A Strategic Planning Process for a Small Nonprofit Organization: A Hospice Example

Strategic planning is an essential part of management. However, planning processes can consume great amounts of time and resources that small, nonprofit organizations may lack. Moreover, the process that is used can be tedious and may result in plans that are discarded before or during their implementation. In this article, a strategic planning process is presented that incorporates a Policy Delphi group technique and Situation Structuring, a computer program that assists participants in structuring or defining the problems to be addressed in the plan. The organization to which the process is applied is a small, nonprofit hospice. Both the planning process and an evaluation of the implementation of the resultant strategic plan are examined.     

Neighborhood-Based Services: Organizational Change and Integration Prospects

Prospects for service integration between settlement houses, or traditional neighborhood centers that offer services for individuals ranging from preschool children to the elderly, and family resource centers, agencies that provide support for families and early childhood education programs, are explored in this Rochester, New York, case study. Although the target populations of these two types of organizations overlap, service integration is not likely in the short run due to differing organizational philosophies and the adaptation of each organization to unique funding sources. Increased funding pressures and demands for greater efficiency in service delivery may make collaboration more attractive in the future.     

Assessment of Intimate Partner Violence by Child Welfare Services

The purpose of this study was to describe policy and practice with respect to the assessment of intimate partner violence in a sample of child welfare agencies located throughout the United States and to examine the relationship of contextual characteristics and assessment practices. Telephone interviews were conducted with key informants from child welfare agencies. A snowball interviewing strategy was used to identify the best informant in each agency. Almost all of the participating agencies conducted some assessment of intimate partner violence, with most reporting that the majority of screening or assessment occurred during investigation of referrals. However, only 43.1% reported that all of the families referred to the child welfare system were assessed for intimate partner violence, and 52.8% indicated they had a written policy pertaining to screening and assessment of the problem. There was little relationship between county or agency characteristics and assessment practices. Additional research is needed to determine factors that influence assessment practices and to identify strategies to support and extend efforts to identify intimate partner violence and provide appropriate services for families in the child welfare system.     

Neurobehavioral Consequences of Prenatal Exposure to Smoking at 6 to 8 Months of Age

Between 400,000 and 800,000 infants are born in the United States each year to women who smoked cigarettes during their pregnancy. Whereas the physical health consequences to infants of prenatal exposure to smoking are well established, the early neurobehavioral consequences are less well understood. This study investigated the neurobehavioral consequences of prenatal exposure to smoking using an epidemiologically derived sample of 454 infants who were drawn from a larger sample of 1,292 infants whose families were recruited at birth. Results indicated that, on average, infants who were exposed to higher levels of prenatal smoking exhibited less positive affect and greater irritability. Moreover, among male infants, elevated levels of prenatal exposure to smoking were associated with lower levels of approach, gross motor movement, reactivity, and attention. There was no evidence that the effects of prenatal exposure to smoking on infant neurobehavioral functioning were mediated by physical growth parameters (infant weight and head circumference) that are also known to be affected by prenatal exposure to smoking.     

Romantic Relationships,Relationship Styles,Coping Strategies,and Psychological Distress among Chinese and Australian Young Adults

This study examined the association between relationship styles, coping strategies, and psychological distress among 144 Anglo‐Australian and 250 Hong Kong Chinese undergraduate students. The results indicated that relationship styles (secure, clingy, and fickle) influenced psychological distress through their association with coping strategies (avoidance and self‐punishment). Society of residence was a moderating factor for the association between clingy relationship style and psychological distress. Females also reported higher levels of psychological distress than males. Among participants who had experienced a romantic relationship break up, participants endorsing clingy relationship style and those whose partners initiated the break up expressed more hurt in comparison, whereas those who endorsed avoidance strategy reported less hurt. The results of the present study also suggested that psychosocial variables (relationship styles, coping strategies) were generally more important than demographic factors (e.g., age) in predicting mental health outcomes. However, relationship styles and coping strategies may operate differently under different contexts.     

Typologie des mensonges dans l’espace public: Quelle régulation numérique?

Quelle place pour le mensonge en démocratie ? Comment différencier les différents types de mensonge dans l’espace public ? La démocratie est-elle un régime de vérité ou un régime où les modes de véridiction peuvent se concurrencer légalement, sans s’assimiler, tant qu’ils respectent les droits fondamentaux des individus. Á la différence des régimes anti-démocratiques, l’État de droit offre des conditions de possibilités de déconstruction des langages mensongers, qui demandent une appropriation de la part des citoyens pour pleinement prouver leur efficacité régulatrice.     

Gender and citizenship in the restructuring of janitorial work in Los Angeles

The author examines intersections of gender and citizenship with a study of building services janitors in Los Angeles County. Changes in the industry using 1970, 1980, and 1990 censuses, union reports, and field work are analyzed. The author finds that restructuring facilitated the entrance of Latinas into janitorial work. In Los Angeles County in the 1980s, building managers switched from employing union janitors to contracted, nonunion janitors. The contractors hired Latina/o immigrants to do the lower-paid, restructured work. The share of Mexican and Salvadoran women increased during the 1980s. In addition, Mexican and Salvadoran women moved into janitorial work at higher rates than men. Furthermore, Latinas who arrived during the 1980s entered janitorial work at higher rates than the 1970s arrivals.     

Information sharing between the child welfare and behavioral health systems: Perspectives from four stakeholder groups

This qualitative study articulates the challenges, best practices, and facilitators to information sharing when addressing the behavioral health needs of children in out-of-home care. 13 interviews and nine focus groups were conducted to illuminate the perspectives of foster parents, mental health clinicians, provider agency social workers, and city-employed child welfare professionals. In total, 65 individuals participated in this qualitative study and data were analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach. Results indicate that challenges and best practices in cross-system information sharing articulated across the four stakeholder groups are attributed to variation in information accessibility, clarity in roles and protocols, ability in obtaining signatures for consent/release forms, and attitudinal differences towards collaboration. Implications to improve policy and practice are discussed.     

Practicum Issues: A Placement Planning Model

The significance of the practicum's role in the professional education of social workers is discussed. A model is proposed for matching student with practicum settings, to be used as a tool to facilitate the administrative work of the practicum. Major variables inherent in the placement decisional process are highlighted and codified into a standardized format. The results of a pilot test utilizing an earlier draft of the model are reviewed.