The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggested that, as the world population grows, food and water shortages will become even more serious issues (IPPC's 2014 predictions about the future effects of climate change (CC), Year-round growing (YRG) may provide a way for communities to extend growing seasons, expand local farm systems, and provide food year round. This case study included a detailed analysis of responses from representatives of all sectors of rural Mesa County, Colorado, regarding YRG and a local food and farm plan due to CC. The case was bounded by time (6 months of data collection) which provided an in-depth picture of responses from the community. The theoretical framework for the study was Kingdon's multiple streams theory; a local, conceptual framework was provided by Liu, Lindquist, Vedlitz, and Vincent, who identified the key factors for local agenda-setting, defined in the policy literature as an important step in policymaking. Research questions explored YRG as a way to mitigate CC and as a potential platform to create policy towards a local food and farm plan. Twenty-one citizens from all sectors of a small community in western Colorado were interviewed about their perspectives on CC, YRG, and an agenda for a local food and farm plan (LFFP). Data were coded to identify themes and patterns. Results revealed that most participants were not concerned about CC, although they would like to see YRG and a LFFP thrive as a free market enterprise. Policy makers' support of rural farming through YRG and LFFPs would reduce both the distance food travels and the use of fossil fuels; it would also help create a path to a more sustainable future.

Domestic violence (DV) rehabilitative program facilitators administer the same treatment programs to males who reoffend. When DV facilitators administer the same unsuccessful treatment programs to repeat offenders, facilitators may lose intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to perform their job. For this study a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology approach was used to explore the phenomenon of DV facilitators' motivation. Self-determination theory was used to frame the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on DV facilitators who administer treatment programs to repeat offending males. A recruitment flyer was placed in the DV organization, data were collected from 7 participants through face-to-face or telephone interviews that were 18 years of age, proficient English speaking, actively facilitating DV treatment programs to repeat offending males, and employed with the DV organization. Data were transcribed and coded using open and axial coding, and analyzed for themes. Findings indicated that accountability, intrinsic motivation, and commitment influenced DV facilitators when administering programs to repeat offenders. Social change implications include awareness of perceived laissez-faire criminal justice policy towards DV male offenders and the lack of community support of challenges and opportunities for enhancing motivation for DV program facilitators.

A transgender person develops an identity over time and must overcome several obstacles such as stigma, transphobia, discrimination, and sexism, which can be even more difficult for transgender people who choose to come out and transition in a rural area. Grounded in queer theory, social constructivism, and rural identity development theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the lived experiences of 4 transgender persons who came out and transitioned in a rural area, and who accessed online communities as a source of information during their identity development. A 4-stage process was used to collect data, including a semistructured interview, artifact analysis, participant observations, and an art project created by the participants. The data were loaded into the NVivo qualitative data analysis software and analyzed using coding, memoing, within-case, and cross-case analysis from the case histories of the participants. The principle findings of the study were that these transgender people living in a rural area used the Internet for both gathering information and connecting to the larger transgender community. Many other significant details provided insight into the lives of these transgender people, such as shopping for clothes, spending time in public, dealing with personal safety, and managing family and friend relationships during their transitions. These findings may inform mental health professionals about the potential identity developmental trajectory of transgender persons living in a rural area; the findings also give a voice to a population that is often hidden in rural areas.

In spite of a paradigm shift redefining domestic minors trafficked through prostitution as victims instead of criminal offenders, many police officers experience uncertainty in the way they evaluate the nature of domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) and assess the culpability status of prostituted minors. This problem often results in revictimizing children and hindering their ability to access needed services. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore police officers' perceptions of minors engaged in prostitution and derive an understanding of the experiences, beliefs, and values that underlie these perceptions. The study also focused on how these factors influence police decision making regarding DMST. Attribution theory provided the framework. Participants included 4 police detectives assigned to a youth sex trafficking unit in a large city in the western region of the United States. Data were derived from individual interviews and significant documents. Coding and category construction were utilized to analyze single cases, and content analysis was used to analyze documents. Through cross-case analysis, data from all cases and sources were examined for common themes and discrepancies. The study's findings indicated all respondents perceived minors involved in prostitution as victims and that police empathy influenced perceptions and police decision making. The results of the study will potentially facilitate positive social change through advancing a deeper awareness of the nature of DMST and informing law enforcement policy and practices.

This interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) study was implemented to explore and describe the initial and long-term motivations of community volunteers within a selected homeless shelter in central Indiana. The settlement house movement of human service delivery was the conceptual framework, which provided guidance and understanding concerning why and how community members provide human services through volunteerism. The research question examined the ways in which long-term volunteers thought about and made sense of their motivations to volunteer initially and over the long term at a homeless shelter. To answer the research question, the IPA methodology was implemented with 6 long-term community volunteers at a selected shelter. This design provided rich qualitative text that was analyzed to develop themes to explain and describe how the 6 study participants made sense of their individual motivations descriptively, emotionally, religiously, and socially. The overarching conclusion was that all 6 participants shared a common theme, which was Evangelical tradition, volunteerism, and social responsibility. This new finding provides a first look at the motivations of community volunteers, previously unknown in academic literature, and indicates a key subgroup of volunteers that may be the focus of future research on assisting community shelters with recruiting and retaining community members for the effort to eradicate homelessness in the United States.

In the wake of increasing community disasters such as hurricanes, neighborhood violence, and terrorist attacks, schools are usually deemed places where youth can find safety and stability. Research about community trauma related to the role of teachers and schools has predominantly focused on younger populations, concerned about disturbances in their developmental processes. School teachers' responsibilities related to these community disasters have also increased and now include supporting their traumatized students. However, there has been limited attention on the direct effect of community traumas on the teachers who work and live in affected districts. The construct of shared trauma describes this duality of roles. For African American teachers, racial trauma plays a role in their everyday lives and might affect their behaviors and responses to tragic events. Critical race theory and Vygotsky's sociocultural theory formed the framework for this phenomenological study, which explored the experiences of 6 female African American teachers who had experienced community disasters. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews, which were transcribed and analyzed using an enhanced version of the Colaizzi 7-step analysis method. Key findings were that race played only a limited role for the teachers when significant traumas occurred in their communities. Also, the experiences they described were indicative of vicarious trauma, which is inconsistent with the construct of shared trauma. This study contributes to social change by informing educational, political, and social institutions about the needs of teachers in the wake of community disasters and how those needs could be conceptualized as vicarious trauma for purposes of planning preventive and concurrent interventions for teachers.

Ample research has been conducted to identify the determinants of information technology (IT) adoption. No previous quantitative researchers have explored IT adoption in the context of enterprise social computing (ESC). The purpose of this study was to test and extend the social influence model of IT adoption. In addition, this study addressed a gap in the research literature and presented a model that relates the independent variables of social action, social consensus, social authority, social cooperation, perceived relative advantage, perceived compatibility, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and organizational commitment to the dependent variables of social embracement and embedment. A randomized stepwise multiple linear regression analysis was performed on survey data from 125 C-level executives (i.e., chief information officers and chief technology officers). The analysis found that executives consider perceived relative advantage, organizational commitment, and social computing action as the most significant factors relating to the adoption of ESC. Executives' perceptions about ESC could impact organizational commitment, implementation, and use of such technologies. The findings could make a social contribution within organizations by helping C-level executives understand the degree to which these factors contribute to the ESC adoption. The knowledge from this study may also help organizations derive operational effectiveness, efficiency, and create business value for their clients and society.

Alternative food systems (AFS) projects are designed to address issues of environmental justice, food security and insecurity, community health disparities between the affluent and the poor, and access to healthful foods in distressed urban areas. Past research has questioned the efficacy and long-term viability of such interventions, particularly in distressed primarily Black urban areas. The purpose of this intrinsic case study (ICS) was to understand the ways in which local governmental entities collaborated with each other and with nongovernmental partners to help develop an AFS in South Florida through the creation of a market garden called the PATCH. Critical race theory was the framework for addressing the challenges associated with community health, empowerment, and socioeconomic issues pertaining to AFS. A critical case sampling strategy was employed in order to study the selected site. Transcribed data from interviews with 6 key informants, observational notes, and publicly available document searches were coded using a thematic posteriori strategy and analyzed diagrammatically. Results revealed 4 primary drivers for the effective creation of AFS including collaboration and partnerships, community empowerment, community involvement, and the leadership role of government. The concept of transcommunality played an integral role in how these primary drivers could be applied between local governmental and nongovernmental partners. Knowledge gleaned from these results can inform the development of effective community and culturally specific AFS that can help address the disparities that race and socioeconomic status play in providing access to healthful foods in South Florida, thereby creating the basis for positive social change in distressed urban areas.

Legislation concerning California residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD) requires recipients of services to be treated as independent individuals while emphasizing self-determination. At the same time, under regulatory procedures, recipients are considered dependent on the delivered services and not self-determinant. Neither the California Department of Developmental Services nor the trade associations representing community service providers have established a unified, systematic practice to support self-determination. This phenomenological study explored the experience of adults with ID/DD working toward self-determination. Specifically, it explored how medical and social models contribute to shaping and actualizing the independence of this population. Interviews with eight adults with ID/DD explored the perceived barriers to, and opportunities for, achieving independence through self-determination. Under the current statutory regulations, the study viewed two conceptual lenses. The first lens, social role valorization, is based on the study of normalization. The second lens, social reaction, emphasizes a response to the disparities that acknowledge the political, cultural, and social beliefs associated with theories of deviance and social role valorization. The findings demonstrated that self-determination requires collaboration between coordinated services, primary social systems, and theoretical services supporting social role value. The discovery of these key elements may help California's disability service system fulfill legislative requirements to increase opportunities for personal choice.

Corporations are finding it challenging to attract and retain the top talented Millennials. Their frequent job-hopping is costing the U.S. economy $30.5 billion annually despite corporations' best efforts to retain them. The central research question concerns the decision-making process that Millennials use to decide whether to job-hop or stay with an organization. The purpose of this qualitative study was to develop a theory that explains the Millennials' process for deciding whether to job-hop or stay with an organization. The conceptual framework for this grounded theory research is generational theory, Herzberg's hygiene and motivational factors, and psychological contract theory. The data collection was by means of a purposive sampling strategy implemented through the semistructured interviews of 13 participants. The grounded theory data analysis method used consisted of an abridged version of Glaser's data analysis method as developed by Charmaz, which entailed a systematic comparative coding process (initial, focused, and theoretical). The study findings included 7 factors that affect Millennial job-hopping: competitive compensation, job enjoyment, opportunities for professional growth, supportive work environment, reasonable free/flex time, finding their niche, and excellent benefits. Based on these factors, the Millennials job-hopping theory explains their decision-making process and why they job-hop. Positive social change may occur when Millennials achieve job satisfaction. Job satisfaction increases loyalty and organizational commitment and reduces stress, thus decreasing turnover and creating economic stability for the Millennials and their organizations.