Evaluating the engagement of universities in capacity building for sustainable development in local communities

Universities have the potential to play a leading role in enabling communities to develop more sustainable ways of living and working however, sustainable communities may only emerge with facilitation, community learning and continual efforts to build their capacities. Elements of programme planning and evaluation on the one hand, and capacity building on the other, are needed. The latter entails approaches and processes that may contribute to community empowerment; universities may either lead such approaches, or be key partners in an endeavour to empower communities to address the challenges posed by the need for sustainable development. Although capacity building and the promotion of sustainable development locally, are on the agenda for universities who take seriously regional engagement, very little is published that illustrates or describes the various forms of activities that take place. Further, there is a paucity of studies that have evaluated the work performed by universities in building capacity for sustainable development at the local level. This paper is an attempt to address this need, and entails an empirical study based on a sample of universities in the United Kingdom, Germany, Portugal and Brazil. The paper examines the extent to which capacity building for sustainable development is being undertaken, suggests the forms that this might take and evaluates some of the benefits for local communities. The paper concludes by reinforcing that universities have a critical role to play in community development; that role has to prioritise the sustainability agenda.     

Dealing with context in logic model development: Reflections from a realist evaluation of a community health worker programme in Nigeria

Logic models (LMs) have been used in programme evaluation for over four decades. Current debate questions the ability of logic modelling techniques to incorporate contextual factors into logic models. We share experience of developing a logic model within an ongoing realist evaluation which assesses the extent to which, and under what circumstances a community health workers (CHW) programme promotes access to maternity services in Nigeria. The article contributes to logic modelling debate by: i) reflecting on how other scholars captured context during LM development in theory-driven evaluations; and ii) explaining how we explored context during logic model development for realist evaluation of the CHW programme in Nigeria. Data collection methods that informed our logic model development included documents review, email discussions and teleconferences with programme stakeholders and a technical workshop with researchers to clarify programme goals and untangle relationships among programme elements. One of the most important findings is that, rather than being an end in itself, logic model development is an essential step for identifying initial hypotheses for tentative relevant contexts, mechanisms and outcomes (CMOs) and CMO configurations of how programmes produce change. The logic model also informed development of a methodology handbook that is guiding verification and consolidation of underlying programme theories.     

Using theory of change as a framework for examining community context and philanthropic impact

As part of the process of examining their theory of change (TOC) and reflecting on grant making activity, one Midwestern foundation employed a multipronged strategy to assess 209 community-based mental health grants across seven years of funding. This article details the evaluation approach, which comprised these areas of the TOC: grantees’ use of evidence-based interventions, cultural competency, quality improvement, community collaboration, and use of integrated care. Inductive analyses identified grantees’ use of innovative practices, trauma-informed care, and use of validated instruments. In an iterative exercise spanning multiple years, the foundation and researchers found ways to gather information about community capacity and impact while simultaneously minimizing grantee data collection/reporting burden. Findings revealed that community agencies were improving in their uptake of evidence-based interventions and use of validated instruments. Community grantee use of trauma informed care also improved over the study period. Grantee desire to collaborate and coordinate services within the community was also strong. The research also revealed that in multiple domains (such as technology and non-profit operating costs) grantees needed support in building agency capacity. These findings shed light on which aspects of the foundation’s TOC were being addressed through funding, and which areas of the community needed additional support.     

A Preliminary Evaluation of the 1-2-3-Magic Parenting Program in an Australian Community Services Setting

Cognitive-behavioural parenting programs provide caregivers with alternative strategies to harsh disciplining practices but the choice of programs that are evidence-based in Australia is limited. Australian community service workers suggest that having a choice of evidence-based programs is important when matching programs to client needs, and that 1-2-3 Magic is a program used widely in Australia despite its small Australian evidence base. The efficacy of the 1-2-3 Magic program has previously been shown in a controlled trial in an Australian university research setting but little is known about its effectiveness in a “real-world” setting. This study examined a three-session group-format of the Australian 1-2-3 Magic & Emotion Coaching program in a typical metropolitan community service setting. Thirty-eight caregivers with children aged 2–6 years reported a significant decrease in disruptive child behaviour (ECBI), permissive parenting (PS), and parental depression and stress (DASS) from pre- to post-intervention, with results maintained at 3-month follow-up. While these findings suggest that a brief 1-2-3 Magic program is beneficial, it is important to note that methodological limitations (intervention-group only study design and possible confounding variables) do not allow ruling out alternative causes for these improvements. Further research will be needed to confirm that this program can generalise to “real-world” settings.     

民国时期杭州拱宸桥娼妓业的治理(1912-1936)

民国以来,随着近代文明的发展、妇女解放思潮的渐次兴起,娼妓的悲惨境遇备受关注。在此背景下,杭州市政府于20世纪30年代发起了一场废娼运动,虽然成果与预期相差甚远,最后重新回到对公娼核发执照、征收妓捐的治娼模式,但是政府的废娼行动与济娼措施,表达了现代化政府的执政理念,是政治文明进步的重要体现。     

Opportunities and Challenges for Public Libraries to Enhance Community Resilience

This study bridges a gap between public library and emergency management policy versus practice by examining the role of public libraries in the community resource network for disaster recovery. Specifically, this study identifies the opportunities and challenges for public libraries to fulfill their role as a FEMA‐designated essential community organization and enhance community resilience. The results indicate there are several opportunities for libraries to enhance community resilience by offering technology resources and assistance; providing office, meeting, and community living room space; serving as the last redundant communication channel and a repository for community information and disaster narratives; and adapting or expanding services already offered to meet the changing needs of the community. However, libraries also face challenges in enhancing community resilience, including the temptation to overcommit library capacity and staff capability beyond the library mission and a lack of long‐term disaster plans and collaboration with emergency managers and government officials. Implications for library and emergency management practice and crisis research are discussed.     

我国社区矫正工作社会化模式的建构——基于社区矫正工作目标的分析

社区矫正是社会化的刑罚执行方式,但从实践运作看,我国社区矫正的社会化程度依然不够,没有最大效度地达到社区矫正的目标.本文在对社区矫正工作目标进行分析的基础上,提出了我国社区矫正工作的社会化模式:基于责任共担的社区服刑环境建设、基于社会工作方法的个案矫正模式、基于社会人力资源的社会帮教工作.     

A formative evaluation of the recovery public works programme in Blantyre City,Malawi

Public works programmes (PWPs) are popular social protection instruments in the context of chronic poverty but very little has been published in the way of implementation and outcomes of these programmes. This paper presents a formative process and outcome evaluation of the recovery PWP in Blantyre City, Malawi. The evaluation used longitudinal household survey data of PWP beneficiaries, programme records and interview responses from programme staff and community leaders. Largely, the process evaluation findings showed an agreement between actual and planned activities. The outcome evaluation found indications that the PWP community assets offered some potential benefits to the communities, and that PWP wages allowed the beneficiaries to purchase some food. This however, did not translate into more meals per day, nor did the earnings prevent the decline in household assets as expected. Given a plausible PWP theory and high implementation fidelity, the PWP wage rate or number of days was either just enough to smooth participant income, or insufficient altogether, to enable achievement of more distal outcomes.     

Investment communities: Behavioral attitudes and economic dynamics

Using a real-world data set encompassing the daily portfolio holdings and exposures of complex investment funds, we derive a set of quantitative attributes to capture essential behavioral features of fund managers. We find the existence and stability of three investment attitudes, namely the conservative, the reactive, and the pro-active profiles, defining communities that respond differently when facing external shocks. The conservative community has behavioral similarities that tend to decrease due to external shocks, the reactive community members greatly increase their activity level especially during turmoil phases, while delegated investors in the pro-active community are more resilient to turbulence and counterbalance the impact of the events by adjusting their portfolio exposures in advance. We show that exogenous shocks only temporarily perturb the behavioral traits of the communities which then go back to their original states once the distress is embedded.     

网络社区发现算法在流动表建模中的设计与应用

代际流动表可以统计子代与其父代社会地位配对数据的交互频数，反映了社会资源占有的优劣势在父子两代人之间的比较。对财富、阶级、特权等社会基本特征演变的实证考察，均依赖于代际流动表的量化分析。对数线性模型是流动表建模分析的基本工具，通过对列联表单元格频数进行拟合，可以识别流动表行分类与列分类之间的强弱交互效应，刻画父子社会地位间的交互结构。本文利用复杂网络社区发现算法分析父子社会地位的关联结构，针对简约对数线性模型拟合精度不够的问题，提出一种新的建模思路：利用社区发现算法对简约对数线性模型的残差列联表进行关联关系挖掘，将发现的社区效应作为附加参数约束引入原对数线性模型，以改善数据的拟合情况。由于该方法只在原简约对数线性模型中增加了一个参数约束，因此仍可以保证建模结果的简洁性及理论意义，同时社区效应补充了原对数线性模型对经验数据结构的解读。论文用此方法对来源于中国综合社会调查数据的经验代际职业流动表进行建模分析，较好地解释了子代职业阶层与父代职业阶层间的关联模式。