Engaging Indigenous Communities: Towards a Policy Framework for Indigenous Community Justice Programmes

Community engagement has come to the fore as a policy and programme approach that seeks to connect citizens both with each other and with government in order to deliver improved social and economic opportunities and outcomes. This model has become a key aspect of the intervention approach within Indigenous communities and is seen to have particular application in addressing community justice issues. This article examines a suite of community justice initiatives being used in Indigenous communities in Australia with a view to ascertaining how the principles of community engagement are operationalized. The article draws on this information and argues that community engagement is only one aspect of a number of community‐oriented justice initiatives currently being applied. These initiatives range from concepts of community as a location, community as an interest group, and the leveraging of community capital so as to tap into and build better and stronger relationships. In so doing, the latter attempts to increase the social infrastructure, resources and capacity of communities. However, despite government attention in this area, there is a lack of a policy and programmatic framework to guide a coherent and apposite approach to issues of community in specific policy settings. The article contributes to the development of a framework that begins the process of differentiating and assessing justice administration interventions.     

社区“居民需求网”架构研究

构建社会主义和谐社会必然要求建设和谐社区,建设和谐社区的关键环节是什么?本文认为,建设和谐社区应以满足居民需求为中心,紧紧围绕"居民需求"开展社区建设与社区服务工作,建设完善的"居民需求网"。社区"居民需求网"应包括"需求了解网"、"需求满足网"、"需求评估网",三者共同架构起一个需求网络体系。和谐社区的建设工作,应以社区"居民需求网"建构为重心。     

底层生态与生活重建:新市民社会管理中的社区介入

本文从底层生态的视角,考察新市民的社会生活。研究发现,由于工作性质、经济收入、个人禀赋、社会网络等因素所致,新市民群体的社会生活呈现出明显的多元化和碎片化特征。重建新市民的社会生活,需要以政府为主导,以社区管理为切入点,缩小新市民与原城市居民两大群体的社会距离,帮助新市民融入城市社会。     

试论社区“时间银行”的发展困境和对策

社区时间银行是新型的社区服务模式,在保持强劲发展势头的同时,也遭遇发展困境和障碍。本文指出和分析了社区时间银行本身的性质、服务的换算、机构的信誉、志愿者的专业性等问题,并在此基础上尝试着提出了解决这些困境的对策。     

Critical Components in Implementing Evidence‐based Practice: A Multiple Case Study of Individual Placement and Support for People with Psychiatric Disabilities

When developing Community Mental Health Services to support people with psychiatric disabilities, European countries are advocating evidence ‐based practice (EBP ). Individual Placement and Support (IPS ) is an evidence ‐based model designed to support people in acquiring and maintaining competitive employment. Implementation science is a growing research field, with a focus on components that impact the process of implementing EBP programmes. In this multiple case study, we have followed three IPS demonstration sites for two years, in order to describe and analyze barriers and facilitators for implementation, according to constructs described in the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (Damschroder et al. 2009 ). The results highlight the importance of strategic networking, as well as the need for planning and preparations carried out before the start of an EBP programme, since deficiencies related to these constructs are difficult to compensate for.      

An integrated system of engaging social workers and community volunteers in social care for the elderly: case studies in Taiwan

Integrating volunteers into social care is widely expected but rarely successful in practice. This paper discusses how the Community Care Centre Plan organising community volunteers to provide services to the elderly in Taiwan. This plan successfully integrated social workers and volunteers in a national system to offer service in local communities, showing a systemic practice of community care and a unique case of community-based and volunteer-based service. The purposes of this paper are to introduce the programme design and to understand how to integrate the mission of social workers and volunteers’ performance. The governmental policy and requirements, the role of social workers and the provision of voluntary community service which contributed to form the system were examined in this paper.     

Surviving in “Localistic Communitas”: Endogenous Multicultural Community Organizing among Migrant Workers in Post-Socialist China

ABSTRACT

Based on 5 months of ethnographic fieldwork and 43 in-depth interviews with villagers of T Township, the author uncovers an emerging approach of endogenous multicultural community practice in the cities where the villagers have migrated to work. Cadres and villagers transplant their localistic networks to the new urban contexts while transforming hierarchical and clientelistic personal ties into more horizontal relations of comradeship. Through these redefined ties, they manage to transcend the persisting boundaries of village units, class status, and lineage institutions that segment the rural society, and succeed in mobilizing community resources to fight for urban survival and social justice. Although neither community service nor the social work profession is fully institutionalized in contemporary China, innovative organizing is appearing in grassroots communities in response to sweeping social changes. This article draws academic attention to these community practices and discusses their implications for the future development of strength-based social work and social services in post-socialist China.     

Formative research methods to understand patient and provider responses to heart attack symptoms

Formative research is often required for program planning, and for reducing uncertainty about generalizability of program effects. This article describes and justifies methods of formative research conducted for the REACT study (Rapid Early Action for Coronary Treatment), a multi-center collaborative randomized community trial aimed at reducing patient delay in seeking care for acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Formative research cast light on patient and community members’ decision-making process in seeking help for AMI, as well as barriers and facilitators of this process. Investigators at all five REACT Field Centers participated in the formative research. The process consisted of: (1) developing a common theoretical framework for the study intervention; (2) conducting a literature review and qualitative research to identify and address gaps in knowledge; and (3) developing a common protocol for the REACT study that accommodated the diversity of the target communities in terms of services, resources, history, and ethnicity. Analysis employed triangulation, defined as an explicit search for heterogeneous data sources to reduce uncertainty about forces at work and opportunities for intervention across settings and populations. Because the collection and interpretation of data went in stages, staff of several REACT Field Centers had independent input to the overall synthesis, then shared and revised the results. Advantages and limitations of this approach are discussed.     

Assessing participants’ perceptions on group-based principles for action in community-based health enhancing physical activity programmes: The APEF tool

In community-based health enhancing physical activity (CBHEPA) programmes, group-based principles for action such as active participation, enjoyment, and fostering group processes are widely advocated. However, not much is known about participants’ perceptions of these principles as there are no assessment tools available. Therefore, this article describes the development of the APEF (Active Participation, Enjoyment, and Fostering group processes) tool and reports on its implementation in a Dutch CBHEPA programme. Indicators for the principles have been identified from literature research, interviews with professionals, and secondary analysis of three group interviews with 11 practitioners. To address the identified indicators, the APEF tool was developed, pretested, and used in 10 focus groups with 76 participants.The APEF tool consists of eight statements about group-based principles for action, on which CBHEPA participants vote, followed by in-depth discussion. The voting procedure engages participants. Spider diagrams visualise participants’ perceptions of group-based principles.The APEF tool addresses the challenge of relating group level outcomes to individual outcomes such as physical activity behaviour. The tool facilitates as well as evaluates group-based principles for action, it stimulates dialogue and is culturally sensitive, but it needs strong facilitating skills to manage group dynamics.     

Investment communities: Behavioral attitudes and economic dynamics

Using a real-world data set encompassing the daily portfolio holdings and exposures of complex investment funds, we derive a set of quantitative attributes to capture essential behavioral features of fund managers. We find the existence and stability of three investment attitudes, namely the conservative, the reactive, and the pro-active profiles, defining communities that respond differently when facing external shocks. The conservative community has behavioral similarities that tend to decrease due to external shocks, the reactive community members greatly increase their activity level especially during turmoil phases, while delegated investors in the pro-active community are more resilient to turbulence and counterbalance the impact of the events by adjusting their portfolio exposures in advance. We show that exogenous shocks only temporarily perturb the behavioral traits of the communities which then go back to their original states once the distress is embedded.