Mentoring for Educational Success: Advancing Foster Care Youth Incorporating the Core Competencies

A collaborative relationship among three organizations developed a mentoring project using social work students (mentors) and independent living program (ILP) foster youths (mentees). The goal was to increase the mentees' awareness of educational possibilities beyond high school graduation while analyzing the mentors' learning as defined by the Council on Social Work Education core competencies. This pilot project paired mentors with ILP youths in this experiential opportunity conducted on a university campus. The students, acting as positive role models applying social work skills, engaged in an effort to improve the mentees' educational outcome, which would ultimately lead to self-sufficiency.     

Integrating Work,Family, and Community Through Holistic Life Planning

This article provides a rationale and interdisciplinary framework for integrating work and other dimensions of life by (a) reviewing relevant changes in society and the career development and counseling profession, (b) describing one holistic career‐planning model called Integrative Life Planning (ILP), based on 6 interactive critical life tasks, and (c) discussing questions and issues surrounding narrow versus broad approaches to life planning. ILP includes a strong emphasis on career counselors as advocates and change agents. It focuses on several kinds of wholeness, integrative thinking, democratic values, and helping clients make career decisions not only for self‐satisfaction but also for the common good.     

Responding to crisis representations on film: W.R. Grace goes beyond A Civil Action

Films represent modern day muckraking, telling stories of true corporate misdeeds. This study compares the reactive image reparation efforts of W.R. Grace in addressing alleged well water contamination at the time of the allegations and the proactive efforts after the release of A Civil Action detailing the civil case. The public relations efforts of W.R. Grace as the movie premiered are analyzed and the lessons organizations can learn from their efforts are presented.     

Independent living programs: Do they make a difference?

Children are entering foster care at an alarming rate. There were an estimated 429,000 children in out-of-home care at the end of 1991, which is a 64% increases since 1982 (Tatara, 1990). The largest proportion of children in out-of-home care are between the ages of 13 and 18 (Mech, 1988; Tatara, 1989). Each year, an estimated 16,000 (Sims, 1988) to 18,000 (Ryan, McFadden, Rice, & Warren, 1988) youth are emancipated and leave foster care to assume independence. Many of these young adults are not prepared for self-sufficiency (Barth, 1986, 1990; Festinger, 1983; Westat, 1988). Adolescents from varying out-of-home care settings are eligible for a set of services—Independent Living Programs.The findings of this study suggest that Independent Living Programs may have positive impact on the ability of youth to be self-sufficient at the time of discharge from foster care programs. The youth who participated in the ILP program were more likely to complete high school, have employment history and employment at discharge, and were more likely to be self supporting at the closing of the case.and Ms. Scannapieco is a research assistant, Temple University Center for Human Development and Education.     

“Todo ha sido a pulmón”: Community organizing after disaster in Puerto Rico

ABSTRACT

In this Notes from the Field, we highlight the work of community based organizations that filled essential gaps in the disaster recovery efforts in Puerto Rico for communities that were heavily damaged by Hurricane Maria yet received little formal government aid. We describe community mobilizing and organizing efforts and identify key lessons for eco-social work practice. As disaster risk increases with climate change, community led efforts are likely to prove vital for the effective protection of the most vulnerable population groups.     

Challenges facing U.S. government and Department of Defense efforts in strategic communication

Without entering the debate about exactly what strategic communication is or should be, this article enumerates challenges facing efforts to inform, influence, and persuade in pursuit of national policy objectives first for the U.S. government in general, and then specific to the Department of Defense. With the problem space thus defined, the article then offers a handful of solutions and suggestions, including requiring desired information endstates as part of commander's intent and separating efforts to manipulate and deceive from truthful efforts to inform, influence, and persuade.     

ATOD prevention programming in the non-school hours and adolescent substance use

To reduce problems associated with youth substance use, Indiana developed funding streams and infrastructure to facilitate coordination of statewide prevention efforts. These prevention efforts aimed at youth include programming in the non-school hours. To examine the relationship between these efforts and youth substance abuse, students indicating participation in one or more prevention activities were compared to non-participant students. Results revealed that participating middle school students were less likely to have reported use of tobacco than their non-participating peers. Also, participation in prevention activities in the non-school hours was related to a lower likelihood of alcohol use among high school students.     

Combating sexual offenses on the college campus: keys to success.

The authors emphasize the need for programs to prevent sexual offenses at institutions of higher education. They briefly describe efforts underway at Bowling Green State University and offer 6 strategies for improving the likelihood of success in sexual assault education, prevention, and response efforts.     

From advocacy to accommodation: A case study of the Orlando Magic's public relations efforts to secure a new arena

A case study of the Orlando Magic NBA franchise was conducted to understand media relations, community relations, and foundation efforts in support of a new or renovated arena, examining how either accommodation or advocacy was used when the franchise was in direct conflict with one (or many) of its publics. The contingency theory of accommodation in public relations served as the framework for understanding the franchises efforts. Over the time frame covered by the study, the organization was found to move along the continuum from advocacy to accommodation in its public relations efforts regarding the arena issue.     

When Death Isn't Dead: Implicit Social Rationing during Resuscitative Efforts

In this paper, I address the relationship between social death and clinical-biological death during resuscitative efforts. In Western societies, resuscitative efforts are the medical intervention of choice when sudden death occurs. The widespread use of this technology puts emergency department staff in a difficult gatekeeping position. They are expected to save lives, but, at the same time–when their efforts become futile–to prepare for a dignified death. I show that certain groups of patients are much more likely to be considered socially dead regardless of their clinical viability, while others are less likely to be considered socially dead even when irreversible biological death has set in. The result is an implicit rationing of the lifesaving endeavors based on the social worth of the patient. This rationing annihilates initiatives, such as advance directives, which were instituted to empower patients. Social scientists usually suggest that the solution to the negative effects of rationing is to increase accessibility for all populations; however, resuscitative efforts are a prime example in which less access for all groups–instead of for some–might be preferable. This paper is based on observations of 112 resuscitative efforts during a fourteenth-month period and interviews with 42 health care providers.     

New Directions for Research Examining Sexual Trauma Histories of Gay Men

Summary

Research efforts have been unable to accurately examine the effect of childhood sexual trauma in the adult lives of gay men. Complications stemming from precise definitions of abuse, as well as the subjectivity inherent in the terms, make comprehensive research difficult. As abuse and traumatic events may sometimes be subtle and not involve overt violence, these more delicate events are often overlooked or unaccounted for. Further, because it is a complex endeavor to obtain accurate reporting from children, research efforts rely on the self-reports of adults remembering traumatic events. The symptomatology that results from trauma, including amnesia and dissociation, also affects the reliability of self-report. Additionally, gay men have been notably absent from sexual trauma research efforts for a variety of reasons. A research study which investigates childhood sexual trauma in the histories of adult gay men is discussed. Directions for future research efforts are suggested.     

Re-branding the NHL: Building the league through the “My NHL” integrated marketing campaign

This article is a case study examining promotional efforts undertaken by the National Hockey League (NHL) via integrated marketing initiatives launched during the 2005–2006 season. Following the 2004–2005 season player lockout², the NHL worked to promote itself to both fervent and casual fans. By briefly assessing past marketing efforts and the dwindling popularity of the league in recent years, the article provides a fuller picture of how professional hockey was marketed in North America when the NHL returned to play. The focus is on “My NHL” and the league's re-branding efforts as part of its new integrated communications plan. This research reveals that in its attempts to revive the sport the NHL has done a better job than with past efforts, however the current campaign must be aggressively maintained in order to successfully re-brand the league.     

Contemporary options for longitudinal follow-up: lessons learned from a cohort of urban adolescents

This study reports efforts to locate and survey participants in Project Northland Chicago (PNC), a longitudinal, group-randomized trial of an alcohol preventive intervention for racial/ethnic minority, urban, early-adolescents, 3-4 years following the end of the intervention. Data were collected annually among students from 6th-8th grade and then at age 17-18. Tracking procedures were used to maintain contact with participants and data collection consisted of three phases: (1) Internet- and mail-based surveys; (2) in-school survey administration; and (3) courier service delivery. Contact was lost with 11% of this urban cohort from the end of the PNC intervention activities through these longterm follow-up efforts, as indicated by returned locating postcards. Fifty-three percent of the cohort responded to the survey, the majority completing in Phase 1 of our data collection. Additional school-based and courier-delivery efforts increased our response rate by 11.5%. Costs per completed survey were $118 in Phase 1, $166 in Phase 2, and $440 in Phase 3. This study illustrates that it is possible to track and follow-up a high-risk cohort as they progress through adolescence, even with minimal efforts in intervening years. Lessons learned from this study may inform future efforts to track and collect longitudinal data among high-risk populations.     

Developing a framework for assessing muscle effort and postures during computer work in the field: the effect of computer activities on neck/shoulder muscle effort and postures

The present study, a part of the PROOF (PRedicting Occupational biomechanics in OFfice workers) study, aimed to determine whether trapezius muscle effort was different across computer activities in a field study of computer workers, and also investigated whether head and shoulder postures were different across computer activities. One hundred twenty participants were measured continuously for two hours each while performing their own computer work. Keyboard activities were associated with the highest intensity of left and right trapezius muscle efforts, and mouse activities were associated with the smallest variability in left and right trapezius muscle efforts. Corresponding trends in head and shoulder postures included that the greatest head flexion and left and right shoulder internal rotation was observed during keyboard activities, and that the smallest variability in head flexion, head lateral tilt, and right shoulder internal rotation was observed during mouse activities. Identifying which muscle efforts and postures are different across computer activities is the first essential step for developing prediction rules for muscle efforts and postures, which can be used to link muscle efforts and postures to musculoskeletal symptoms in epidemiological studies.     

The Thorny Dilemma of Gatekeeping versus Inclusion for Students with Disabilities

ABSTRACT

Students with disabilities continue to face difficult obstacles in education. Many times, efforts to assist students are inconsistent, directed by faculty with little knowledge of disability issues, or are reactive efforts to overcome specific problems. The social work faculty at Valdosta State University decided to develop a comprehensive and ongoing program to address disability issues proactively and in a broad sense. Developing the program from intensive literature review, feedback from alumni and students, and assistance from administration has resulted in many successes and an admission that any efforts to develop such a program must be continually reviewed and revised.     

凝心聚力共建“美丽山西”——专访山西省妇联主席王维卿

围绕“办好两件大事（转型跨越和全面建成小康社会）、建设美丽山西”这一主题,在山西省妇联主席王维卿的带领下,省妇联在妇女发展和维权方面做了大量卓有成效的工作：统筹城乡妇女发展,关注妇女儿童民生取得新成绩;实施两纲两规,维护妇女儿童合法权益实现新突硪力促党建带妇建,妇联组织自身建设迈出新步伐。     

The influence of organizational social responsibility on involvement behavior in community sport membership associations

Membership‐based associations are critical to their local communities and the overall social impact of the nonprofit sector. This study examines how organizational social responsibility within nonprofit membership associations influences positive member involvement behaviors, including volunteering, speaking positively about the club, and member loyalty. Self‐administered online questionnaires were completed by 735 members within seven grassroots membership associations in Ontario, Canada offering community‐based sport programs. Results show that members are somewhat aware of and felt positively about their organization's socially responsible efforts. Awareness of these efforts had a positive direct effect on the involvement behaviors of members, including intention to stay involved with their club and speaking positively about their club to others (i.e., word of mouth). Members' level of social consciousness was found to have a positive direct effect on word of mouth. Furthermore, members' positive evaluation of sport clubs' socially responsible initiatives was found to partially mediate the positive relationship between social consciousness and involvement behavior, as well as partially mediate the positive relationship between awareness of those efforts and involvement behavior. Results of this research provide grassroots membership associations with an in‐depth understanding of how their organization's efforts toward social responsibility influence member perceptions and behaviors, which may help them focus their efforts and more effectively manage their social change agenda moving forward.     

FINDING POLITICS IN THE SILLY AND THE SACRED: ANTI-RAPE ACTIVISM ON CAMPUS

Volunteers often describe what they do as nonpolitical. That is, they tend to construct their efforts as simultaneously above and below politics but rarely as explicitly within the realm of politics. Using data from field research at a campus antirape organization, I analyze these aspects of participants' efforts and consider how they are linked to politics. I argue that even actions which appear at first glace to be nonpolitical have political consequences for movements and movement participants. Constructing volunteers' efforts as apolitical, either above or below politics, has the consequence of limiting the transformative potential of volunteer and activist work. I conclude by discussing this and other consequences of avoiding politics.     

Redirecting sexual orientation: Techniques and justifications

This essay reviews efforts to alter sexual orientation using behavioral, psychodynamic, hormonal, pharmaceutical and surgical methods. The essay also examines various justifications offered for such therapy and shows how these have changed as a pathological interpretation of homoeroticism has been abandoned. While such therapy was once justified in language of psychopathology, some current justifications for conversion therapy now treat the matter of therapy as a matter of personal choice and do not invoke the language of pathology at all. That a formal medical rejection of a psychopathological categorization of homoeroticism has not altogether eliminated efforts to redirect sexual orientation suggests that it is ultimately a moral and not medical devaluation of homoeroticism that at bottom drives continuing efforts to control and redirect sexual orientation.     

ECONOMICS AND 100 YEARS OF ANTITRUST: INTRODUCTION

Editor's Note: I wish to thank the symposium editors, George Bittlingmayer, Associate Professor, and Gary Walton, Professor, Graduate School of Management, University of California Davis, Davis, CA., for their special efforts and valuable input as they shepherded these papers through the refereeing and editorial process. I also wish to thank Rodney T. Smith, Professor of Economics, Claremont McKenna College and Claremont Graduate School and Coeditor of Economic Inquiry, who served as coordinator of the symposium efforts, and Carolyn Williams, assistant to the editor, who served as liaison between Economic Inquiry, the symposium editors and the authors. These combined efforts have resulted in the exciting collection of papers that follow.