This research has explored the attitudes of Abu Dhabi criminal justice professionals about the possibility of implementing Community Service Sanctions (CSS) in The United Arab Emirates (UAE). The study has examined three main areas including: Abu Dhabi criminal justice professionals’ perspectives about implementing CSS in the UAE; the crimes which CSS can be applied on and the affects that CSS can have on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) penal system. In order to achieve the study objectives and answer the study questions, an explorative approach was taken. The methodology was mixed of quantitative and qualitative approaches, including: questionnaires and interviews and focus group discussions. Questionnaires were distributed to six of Abu Dhabi police Departments. Interviews were conducted with 20 of Abu Dhabi police officers holding senior positions in order to have their views on the study themes. And focus group discussions were held with judges, prosecutors, police officers and social workers. Furthermore, the study also examined the FPC and concluded that it needs some changes with regards to the implementation of some of its articles. The study shows that there are some elements of CSS within the FPC which do not seem to be implemented. The study also suggests that the FPC need to be revised regularly in order to implement or amend measures available. The study also shows that Abu Dhabi criminal justice system professionals generally support the implementation of CSS in the UAE.

Service Learning is an instructional approach that has been gaining national attention in the past several years. The concept was supported by John Dewey as early as 1915 but not given serious attention by educational leaders until about 30 years ago. Currently, a growing number of schools across the country are incorporating community service activities into the curriculum. In this study, seven individuals who were enrolled in such a course while in high school were interviewed. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the perceptions and experiences of these former high school students while enrolled in a service learning course coupled with the passage of time to reflect upon the experience. The major research questions were: 1. Does service learning foster in students the perception of a more empathetic nature in their understanding of the recipients of the service work? 2. Are the perceptions of the students as to their desire to perform volunteer work in the future affected by service learning experiences? 3. How do students perceive the usefulness of the service learning curriculum as to linking classroom work with the volunteer experience? Service learning was defined generally as a structured elective course that combines classroom instruction with volunteer service in the community. A qualitative design was chosen for the research as this method allowed for a more in depth description of the main focus of the study--the perceptions of these former students. The findings from this study support the inclusion of service learning courses in high schools; however, there was an overall consensus from the seven participants that work must be done by educators in order to provide more structured and viable curriculums for these courses. The participant responses were generally favorable regarding their actual volunteer experiences, supporting the assertion that volunteer work supported by a well designed service learning course increases a student's ability to feel empathy for others along with the desire to be a lifelong volunteer. / Ed. D.

Submitted to the Faculty of Human Sciences in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD in Community Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2011. / This study investigated the differences and similarities in the experiences of community service psychologists placed within the KwaZulu-Natal region. It comprised of eight (8) community service psychologists, seven (7) females and one male, placed at some point within a two year period at different sites within the region. Seven (7) community service psychologists were still in community service while one (1) had already completed their stipulated year of service. A single, structured interview was used to collect the data. Grounded theory was utilized in the analysis of the qualitative data. Comparisons were drawn between the experiences of the community service psychologists in relation to their individual experiences in order to extract common themes. Significant individual experiences where noted and discussed. The findings indicate dissatisfaction with the management and implementation of the Community Service Psychology Program amount the participants. In addition, psychological trauma in regard to fear over safety and abusive or alienating management structures within the environments serviced by the Community Service Psychologists was noted. The implications and applications of this study can be far-reaching as research is direly lacking in the arena of Community Service structures and facilitation within the South African context.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / This study explored the effectiveness of community based services to chronic psychiatric patients in improving their quality of life. The exploration aimed at shedding light on the nature and extent of such quality of life improvements, and on which of the services such improvements depend. Certain general expectations guided this Study: (a) that community based therapeutic services offered in typical day treatment programs do have a positive effect on their patients' quality of life; (b) that the patients' own reports on the utility of the services and on their quality of life provide valid data. There was limited prior research supporting either of these expectations. Therefore this Study dealt with validity as well as effectiveness issues. The Study limited itself to a single community based service system which is part of a community hospital. The day treatment services offered were found to conform to widely accepted norms. Therefore the results of the Study were generalizable to some degree. Quality of life data were collected from patients, before and after treatment, using a quality-of-life questionnaire which has a published record of previous use. Two other types of data were collected: service utility evaluations by patients, and patient improvement evaluations by their therapists. This was accomplished with questionnaires designed as part of this Study. It was found that before to after treatment changes in patients' quality of life reports were significantly correlated with their evaluations of service utilities, giving support to the validity of both types of data. The exploration also provided evidence for the existence of specific sources of error --such as the patients' tendency towards emotional fluctuations due to their pathology. Validity of the therapists' evaluations of patient improve-ment was not supported. Comparisons with a control group combined with the previously mentioned cor-relations provided exploratory evidence for the effectiveness of the day treatment program. The areas of the patients' lives most affected were family and social relations. All aspects of the program seemed to combine in producing improvement. / 2031-01-01

A new category of community-service nursing practitioner who was the equivalent of a newly qualified nurse emerged in the years 1998–2007. Community service was introduced by the national Department of Health in an attempt to retain professional nurses. The community service nurse is registered with the South African Nursing Council in the category “community service”. Community service nurses need to obtain clinical experience under the supervision of experienced professional nurses in a public health facility for a period of one year. Globally, health-care systems have been affected by an increase in conditions such as maternal and child morbidity and mortality, an ever-increasing vulnerability to communicable diseases (tuberculosis and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and violence in under-developed and developing countries. These challenges have resulted in the escalation of health-care costs and a shortage of human resources in the health-care system. The escalation of these conditions has put further strain on the effectiveness of an already struggling health-care system, and the delivery of health-care services to those who are most in need. This necessitated the implementation of community service. The provincial Department of Health usually identifies where the critical need for the placement of community service nurses is, and the diplomate or the graduate can select one of three placements. However, the final decision for placement remains that of the provincial Department of Health. This community service strategy, which aims to empower community service nurses, is a contentious matter, as these community service nurses are often placed in an area where they have to work independently within the first year after qualifying as a diplomate or graduate without being supervised and supported in the public health facility. The community service nurses experience a lack of confidence and competence due to limited clinical exposure resulting from full and compacted nursing education programmes. The need for an experienced professional nurse as supervisor with a clearly defined job description by the provincial Department of Health is mandatory to prevent role conflict and confusion. However, the provision of such supervision has not yet materialised because of the shortage of experienced registered nurses in the health-care system. Research design: A qualitative design using exploratory, descriptive and contextual strategies ensured access to tangible information regarding the supervision and clinical accompaniment needs of community service nurses. Data collection: Data was collected using semi-structured interviews, field notes and digital voice recordings. The participants were community service nurses who had completed six months of their community service year. A total of n = 12 participants out of N = 38 were interviewed in the three hospitals of the Amajuba District in KwaZulu-Natal until no new data emerged and data saturation was reached. Data analysis: Content analysis assisted the researcher in scrutinising the data by coding, categorising into themes and sub-themes to clarify the data. Literature control was used to underpin the research findings. Research findings: The community service nurses appeared to be in desperate need of clinical supervisors to guide, coach, support, and be a role model to them. Community service nurses needed to develop confidence, competence, independence and critical thinking skills during community service practice. In reality, not all community service nurses were fully competent and independent to practise autonomously during their community service, though some had acquired all the above mentioned skills. However, it stood to reason that competence developed in the period of community service and was influenced by clinical supervision from experienced registered nurses, who assisted with continued development of skills in clinical practice. / MCur, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

A new category of community-service nursing practitioner who was the equivalent of a newly qualified nurse emerged in the years 1998–2007. Community service was introduced by the national Department of Health in an attempt to retain professional nurses. The community service nurse is registered with the South African Nursing Council in the category “community service”. Community service nurses need to obtain clinical experience under the supervision of experienced professional nurses in a public health facility for a period of one year. Globally, health-care systems have been affected by an increase in conditions such as maternal and child morbidity and mortality, an ever-increasing vulnerability to communicable diseases (tuberculosis and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) and violence in under-developed and developing countries. These challenges have resulted in the escalation of health-care costs and a shortage of human resources in the health-care system. The escalation of these conditions has put further strain on the effectiveness of an already struggling health-care system, and the delivery of health-care services to those who are most in need. This necessitated the implementation of community service. The provincial Department of Health usually identifies where the critical need for the placement of community service nurses is, and the diplomate or the graduate can select one of three placements. However, the final decision for placement remains that of the provincial Department of Health. This community service strategy, which aims to empower community service nurses, is a contentious matter, as these community service nurses are often placed in an area where they have to work independently within the first year after qualifying as a diplomate or graduate without being supervised and supported in the public health facility. The community service nurses experience a lack of confidence and competence due to limited clinical exposure resulting from full and compacted nursing education programmes. The need for an experienced professional nurse as supervisor with a clearly defined job description by the provincial Department of Health is mandatory to prevent role conflict and confusion. However, the provision of such supervision has not yet materialised because of the shortage of experienced registered nurses in the health-care system. Research design: A qualitative design using exploratory, descriptive and contextual strategies ensured access to tangible information regarding the supervision and clinical accompaniment needs of community service nurses. Data collection: Data was collected using semi-structured interviews, field notes and digital voice recordings. The participants were community service nurses who had completed six months of their community service year. A total of n = 12 participants out of N = 38 were interviewed in the three hospitals of the Amajuba District in KwaZulu-Natal until no new data emerged and data saturation was reached. Data analysis: Content analysis assisted the researcher in scrutinising the data by coding, categorising into themes and sub-themes to clarify the data. Literature control was used to underpin the research findings. Research findings: The community service nurses appeared to be in desperate need of clinical supervisors to guide, coach, support, and be a role model to them. Community service nurses needed to develop confidence, competence, independence and critical thinking skills during community service practice. In reality, not all community service nurses were fully competent and independent to practise autonomously during their community service, though some had acquired all the above mentioned skills. However, it stood to reason that competence developed in the period of community service and was influenced by clinical supervision from experienced registered nurses, who assisted with continued development of skills in clinical practice. / MCur, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Magister Curationis - MCur / South Africa has a general shortage of most categories of health professionals, which include nurses, doctors, dentists and pharmacists. However, the problem is exacerbated by the fact that most of these professionals either work in the private health sector or have migrated to more affluent countries. Shortages of nurses in the rural setting continue to pose a problem for the Department of Health. The community service policy is stated in Section 40 of the Nursing Act, of 2005, and in the Regulations relating to Performance of Community Service published in the Government Notice No. 765 of 24 August 2005. In 2008, the first professional nurses started with their community service. Community service for health professionals is a policy proposal of the Department of Health that reacts to the lack of meeting the health requirements in poor communities, particularly in rural areas. It offers graduating health professionals with the prospect of gaining first-hand working experience in conditions of poverty and underdevelopment. South Africa is implementing community service for health professionals as a plan to manage the difficulties of human resources in the health sector. The transition period for community service practitioners in a rural setting is different, which implies that most support may need to be strengthened due to the remoteness of the rural setting. The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences of community service practitioners during their community service at a rural health facility. From the findings, guidelines were described for the operational managers who are responsible for supporting the community service practitioners at a health facility in a rural area. A qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive design was applied, using individual unstructured interviews and field notes. Each interview took around 30-45 minutes to complete. The purposively selected sample consisted of community service practitioners (n = 10) who were practicing at rural health facilities. The process of inductive coding of Thomas (2003:5) was used to analyse the data. The results of this study indicate that a process is needed for community service practitioners fresh from university and an urban environment to adapt to a remote rural health facility. Some of the participants did receive an orientation programme at the beginning of their community service year. However, most of the community service practitioners that took part in the study learned from their experience during the year of their placements. For some, the learning opportunities were more available in the rural setting than when they had worked as students at the urban hospital during their training.

As a criminal sanction, community service involves unpaid labor on the part of convicted criminal offenders. Community service was created as an alternative to incarceration for low-level offenders. It now appears, however, that community service is rarely used as a true alternative to prison, but rather as an added condition of probation. The body of research on community service in the United States is modest, so relatively little is known about its characteristics and administration. Data were attained from 88 Texas probation professionals via self-administered written surveys in an effort to gather information about the use of community service as a criminal sanction in Texas. Frequency distribution analyses identified characteristics of both community service programs and offender participants in Texas.

Includes bibliographical references. / Misdaad is een van Suid-Afrika se grootste enkele maatskaplike vraagstukke - een wat groot sosiale, ekonomiese, en politieke implikasies inhou. Die Republiek van Suid-Afrika is sover bekend, die land met die hoogste gevangenisbevolking per 100 000 lede van die bevolking ter wereld. As gevolg van die hoe daaglikse gevangenisbevolking verduur ons dikwels heftige kritiek van die Internasionale gemeenskap en loop ons die gevaar om internasionaal verder geisoleer te word as gevolg van die swak beeld wat ons hoe gevangenisbevolking skep. Die doeltreffende hantering van die misdaadvraagstuk is alleen moontlik indien daar samewerking bestaan tussen die staat en die gemeenskap. Ongelukkig het 'n gees van geheimhouding in verband met aspekte van misdaad (byvoorbeeld ons gevangenisadministrasie) bygedra tot 'n onbetrokkenheid van ons gemeenskap by die rehabilitasie van oortreders. Die gees van die moderne rehabilitasie-filosofie le daarin opgesluit dat oortreders (sover prakties moontlik) binne gemeenskapsverband gerehabiliteer moet word, aangesien gevangenisstraf as strafmaatreel in sy doel gefaal het. Die ontwikkeling van alternatiewe tot gevangenisstraf in die meeste Westerse lande is grootliks die resultaat van navorsing oor die effektiwiteit van gevangenisstraf. Die gevangenisowerhede in die lande is in die algemeen ook aktief betrokke by die beplanning van gemeenskapsgerigte rehabilitasieprogramme vir oortreders. Wat Suid-Afrika betref is daar nog feitlik geen navorsing gedoen oor die effektiwiteit van gevangenisstraf nie. Kritiek op ons gevangenisstelsel berus dus dikwels op populere opvattings. Die gevangenisowerhede moet dikwels heftige kritiek verduur wat dalk ongegrond mag wees. Sekere strafhervormers het in die verlede ons gevangenisstelsel soms vir politieke gewin aangeval, met die gevolg dat ons gevangenisstelsel al hoe meer geisoleerd begin raak het van die gemeenskap, wat dit veronderstel is om te bedien. Die vraag kan tereg gevra word of ons gevangenisstelsel nie die speelbal is van politici, wat eie gewin nastreef nie. Sekere radikale elemente strewe na die omverwerping van wet en orde, waarvan die gevangenis 'n onontbeerlike deel uitmaak. Daarenteen is dit ongelukkig so dat daar ander politici is, wat leemtes in ons strafregstelsel en gevangenisstelsel wil toesmeer. Die gevolg is dat die noodsaaklikheid van strafhervorming nie behoorlik besef word nie. Strafhervorming is alleenlik moontlik indien leemtes in die Strafregstelsel geidentifiseer word en aan die gemeenskap bekend gestel word, sodat die gemeenskap betrokke kan raak by die proses van strafhervorming. Vonnisse van gemeenskapsdiens, wat impliseer dat oortreders die een of ander vorm van gratis diens tot voordeel van die gemeenskap lewer, is n ideale manier om gemeenskapsbetrokkenheid te bewerkstellig. Hoewel die tipe vonnisse nie ''n kitsoplossing is vir die misdaadvraagstuk nie, kan dit gebruik word om sekere oortreders uit die gevangenis te hou. In die ondersoek poog ondersoeker om 'n beskeie bydrae te lewer tot ons tergende misdaadvraagstuk. Die navorsingsonderwerp handel eerstens oor die beginsels van vonnisoplegging en 'n teoretiese bespreking oor die doel en waarde van gevangenisstraf. Aangesien die primere doel van die studie is om aanbevelings te maak oor gemeenskapsdiensvonnise as 'n alternatief tot gevangenisstraf in Suid-Afrika word in hoofstuk 4 en 5 gepoog om die waarde van gevangenisstraf in Suid-Afrika te evalueer deur middel van teoretiese en praktiese navorsing. Ten einde riglyne te bepaal vir die toepassing van gemeenskapsdiensvonnisse word in hoofstuk 6 en 7 'n bespreking gegee van die toepassing van gemeenskapsdiensvonnisse in Engeland, Wallis en die Verenigde State van Amerika. Een van die belangrikste dele van die studie is hoofstuk 8 waar 'n eksperimentele projek om 'n gemeenskapsdiensstelsel in Kaapstad te loods bespreek word. In die slot hoofstuk word aanbevelings gemaak met betrekking tot die toepassing van gemeenskapsdiensvonnisse in Suid-Afrika.

Civic responsibility is comprised of actions and attitudes associated with democratic governance and social participation. Students enrolled at institutions of higher education have the opportunity to transform their social interests into advocacy through personal connections with the community. Service learning is an effective method of increasing citizenship participation and civic responsibility by incorporating community service activities with academic coursework. This study used survey research to examine the civic attitude scores of service learning students at a large, public, mid-Atlantic state university. The research questions attained information on the associations among students who perform written and discussion reflection activities (outside of class and in-class) regarding civic attitude by gender, class year, and grade point average. The associations between interest in future service participation and civic attitude were also examined. The data were collected using surveys. Crosstabulation procedures and chi-square tests were used to analyze the data. It was found that students who performed discussion reflection activities and reflected outside of class had higher civic attitude levels and more interest in future service participation. / Master of Arts