of social work, theory and practice integration, curriculum design, practice competence, assessment and resources. One model for action within the social system of education and training and practice is developed. This is then discussed in relation to current national planning for education and training and conclusions are drawn on the likely success of current plans. The sub-units, and the six key areas are then examined further in relation to the sociological framework propounded. The transferability of the model of research is demonstrated with reference to the sub-units, generic and specialist models of practice, and the implications for future research are thereby identified. The need for further research into areas of interdependence and tension in vocational work is noted.

<p> The purpose of this project was to develop a grant and identify potential funding sources to fund a staff training program at the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) of South East Ventura County to increase staffs knowledge of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) techniques when working with children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in after-school settings. A comprehensive review of the literature was completed to build knowledge about the need for after-school programming, the benefits of participating in after-school programs, the benefits of inclusion for children diagnosed with ASD, and ABA interventions. The Amgen Foundation was selected as the ideal funding source for this project. This training program targets employees working in the after-school programs at the YMCA of South East Ventura County. Submission and/or funding were not a requirement for the successful completion of this project.</p>

The purpose of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of case-based instruction and lecture-discussions in enhancing students' multicultural social work competence and their reflective self-regulation to learn multicultural social work. The sample consisted of undergraduate social work students enrolled in a multicultural social work practice course which was composed of two classes, the Special Bachelor of Social Work (SBSW) and the Regular Bachelor of Social Work (RBSW). The students in the SBSW had higher levels of education, mean age, and mean GPA than the students in the RBSW class. Each of these classes was divided into two sections. Participants were randomly assigned to these two sections in which case-based instruction in a section (n = 20 for the SBSW class; n = 19 for the RBSW class), and lecture-discussions in the other section (n = 20 for the SBSW class; n = 19 for the RBSW class) were used to teach the same course content. To control for instructor effects, the researcher and another instructor both taught the two sections of each class, one with case-based instruction and the other with lecture and discussions. The randomized pretest posttest control group design was used in this study. Case analyses scored through Cross-Cultural Counseling Inventory-Revised and student self-reports using the Multicultural Counseling Inventory were used to measure multicultural social work competence. To measure levels of students' self-regulated learning in relation to the course, students were administered the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. The same data were collected both at the beginning of the study and at the end of the study. The length of the study was 8 weeks. Two procedures were followed to ensure treatment fidelity: two observers recorded the extent to which class plans reflecting the content and methods of instruction were implemented and students completed questionnaires evaluating the extent to which each method of instr

<p> The purpose of this project was to write a grant proposal for the design and implementation of a resource support program that would serve as extra support for low- income Latino parents of newly diagnosed preschoolers. Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) face multiple challenges. These challenges include limited access to screenings for ASD, language barriers, lack of information, awareness, community support, and resources due to low social economic status and mental health issues. The major components of the proposed program are to provide outreach, psycho education, and link parents to resources in the community. Santa Ana Unified School District's Mitchell Child Development Center which is located in the city of Santa Ana, California will be the host agency. The actual submission and/or funding for this grant were not requirements for the successful completion of this project.</p>

<p> The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between high school graduation rates and emancipation outcomes. Secondary data from the California Child Welfare Indicators Project (CCWIP) database was used to develop a quantitative study on related variables. Findings indicate that there was a significant relationship between high school completion and independent living program completion rates. The study also discovered that there was a significant relationship between high school completion and housing obtainment rates. Further, this study verified that there was a significant relationship between high school completion and permanency connection rates. The study can be helpful for those providing services to emancipated youth. </p>