Attributions about Addiction among Latina Women

This cross-sectional, secondary analysis study utilizes data from a prior study of intergenerational substance use among Latina women (n = 316). We explored the influence of substance use frequency and type, as well as cultural and socioeconomic factors on attributions about addiction among a predominantly immigrant sample of Latina women. Women who were less proficient in English (an indicator of adoption of the receiving culture in the acculturation process) and more proficient in Spanish (an indicator of heritage-culture retention) endorsed more spiritual model attributions than women who were more proficient in English and less proficient in Spanish. Women were more proficient in Spanish more frequently endorsed the disease attribution model. Alcohol, marijuana use and non-medical sedative use were linked with spiritual, moral /character and disease attribution models respectively. Participants reporting higher education levels indicated less agreement with the moral/character model of addiction. Implications for culturally tailored social work interventions for Latina women are discussed.     

The Unity Council at 40: a pioneering community development and service organization (1967-2007)

The Spanish Speaking Unity Council (Unity Council) is a community development nonprofit organization that was established in 1964, during the civil rights movement, by a group of community members who wanted to ensure the political representation of the Latino community. Over its 45-year history, the Unity Council has grown into a $12 million community development organization that delivers a range of programming, including social services and employment training as well as facilitating the development and support of local businesses, low-income housing, and neighborhood improvement activities. The history of the agency presents the multiple challenges and rewards associated with development in an underserved community and an example of the important role that leadership plays in the growth of a nonprofit.     

BANANAS: providing child care services to a multi-ethnic community

BANANAS, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that has provided child care resource and referral services for over 35 years. BANANAS emerged as a grassroots effort initiated by a group of female volunteers who sought to build a network of women with children who needed childcare. As the organization developed, its leaders recognized and responded to additional needs, including resource and information sharing, workshops and classes, and political advocacy. Beginning as a collective, BANANAS has grown into a multifaceted service delivery and advocacy nonprofit operating with an annual budget of $12 million. This history of the agency reflects the development of a unique community-based effort, its challenges and rewards, and the multiple successes that this pioneering nonprofit has experienced.     

Jewish Family and Children's Services: a pioneering human service organization (1850-2008)

Jewish Family and Children's Services of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin, and Sonoma Counties is a pioneering nonprofit human service organization that has delivered services for 157 years. Over the course of its history, the organization has transformed itself from an all-volunteer agency delivering aid to immigrant families during the Gold Rush era to a $30 million nonprofit human service organization offering a full-range of services to adults, children, and families. The history of Jewish Family and Children's Services sheds light on the importance of strong leadership, strategic planning, external relationships, and strong donor support.     

CompassPoint Nonprofit Services: strengthening the capacities of nonprofits (1971-2008)

CompassPoint Nonprofit Services is a nonprofit organization that delivers cutting-edge research and support services to the nonprofit community. Over its 30-year history, CompassPoint has transitioned from a small management support agency into a nationally-recognized leader in nonprofit capacity building and nonprofit management research. Through its strong internal operations and external connections, the agency has been able to stay current on the multiple challenges facing the local and national nonprofit community. CompassPoint has been a valuable resource for the nonprofit sector as it has struggled to retain its identity over the past 30 years, in relation to political and economic changes that have altered the functioning of the sector as a whole.     

Larkin Street Youth Services: helping kids get off the street for good (1982-2007)

Larkin Street Youth Services is a pioneering nonprofit organization that was established in 1981 to serve the growing urban homeless and runaway youth population. What began as a neighborhood effort has evolved into a $12 million organization over the course of its 25-year history. Larkin Street Youth Services delivers a continuum of services to homeless youth including counseling, housing, education, employment, and HIV services. The agency has received significant local and national attention for the success of its targeted program model and continuum of care services. The history of Larkin Street Youth Services provides an example of the important role of internal operations in an agency's ability to re-invent itself and respond to a larger community need.     

What’s keeping you awake at night? Challenges facing trainers in South Africa

Corporate Trainers experience many organizational challenges that require new skills. This qualitative study sought to determine the challenges faced by South African Education Training and Development university students employed as trainers in corporate roles. Findings suggest that trainers require contextual and generic soft skills to meet the requirements of their jobs and that the term trainer embraces a variety of roles of different focus and different status. While there appear to be a common set of problems facing trainers irrespective of location, the interventionist skills and employment policies of the South African government have an important influence on activity in the organization.     

Psychosocial Correlates and Consequences of Adolescents’ Self‐Generated Academic Goals and Appraisals

The current study examined whether characteristics of adolescents (i.e., externalizing problems) and their environments (i.e., social support, adverse childhood experiences) relate to academic goal setting, appraisals, and outcomes. Adolescents (n = 99; 87% Black/African American) 13–16 years old completed baseline interviews, and 80% also completed follow‐up interviews. Adolescents with more externalizing problems set fewer academic goals, and youth with social networks characterized by greater support (and less strain) appraised their academic goals as more supported and achievable. Adolescents’ appraisals of their academic goals, but not how many academic goals they had, predicted grades at follow‐up. Increasing social support (and reducing social strain) may foster adolescents’ positive appraisals of their academic goals, which may promote academic achievement.     

Mapping social work education in the West Africa region: Movements toward indigenization in 12 countries’ training programs

This article presents the results of a systematic mapping of social work training programs in countries throughout West Africa, a region historically under‐represented in global discussions of the social welfare workforce. The research illuminates how social workers and related professionals are trained to engage in social work practice in a number of West African countries. The research was conducted in two phases. In the initial phase, the research team collected documents from 12 West African countries and conducted phone interviews with relevant individuals. The second phase included field research in five West African countries ? Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal ? where the research team conducted semi‐structured interviews and group discussions with 253 individuals. Framed by indigenization theory, this study describes social service training institutes in West Africa and highlights the varying degrees to which programs have been adapted to indigenous and endogenous realities in the postcolonial era.     

Emerson,Cooley, and the American Heroic Vision*

Willful leaders and mindless masses are governing images in Carlyle's and Nietzsche's romantic conception of political domination. In contrast, the nineteenth century American notion of heroic leadership was inspired by liberal sentiment and drew mainly on classical republican definitions of greatness. These sentiments and definitions supplied the basis for Ralph Waldo Emerson's theory of heroes and hero worship. The first part of this paper shows how the tension between elitist and democratic conceptions of the hero permeated Emerson's early work, and how this tension was finally resolved in his essays on representative men. The second part of the paper deals with Charles Horton Cooley's admiration of Emerson, and the affinity between Emerson's mature ideas and Cooley's studies of genius, emulation, fame, and leadership. Cooley's political sociology, like Emerson's, was based on a profound attachment to democratic principles. Cooley also believed, as did Emerson, that these intangible principles only remain secure as long as society emulates the great men who personify them. Building upon Emerson's conception of the heroic figure as a symbol rather than a source of social order and social change, Cooley passed on to later generations of American sociologists a conception of heroic leadership that differs sharply from the romantic visions which prevailed in Europe from Emerson's time to Cooley's own day.