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.     

Collaborative Teams for Youth Engagement

SUMMARY

Youth engagement on collaborative teams is a viable approach to healthier youth development and community development. This article examines four characteristics of engagement in the research literature and a specific school-community-university project: adult support, a youth-friendly environment, the completion of meaningful tasks, and the learning and utilization of new skills.     

Spirituality and Faith-Based Social Services

Abstract

Spiritual aspects of faith-based social services are rarely addressed in discussions of policy initiatives encouraging greater involvement of faith-based providers in service delivery. This article reports findings of a qualitative study of the values, beliefs, and practices of non-congregational faith-based service providers. Twenty-two providers in Midwestern and northwestern regions of the U.S. were asked about the spiritual bases of their programs, spiritual dimensions of service relationships, distinctions between service communities and programs, and distinctions between service ministries and social work. Implications for collaborations among providers with different beliefs are discussed.     

Building a Comprehensive Agency-University Partnership

Abstract

University-community partnerships are receiving increased attention in an era of rapid change and fragmented resources. This case study of a multi-county consortium of social service agencies in collaboration with four graduate social work programs and two foundations represents an innovative approach to building a partnership through the use of a consortium as a mediating structure. With a focus on training, research, policy development, and a think tank, specific implications for developing agency-university partnership are identified. The case is embedded in the expanding literature on university-community collaboration.     

Aligning supply chain collaboration using Analytic Hierarchy Process

The significance of collaboration among supply chain members has been sufficiently stressed in the recent literature as a powerful tool for increasing accuracy of demand forecasts and for consequent cost reductions. Since it has been recognized that naïve forecasting is no longer cost efficient, Supply Chain (SC) members have found it very important to exchange relevant information that will help improve accuracy of demand forecasting. This information differs widely in terms of their characteristics. For example, some information (e.g. historic sales data) that is cheap to exchange may not contribute to a great increase in forecast accuracy. Similarly, some information may not be very reliable (e.g. demand forecast by individual SC members). In general, there is a trade-off in the kind of information required and the kind of information exchanged. This study analyses these trade-offs using an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model. The model is then implemented based on case studies conducted in two manufacturing firms. The AHP model ranks available information in terms of their contributions to improve forecast accuracy, and can provide vital clues to SC partners for preparing exchangeable data. From the case studies using AHP model, it was proved that using the preferred SC data, the firms could enhance forecasts accuracy. This in turn can help the firms to make decisions on SC collaborative arrangements for information exchange.     

Connecting a University to a Distant Neighborhood

Abstract

The willingness on the part of university participants to listen attentively to community representatives is of great importance to successful collaborations. This article presents three phases of a university-community partnership between the Macedonia neighborhood in High Point, North Carolina, and the Center for the Study of Social Issues (CSSI) at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Although no professional network and neighborhood contacts were in place prior to this collaboration, the partnership addressed community needs by obtaining federal grant funding and by listening to the residents' concerns. Staff, students, and faculty overcame the challenges of inexperience and the difficulty of working with a neighborhood that was not located near the university. In various phases, the partnership moved away from a technical assistance approach to a self-help model. By actively engaging neighborhood residents through the Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC), a learning and adaptation process occurred that resulted in successful university-community collaboration.     

Coalition-Based Social Change Initiatives

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a model for establishing and maintaining social change coalitions. The model, based on the authors' study of a successful coalition-based social change initiative, highlights the potential contribution of a neutral, external support agency whose goal is to help a group of organizations collaborate in an effort to promote change in social policy in an area of shared concern. The external agency brings knowledge and experience in working with coalitions, needs to be trusted by all the coalition partners, and should be perceived as not competing for recognition or resources, and as having only the common goal in mind. The components of the model and the methodology employed to develop it are presented, followed by assessment of its generalizability to other settings. Experts, from different disciplines, countries and ethnic backgrounds, advised that this model has great potential for solving social problems in many different areas.     

缘起缘落： 方志彤与庞德后期儒家经典翻译考

美国现代派诗人埃兹拉·庞德一生推崇中国文化和儒家思想,除了在诗歌中大量引用中国典故,还翻译了《大学》、《中庸》、《论语》、《诗经》等儒学经典。庞德晚年被拘押在华盛顿圣伊丽莎白精神病医院期间同哈佛学者方志彤有频繁的书信往来,分析这些史料可以追溯庞德和方志彤之间围绕儒家经典翻译的探讨和争论,进而驳斥西方学者所谓18、19世纪汉学家的译著为庞德儒家经典翻译唯一依据的观点。庞德晚年的儒学翻译有诸多突破：一是突破了对个人和社会责任的关注;二是突破了“四书”的限制;三是突破了重汉语字形、轻汉语语音的成见。庞德能有这些突破,方志彤功不可没。史料证明,方志彤对庞德后期儒家典籍翻译的帮助和影响超过了半个世纪来学界的估计。     

我国优质高等教育资源分布格局的百年演变———基于民国以来的历史考察

自民国以来,我国优质高等教育资源经历了国立大学、重点大学、“211工程”大学和“985工程”大学三次变化。尽管我国优质高等教育资源不断增加,但分布不均衡是其显著特征,具体表现为省际差异和区域不均衡。从省际分布来看,优质高等教育资源经历了从相对均衡到不均衡的转变;从区域分布来看,东部优质高等教育资源无论是在数量上还是在质量上都强于中西部,而优质高等教育资源“南强北弱”的格局则逐渐演变为“北强南弱”。我国优质高等教育资源的分布与政权中心的变迁和区域整体经济发展程度关系密切,但与各省、市、自治区经济发展程度并非呈简单的正相关。因此,促进各省、市、自治区经济发展实力的提升与政府宏观调控相结合是扭转优质高等教育资源分布失衡格局的应有逻辑。