Greater public participation has been recognized in the socio-political sphere as a growing imperative and a recent phenomenon is a shift in governance towards the "politics of inclusion" at the local and in some cases, the provincial level. Democracy is fundamental to sustainable development because when people participate in the decisions that affect their lives, they are more committed to their implementation. Once community buy-in is garnered, people are empowered to engage in organized action and advocate for the causes they stand for which can affect the necessary changes in moving towards a sustainable community. Our Street London is a grassroots collective that supports alternatives to mainstream modalities of transportation such as biking, walking, and public transportation, as well sustainable urban form. My objective is to understand the richness and detail of the social constructions of the actors in the lived environment. My research explores successful community engagement strategies and how the knowledge generated through the inquiry process can benefit Our Street London members to mobilize group capacity, hence affecting the future directions of the group. My main method of data collection consisted of semi-structured, open-ended interviews with experts on community engagement. Participants consisted of academics, long-time practitioners, and employees of small to medium-sized sustainability/environmental and social justice organizations. This research does have an action-oriented intent to work with Our Street London beyond the scope of this project in translating recommendations into action.

Blogging is a form of social media, and student engagement is at the center of blogging. The benefits of blogging include being easy to create and maintain, making writing easier to share, encouraging students to write outside of the classroom, and supporting group collaboration. The findings suggest students are more passive in their blogging experiences, as the data found students generally read blogs more than they wrote blogs. The Unified Theory on Acceptance and Use of Technology and self-efficacy theory were used as the framework for the study. This study sought to explore agricultural leadership students’ motivations for blogging. Student responses indicated on average they read blogs less than once a month. Students typically reported a preference for informal writing even if they did not blog. Teacher training could be used to increase awareness among educators about the benefits of blogging. Educators must be able to convey the benefits of educational blogging in terms of its ease and benefit for student acceptance.

Rationale: Consumers of the mental health system with serious mental illness have been deprived of meaningful occupations since de-institutionalization began in the late 20th century.Community mental health policy has failed to focus on the meaningful occupational lives of this group of service users. Given the disparity in activity and meaningful time use for people with serious mental illness when compared to the general population, it is clear that a treatment that draws attention to occupational balance and engagement is needed. As balanced time use has been shown to increase community adjustment and life satisfaction, it is an important area of focus. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to pilot test the efficacy of a new occupational time use intervention, provisionally titled “Action over Inertia,” designed to increase occupational balance and engagement in the lives of people with serious mental illness living in the community. Methods: A prospective, multi-centre randomized controlled trial of the intervention, involving 5 Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams in southeastern Ontario,ran in Fall 2007/Winter 2008. 18 ACT clients took part in the 12 week intervention, which was delivered by the ACT team occupational therapists. Results: Time use, used as a measure of occupational balance, shifted away from sleep to increased general activity in the treatment group(p=0.05). Treatment and control groups did not differ on occupational engagement measures after the completion of the trial. Feedback on the clinical utility of the intervention was very positive from both therapists and treatment participants. Conclusions: This pilot test revealed initially positive data on the efficacy and clinical utility of the intervention.Further study of the “Action over Inertia” intervention is needed on a larger scale, potentially with a longer treatment timeline to further investigate its usefulness. / Thesis (Master, Rehabilitation Science) -- Queen's University, 2008-09-22 14:36:47.279

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Outcomes related to academic and social engagement for boys identified by their teachers as being disengaged and requiring tier two instructional supports were investigated when the Three Block Model of Universal Design for Learning (Katz, 2012a) was implemented. The mixed-methods study involved twelve grade 3 boys and their teachers in a rural school division in Manitoba, who were divided into treatment and control groups. Students were assessed pre and post intervention for the development of general self-esteem, academic self-esteem, liking of school, enjoyment of school, and engaged behaviour. Ecobehavioral measures of task assigned, groupings, and interactions were also taken. Data were collected and analyzed using both thematic analysis for qualitative data and a MANCOVA for quantitative analysis. The intervention significantly increased students’ engaged behaviour, particularly active engagement and promoted social engagement through increased peer interactions, student autonomy, and inclusivity.

As governments increasingly support a collaborative management approach to address complex watershed issues, there is a growing interest in understanding how successfully these processes operate. A cornerstone of collaborative management is the inclusion of public input in the decision-making process. Exactly how and to what extent the public is included in decision making is often left to planning authorities. This study set out to determine if collaborative approaches to watershed management planning have incorporated effective public engagement. The components of effective public engagement processes as identified in public engagement literature were utilized as a diagnostic tool to assess public participation in the development of two watershed management plans in Manitoba, Canada. Recommendations for improving the effectiveness of public engagement and addressing barriers to broad public participation in watershed management are presented and discussed.

The current study examined the experiences of adolescents considered to be at-risk for academic underachievement in an after-school reading intervention program (called the Vocabulary Learning Project, or VLP), with the goal of identifying the individual and social contextual factors that influence their engagement in the literacy intervention. One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with 29 adolescent participants post-intervention to gain their personal insights on relevant contextual experiences, resulting in the identification of key factors that are associated with student engagement at the behavioral, affective and cognitive levels. The findings from this study serve as an important indicator of some of the multiple influences on the literacy engagement of at-risk adolescents. This has implications for the design of future interventions developed for the purpose of improving the academic achievement, and ultimately the economic and personal advancement, of adolescents living in urban, marginalized settings.