Early outcomes for young adults transitioning from out-of-home care in the USA

This paper describes the well‐being of participants in the Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (n = 603), a study of youth leaving out‐of‐home care in the USA, at the point where they have been ‘young adults’ for about 1 year. Although some of these young adults are in stable situations and either moving forward with their education or employed in promising jobs, more of them are having significant difficulties during the early stages of the transition to adulthood. Too many are neither employed nor in school, have children that they are not able to parent, suffer from persistent mental illness or substance use disorders, find themselves without basic necessities, become homeless, or end up involved with the criminal justice system. They are doing worse than other young adults across a number of important dimensions. Most of these young adults continue to maintain relations with members of their family of origin, with many finding themselves living with family at age 19. Importantly, those young people who chose to remain under the care and supervision of the child welfare system experienced better outcomes than those who either chose to or were forced to leave care.     

Making Service-Learning Partnerships Work: Listening and Responding to Community Partners

This study explored community partners’ perspectives regarding the motivations and barriers to engaging in service-learning partnerships. Three focus groups (N = 19) were held with representatives from diverse nonprofit organizations recruited from a university-based center for community service learning. Desire for expanded organizational capacity emerged as the strongest motivator, although enjoyment of mentoring students and the ability to acquire new knowledge also motivated individuals above and beyond the needs of their organizations. Faculty engagement presented the greatest barrier, which poses questions about the power dynamics of service learning and the extent to which faculty respect the community in these relationships.     

Is Business Discourse Colonizing Philanthropy? A Critical Discourse Analysis of (PRODUCT) RED

Increasingly, traditional notions of philanthropy are colonized by a market discourse that promotes consumption as an effective way to solve social ills, resulting in what scholars have termed “marketized philanthropy.” This paper examines the implications of marketized philanthropy through a discourse analysis of the (PRODUCT) RED campaign benefiting the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis in Africa through consumption of (RED)-branded products. This paper explores the implications of a business-oriented model of philanthropy for bringing about social change, the repercussions of campaigns like (RED) that explicitly shed the label of philanthropy; and how they impact political engagement.     

Connecting and engaging with health and social care: Exploring the core components of a telephone and web-mediated family navigation prevention service

Early engagement with health care, mental health care, and social services can promote the well-being of children and families. How practitioners can best support family engagement with these services however remains largely unknown. To address this gap in knowledge, data from a voluntary 12-week telephone and web-mediated family navigation preventive intervention called Navigate Your Way were subject to mixed-methods analysis. Twenty-nine caregivers and five family navigators contributed data to the study. Thematic analysis of weekly navigator check-ins, participant closing interviews, navigator discharge notes, and lab meeting notes was conducted and followed by quantitative analysis of navigator effort across project activities. Results were then mixed to illuminate the essential conditions for supporting family connection to health care, mental health care, and social services. Qualitative analysis identified themes related to empathic engagement and person-centred navigation as central to connecting families to needed services. Quantitative analysis of navigator effort identified participant outreach, weekly check-ins, service identification, and ongoing supervision as essential navigation activities. Together, providing an environment that is supportive, consistent, flexible, person-centred and tailored to families' specific needs are important for connecting to health and social care.     

Estimating Evacuation Shelter Deficits in the Houston–Galveston Metropolitan Area

Evacuation is frequently used by emergency managers and other officials as part of an overall approach to reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with hurricane landfall. In this study, the evacuation shelter capacity of the Houston–Galveston Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) was spatially assessed and shelter deficits in the region were estimated. These data provide essential information needed to eliminate shelter deficits and ensure a successful evacuation from a future storm. Spatial statistical methods—Global Moran's I, Anselin Local Moran's I (Local Indicators of Spatial Association [LISA]), and Hot Spot Analysis (Getis-Ord Gi*) were used to assess for regional spatial autocorrelation and clustering of evacuation shelters in the Houston–Galveston MSA. Shelter deficits were estimated in four ways—the aggregate deficit for the Houston–Galveston MSA, by evacuation Zip-Zone, by county, and by distance or radii of evacuation Zip-Zone. Evacuation shelters were disproportionately distributed in the region, with lower capacity shelters clustered closer to evacuation Zip-Zones (50 miles from the Coastal Zip-Zone), and higher capacity shelters clustered farther away from the zones (120 miles from the Coastal Zip-Zone). The aggregate shelter deficit for the Houston–Galveston MSA was 353,713 persons. To reduce morbidity and mortality associated with future hurricanes in the Houston–Galveston MSA, authorities should consider the development and implementation of policies that would improve the evacuation shelter capacity of the region. Eliminating shelter deficits, which has been done successfully in the state of Florida, is an essential element of protecting the public from hurricane impacts.     

Equality of recruitment: Gender parity in French National Assembly elections

This research centers on the effects of the newly mandated gender parity on French electoral politics. We examine the results from the 2002 National Assembly elections. Our findings suggest that this Parity Law contributed to the modest increase in the number of female deputies elected to the National Assembly, but that the electoral success rate for female candidates declined from the previous elections in 1997. This result appears to have been affected by two factors: (1) a greater-than-average number of female candidates were affiliated with the Socialist party—the party that lost control of the government in this election and (2) many female candidates were running against male incumbents. Multivariate analysis suggests that, after these two factors are controlled for, female candidates were more likely to be elected in open seat contests than were male candidates. Preliminary analysis of roll call votes in the two most recent (1997–2004) legislative sessions suggests that party, not gender, is the main determinant of voting behavior.     

Shift Work,Role Overload,and the Transition to Parenthood

This article examines how the work hours, work schedules, and role overload of working‐class couples are related to depressive symptoms and relationship conflict across the transition to parenthood. Data are from 132 dual‐earner couples interviewed 5 times across the transition. Multilevel modeling analyses revealed that working evening or night shifts, as opposed to day shifts, was related to higher levels of depressive symptoms. For mothers only, working rotating shifts predicted relationship conflict. Increases in role overload were positively related to both depression and conflict; working a nonday shift explained variance in depression and conflict above and beyond role overload. Results suggest that for new parents, working nonday shifts may be a risk factor for depressive symptoms and relationship conflict.     

Designing a campus support program for foster care alumni: Preliminary evidence for a strengths framework

Campus support programs for foster care alumni (FCA) have emerged in an attempt to improve higher education outcomes for former foster youth. However, these programs have little empirical or theoretical literature to guide their development. We present a case study of a newly developed campus support program for FCA which utilizes a strengths perspective. We analyze quantitative and qualitative data collected before and during the first two years of program operation to explore whether a strengths perspective can be successfully applied to the unique needs of FCA in higher education. Results reveal that the strengths perspective has potential and identifies three areas in which this approach appears to effectively intersect with challenges faced by FCA, a) promoting positive identities as survivors, b) respecting autonomy, and c) mobilizing assets of resilience, perseverance, and community. We discuss the benefits and challenges of helping students address these issues. Our findings also reveal that the strengths perspective is not redundant with traditional higher education retention models, and in the three areas identified, is diametrically opposed to the students' previous experiences with the foster care system.