Supervision reviewed: reflections on two different social work models in England and Sweden

This article draws on the findings of two independent research projects on supervision: one based in England and the second in Sweden. The findings cited illustrate predominantly the perspectives on supervision held by social workers and managers in the statutory services. In the process of contextualising, theorising and pulling together the threads from their respective findings, the authors reflect on the fabric and models of supervision in the two countries. The opportunities and disadvantages of the two contrasting models in current practice are discussed. This includes the steps that could be taken in either country to improve the quality of supervision within learning organisations.     

Methods Used and Topics Addressed in Quantitative Health Research on Gay,Bisexual and Other Men Who Have Sex With Men: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Research on sexual minority men (gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men) was examined with regard to the measures of sexual orientation used, the methods of research, and the main health outcomes under study. A systematic review of English-language quantitative studies was conducted focused on the health of sexual minority men published in 2010 (n = 250). The results provide a snapshot of the literature and revealed that research on sexual minority men overwhelmingly focused on HIV, STIs, and sexual health for which sexual orientation was most commonly defined behaviorally. For topics of mental health or body/fitness outcomes, sexual orientation was most commonly defined by identity. Most study samples were venue-based, and only 8.8% of published papers drew data from population-based samples. The findings suggest that there exists a need for research on sexual minority men’s health beyond STIs and HIV that will examine mental and physical health outcomes beyond sexual risk, uses probability-based samples, and addresses intersectional concerns related to race/ethnicity and age.     

The Effects of Capital Campaigns on Other Nonprofits’ Fundraising

This study focuses on the effects of capital campaigns on the fundraising performance of other nonprofits within the same geographic region. Drawing from research in organizational ecology and charitable giving, we offer a theory of capital campaign impact that says any impact of a campaign must be looked for in a carefully circumscribed area or population of organizations, and that campaigns raise awareness of the need for services within a particular area. We use data on capital campaigns at arts nonprofit organizations in forty‐eight counties across the United States between 1999 and 2007, coupled with financial data on nonprofits in the arts in the same county to test our hypotheses. The results from our analyses show that a major capital campaign positively affects other nonprofits’ fundraising, and the effect varies depending on the phase of the capital campaign. We discuss possible mechanisms that drive the positive effects of capital campaigns, and conclude with a short illustration.     

NIVAH: a composite index measuring violence and harm in the U.S.

The National Index of Violence and Harm (NIVAH) tracks levels of violence and harm in the United States and identifies trends over the study period 1995–2003. NIVAH is comprised of nineteen variables in the areas of interpersonal, intrapersonal, institutional and structural violence and harm as experienced by people in the U.S. Two composite indexes are formed to describe overall trends in the realms of personal and societal violence. In addition to describing the Index’s construction and most recent conclusions, various methodological issues and their impacts on index findings are investigated.

Mobility and the City Improvement District: Frictions in the Human-capital Mobile Assemblage

In this paper, we interrogate the role of the city improvement district (CID) in the intervention and management of mobility within the context of the South African city and the case study of the Groote Schuur Community Improvement District (GSCID), a public–private urban governance scheme situated in Cape Town’s middle income southern suburbs. Using the theoretical lens of bodily-scale mobility, we investigate the CID’s activation and management. This is useful, as we will demonstrate, because it is through the mobility and immobility at the scale of the body, where the CID’s mandate is operationalised and it is through the control of mobility that the CID’s mission, discourses and activities are linked. This work demonstrates that CIDs, as elite-driven urban renewal initiatives closely aligned with capital interests, employ exclusionary spatial practices that have the potential to shape the twenty-first century urban experience in significant ways. We conclude by theorising the co-constitutive nature of human mobilities and capital as the ‘human-capital mobile assemblage’ and by arguing that the CID occupies an ambivalent place in the contemporary city.     

Female leaders and board performance in member‐serving nonprofit organizations

Despite an active stream of “good governance” research, there is not yet much nonprofit scholarship examining how the gender composition of a board or its leadership relates to board performance. This article helps to fill this gap, focusing on the governance practices of US‐based nonprofits serving a domestic or international membership. A structural equation model finds that the presence of female leaders relates to the performance of nonprofit boards both directly and indirectly through these leaders' presumed influence on board characteristics and operation. This research advances the field by empirically testing a longstanding theory that board performance is both multidimensional and contingent on the market and labor environment, organizational capacity and other characteristics—in this case, gender dynamics. We find there are some positive relationships between female board leadership and clearly defined measures of board performance. These findings also suggest that a strategy to balance a board's gender may serve many nonprofits, but gender representation works in tandem with other board characteristics.     

Children's Experience of Sport: What Do We Really Know?

Internationally, children's participation in leisure activities, including sport, is considered to be of such importance that it is enshrined as a human right. However, there is a growing awareness that children's experience of sport is not always benign; abuse and harm frequently occur within a broad range of organised sport contexts. This systematic literature review examines the international research evidence from both peer reviewed and grey literature on the abuse and harm of children that can occur in sport. Four areas of focus were apparent in this literature: first, types of abuse encountered by children in sport and the harm caused to them; second, persons responsible for the abuse and harm; third, circumstances under which children may be most vulnerable; and fourth, the role that culture plays in facilitating abuse in sport. The paper concludes identifying the need for further research in this domain.     

Silence and the physician executive

Silence can be an indication that things are running smoothly; on the other hand it can be an ominous sign that there is dissent among your staff.     

Aren't they just black kids? Biracial children in the child welfare system

In the USA, African‐American children are overrepresented in the child welfare system. However, little is known about the child welfare system experiences of biracial children, who are predominately both White and African‐American. To better understand this population, data from public child welfare in a US county were used to examine biracial children in the child welfare system. Results showed significant racial differences between children in the child welfare system. Despite the common belief that biracial children will have experiences similar to African‐American children, the child welfare system seems to view them differently. Biracial children are more likely to be referred, rated as high risk and investigated compared with White or African‐American children. Their mothers were younger, and were more often assessed as having physical, intellectual or emotional problems. These caregivers were also considered to have lower parenting skills and knowledge compared with White or African‐American caregivers. Although the disproportionate representation of African‐American children in the system has been well documented, this study provides evidence that biracial children are also overrepresented. Despite the fact that this is a rapidly growing population in the USA, there is little research available about biracial children and their families.     

Tweedie's Formula and Selection Bias

We suppose that the statistician observes some large number of estimates z(i), each with its own unobserved expectation parameter μ(i). The largest few of the z(i)'s are likely to substantially overestimate their corresponding μ(i)'s, this being an example of selection bias, or regression to the mean. Tweedie's formula, first reported by Robbins in 1956, offers a simple empirical Bayes approach for correcting selection bias. This paper investigates its merits and limitations. In addition to the methodology, Tweedie's formula raises more general questions concerning empirical Bayes theory, discussed here as "relevance" and "empirical Bayes information." There is a close connection between applications of the formula and James-Stein estimation.