Medicare is vital to the health and well-being of many American seniors. However, due to its complexity, beneficiaries often need assistance navigating the federal health insurance system. GeorgiaCares, Georgia’s State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), provides free and unbiased Medicare information and counseling. The aims of this thesis were to evaluate GeorgiaCares outreach events to discern the social and demographic characteristics of participants and decipher how to best market the events. Participants of nine GeorgiaCares outreach events (n=81) completed anonymous surveys; mixed-methods data analysis revealed the typical participant to be a 71-year-old African American female. Findings suggest an effective way to assist beneficiaries in Medicare-related decisions is through the formation of community partnerships. Suggestions to market outreach events include partnering with churches and grocery stores to disseminate information and enlisting the support of community leaders to overcome barriers of distrust.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-135). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-135). Also available on the Internet.

Inadequate and uncertain transportation funding have in recent years resulted in a renewed emphasis on using investments that can be recovered by toll charges to finance new roads and modernize existing roads. This has raised questions about environmental justice (EJ) and how it pertains to tolling. In 2004, TxDOT Project 0-5208 was funded to propose an approach for the identification, measurement, and mitigation of disproportionately high or adverse impacts imposed on minority and low-income (EJ) communities by toll roads relative to non-tolled facilities. The methodology proposed had two equally important components: an analysis/quantitative component and an effective EJ participation component. However, the research raised concerns about the ability of various available analytical tools and analysis techniques to measure the potential impacts imposed on EJ communities by toll roads relative to non-toll roads. The objective of this thesis study was to extend the work that was conducted under TxDOT Research Project 0-5208 by (a) reviewing the ability of available tools and analysis techniques to quantify and qualitatively describe the EJ impacts associated with toll road projects and toll road systems through an evaluation of state-of-the-practice applications, and (b) recommending a suitable approach to assess the EJ impacts of toll roads and toll road systems on EJ communities. The research conducted to meet the study objectives has culminated in this thesis. / text

Arts organizations are moving toward a more open space through community outreach programs. This space allows for art-focused dialogue to occur that facilitates interaction between people. This dialogue then opens the door for new relationships to transpire. The move toward dialogical and relational space in arts organizations is based on demographic, economic, and ideological changes in arts fields that reflect a growing opportunity for democratization through the arts. This study utilizes a website and mission statement review, survey responses, and a case study to explore how arts organizations (including museums, arts centers, artists' communities, arts councils, and art and craft schools) are serving community needs by creating a relational and dialogical space within and outside of their walls.

The application of the 1984 Education Policy of the Division of World Outreach (DWO) of the United Church of Canada was examined in its "loosely coupled" context that is characterized by a consultative relationship based on trust in overseas partners and confidence in their choices of goals and objectives. Egon Guba's model of policy analysis, its policy-definition driven research process, and its categories of policy-in-intention and policy-in-implementation usefully assisted the appraisal of logical congruence between the goals and objectives stated in the 13 guidelines of the education policy (a policy-in-intention) and those stated in documents from a sample of supported programs (policies-in-implementation). In addition, the DWO's program-based budget practice was assessed for any relevant use of the Planning Programming Budgeting System (PBBS). Finally, a logical congruence between Guba's model and the PBBS model was probed for a possible synthesis. / Documents from 1981, 1985, and 1989 from the sample of five programs from five regions in three continents were reviewed. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Archivists have made considerable efforts in recent decades to address the challenge of making archival records more useful. They have attracted new researchers by using various methods: from launching books and exhibits, handing out brochures, and sending press releases, to hosting lectures and, more recently in the digital age, launching websites and blogs, digitizing records, and posting archival records on websites like Flickr. However, these methods amount to a scattered approach that seeks out a variety of new users -- often in the wider society -- while the majority of potential users, often connected to an archives’ own sponsoring institution, still too rarely take advantage of the archives at their doorstep. These people may have never used an archives and likely think they do not need to do so. This thesis addresses the issue of how, in effect, to create users of archives among this group by a more direct approach to them than the typically scattered and more general one. The study of such efforts by archives is the study of archival public programming. Although current public programming efforts at university archives do bring in new users from the campus community, a more targeted approach might address this concern by attracting far more of them. Particularly on university campuses most students, faculty, support staff, retired professors, and administration do not make use of and may even be unaware of the campus archives. Archives on university campuses are repeatedly challenged to prove their usefulness in order to warrant continued funding from campus administration. I argue that this thesis offers university archivists (and other archivists) a tool with which to work to raise statistics of new users in order to satisfy university administrative metrics for sustainability. This thesis will test this approach through a case study of eleven University of Manitoba Faculty of Arts professors who have not used archives much or at all. Academics are often looking for new sources for their research. By understanding the usefulness of archives to their work, they may discover a vast new source of information in a variety of local, national, and foreign repositories and become more comfortable in navigating archives. The thesis will also discuss any weaknesses discovered in the testing of the approach and suggest improvements. In addition, it will discuss how such an approach might be phased in to archival work at a university archives such as the University of Manitoba's Archives & Special Collections as a feature of day-to-day work, rather than a one-time exercise.

This thesis presents information on community healthy marriage initiatives and university-community collaborations. Specifically, it examined the workings of one of those healthy marriage initiatives in the university-community collaborative context. The project explored the current process of this initiative, identifying specific challenge points and defining factors and characteristics associated with the success thereof. Rather than working in discrete categories, these challenge points exist on a success continuum. How each challenge is managed determines whether it is a success factor or a stumbling block. The project is grounded in published learning from other university-community initiatives and employs an ethnographic qualitative research strategy. Data consist of interviews with several key collaborators (n = 9) who were involved with this initiative. The findings from this ethnography support and enhance previous literature on university-community collaborations and outreach scholarship and provide useful examples and lessons that can be used by other university-community collaborations, especially those involving marriage education initiatives in a community setting.

The National Electric Coil Company/Cooper Industries, Inc. plant in Harlan County, Kentucky was a mining support operation primarily engaged in the cleaning and repair of mining equipment from 1951 to 1987. Trichloroethylene (TCE) and degradation byproducts, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and vinyl chloride were released into the areas surrounding the plant periodically for decades. Routine water sampling of area wells by the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection Division of Water revealed significant levels of TCE, PCBs, and vinyl chloride. The toxicology of these chemicals implicates various systems, including cardiovascular, dermal, endocrine, and neurological. University of Kentucky’s Superfund Basic Research Program’s (UK-SBRP) biomedical research is based on the premise that nutrition can modulate the effects of Superfund contaminants. In this study, the Community Outreach Core developed and delivered nutrition education programs to community members to address three issues: reduce total dietary fat, increase omega-3 fat, and increase dietary fiber. Initial efforts revealed the need for a holistic approach to identify and build trust with community members before programs could be presented. Results from informal discussions, qualitative assessments, and 24-hour dietary recalls using 2007 Nutrient Data System for Research were used to measure specific outcomes; increased knowledge, improved attitudes, and dietary behavior changes.

Archivists have made considerable efforts in recent decades to address the challenge of making archival records more useful. They have attracted new researchers by using various methods: from launching books and exhibits, handing out brochures, and sending press releases, to hosting lectures and, more recently in the digital age, launching websites and blogs, digitizing records, and posting archival records on websites like Flickr. However, these methods amount to a scattered approach that seeks out a variety of new users -- often in the wider society -- while the majority of potential users, often connected to an archives’ own sponsoring institution, still too rarely take advantage of the archives at their doorstep. These people may have never used an archives and likely think they do not need to do so. This thesis addresses the issue of how, in effect, to create users of archives among this group by a more direct approach to them than the typically scattered and more general one. The study of such efforts by archives is the study of archival public programming. Although current public programming efforts at university archives do bring in new users from the campus community, a more targeted approach might address this concern by attracting far more of them. Particularly on university campuses most students, faculty, support staff, retired professors, and administration do not make use of and may even be unaware of the campus archives. Archives on university campuses are repeatedly challenged to prove their usefulness in order to warrant continued funding from campus administration. I argue that this thesis offers university archivists (and other archivists) a tool with which to work to raise statistics of new users in order to satisfy university administrative metrics for sustainability. This thesis will test this approach through a case study of eleven University of Manitoba Faculty of Arts professors who have not used archives much or at all. Academics are often looking for new sources for their research. By understanding the usefulness of archives to their work, they may discover a vast new source of information in a variety of local, national, and foreign repositories and become more comfortable in navigating archives. The thesis will also discuss any weaknesses discovered in the testing of the approach and suggest improvements. In addition, it will discuss how such an approach might be phased in to archival work at a university archives such as the University of Manitoba's Archives & Special Collections as a feature of day-to-day work, rather than a one-time exercise.