Community gardens: lessons learned from California Healthy Cities and Communities.

PubMed

Twiss, Joan; Dickinson, Joy; Duma, Shirley; Kleinman, Tanya; Paulsen, Heather; Rilveria, Liz

2003-09-01

Community gardens enhance nutrition and physical activity and promote the role of public health in improving quality of life. Opportunities to organize around other issues and build social capital also emerge through community gardens. California Healthy Cities and Communities (CHCC) promotes an inclusionary and systems approach to improving community health. CHCC has funded community-based nutrition and physical activity programs in several cities. Successful community gardens were developed by many cities incorporating local leadership and resources, volunteers and community partners, and skills-building opportunities for participants. Through community garden initiatives, cities have enacted policies for interim land and complimentary water use, improved access to produce, elevated public consciousness about public health, created culturally appropriate educational and training materials, and strengthened community building skills.

Community Gardens: Lessons Learned From California Healthy Cities and Communities

PubMed Central

Twiss, Joan; Dickinson, Joy; Duma, Shirley; Kleinman, Tanya; Paulsen, Heather; Rilveria, Liz

2003-01-01

Community gardens enhance nutrition and physical activity and promote the role of public health in improving quality of life. Opportunities to organize around other issues and build social capital also emerge through community gardens. California Healthy Cities and Communities (CHCC) promotes an inclusionary and systems approach to improving community health. CHCC has funded community-based nutrition and physical activity programs in several cities. Successful community gardens were developed by many cities incorporating local leadership and resources, volunteers and community partners, and skills-building opportunities for participants. Through community garden initiatives, cities have enacted policies for interim land and complimentary water use, improved access to produce, elevated public consciousness about public health, created culturally appropriate educational and training materials, and strengthened community building skills. PMID:12948958

Keeping "Community" in a Community Land Trust

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gray, Karen A.; Galande, Mugdha

2011-01-01

This instrumental case study examined the role of grassroots community organizing in a community land trust (CLT) in a southern U.S. city. Twenty-nine homeowners, renters, board members, community members, and current and former CLT employees were interviewed. In addition, two focus groups of 11 and six participants composed of CLT residents and…

Community Health Warriors: Marshallese Community Health Workers' Perceptions and Experiences with CBPR and Community Engagement.

PubMed

Purvis, Rachel S; Bing, Williamina Ioanna; Jacob, Christopher J; Lang, Sharlynn; Mamis, Sammie; Ritok, Mandy; Rubon-Chutaro, Jellesen; McElfish, Pearl Anna

2017-01-01

Our manuscript highlights the viewpoints and reflections of the native Marshallese community health workers (CHWs) engaged in research with the local Marshallese community in Northwest Arkansas. In particular, this paper documents the vital role Marshallese CHWs play in the success of programs and research efforts. The negative health effects of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands has been passed down through many generations, along with unfavorable attitudes toward the U.S. government and researchers. However, the community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach used by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has allowed the native Marshallese CHWs to become advocates for the Marshallese community. The use of native CHWs has also leveled the power dynamics that can be a barrier to community-based research, and has strengthened trust with community stakeholders. Our paper shows how using Marshallese CHWs can produce positive health outcomes for the Marshallese community.

Community indicators

PubMed Central

Flynn, Andrea; Wells, Samantha

2014-01-01

Community indicators are used to assess the impact of alcohol on communities. This article reviews the main data sources for community indicators, discusses their strengths and limitations, and discusses indicators used in reference to four main topics relating to alcohol use and problems at the community level: alcohol use, patterns, and problems; alcohol availability; alcohol-related health outcomes/trauma; and alcohol-related crime and enforcement. It also reviews the challenges associated with collecting community indicator data, along with important innovations in the field that have contributed to better knowledge of how to collect and analyze community-level data on the impact of alcohol. PMID:24881322

The Educational Community as In-Tentional Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jasinski, Igor; Lewis, Tyson E.

2016-01-01

This paper reassesses a perennial concern of philosophy of education: the nature of the educational community and the role of the teacher in relation to such a community. As an entry point into this broader question, we turn to Philosophy for children (P4C), which has consistently emphasized the importance of community. Yet, not unlike pragmatist…

Evaluating Community-Based Participatory Research to Improve Community-Partnered Science and Community Health

PubMed Central

Hicks, Sarah; Duran, Bonnie; Wallerstein, Nina; Avila, Magdalena; Belone, Lorenda; Lucero, Julie; Magarati, Maya; Mainer, Elana; Martin, Diane; Muhammad, Michael; Oetzel, John; Pearson, Cynthia; Sahota, Puneet; Simonds, Vanessa; Sussman, Andrew; Tafoya, Greg; Hat, Emily White

2013-01-01

Background Since 2007, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) Policy Research Center (PRC) has partnered with the Universities of New Mexico and Washington to study the science of community-based participatory research (CBPR). Our goal is to identify facilitators and barriers to effective community–academic partnerships in American Indian and other communities, which face health disparities. Objectives We have described herein the scientific design of our National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study (2009–2013) and lessons learned by having a strong community partner leading the research efforts. Methods The research team is implementing a mixed-methods study involving a survey of principal investigators (PIs) and partners across the nation and in-depth case studies of CBPR projects. Results We present preliminary findings on methods and measures for community-engaged research and eight lessons learned thus far regarding partnership evaluation, advisory councils, historical trust, research capacity development of community partner, advocacy, honoring each other, messaging, and funding. Conclusions Study methodologies and lessons learned can help community–academic research partnerships translate research in communities. PMID:22982842

Community Capacity Building.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGinty, Sue

As community assets, schools are central to community development and are best suited to provide a learning community that can build the whole community's capacity to address educational disadvantage. Community capacity building means strengthening a community's ability to become self-reliant by increasing social cohesion and social capital. In…

Community Identity and User Engagement in a Multi-Community Landscape.

PubMed

Zhang, Justine; Hamilton, William L; Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, Cristian; Jurafsky, Dan; Leskovec, Jure

2017-05-01

A community's identity defines and shapes its internal dynamics. Our current understanding of this interplay is mostly limited to glimpses gathered from isolated studies of individual communities. In this work we provide a systematic exploration of the nature of this relation across a wide variety of online communities. To this end we introduce a quantitative, language-based typology reflecting two key aspects of a community's identity: how distinctive , and how temporally dynamic it is. By mapping almost 300 Reddit communities into the landscape induced by this typology, we reveal regularities in how patterns of user engagement vary with the characteristics of a community. Our results suggest that the way new and existing users engage with a community depends strongly and systematically on the nature of the collective identity it fosters, in ways that are highly consequential to community maintainers. For example, communities with distinctive and highly dynamic identities are more likely to retain their users. However, such niche communities also exhibit much larger acculturation gaps between existing users and newcomers, which potentially hinder the integration of the latter. More generally, our methodology reveals differences in how various social phenomena manifest across communities, and shows that structuring the multi-community landscape can lead to a better understanding of the systematic nature of this diversity.

Of the Community, by the Community, and for the Community.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ambler, Marjane

2001-01-01

States that tribal colleges are not Ivory Towers standing above and beyond their communities. American Indians have higher rates of poverty, unemployment, sickness, mortality than others in the United States. Tribal colleges must provide health services, childcare and other community services as well as education to meet the needs of their…

Community Capitals as Community Resilience to Climate Change: Conceptual Connections.

PubMed

Kais, Shaikh Mohammad; Islam, Md Saidul

2016-12-06

In the last few decades, disaster risk reduction programs and climate initiatives across the globe have focused largely on the intimate connections between vulnerability, recovery, adaptation, and coping mechanisms. Recent focus, however, is increasingly paid to community resilience. Community, placed at the intersection between the household and national levels of social organization, is crucial in addressing economic, social, or environmental disturbances disrupting human security. Resilience measures a community's capability of bouncing back-restoring the original pre-disaster state, as well as bouncing forward-the capacity to cope with emerging post-disaster situations and changes. Both the 'bouncing back' and 'moving forward' properties of a community are shaped and reshaped by internal and external shocks such as climate threats, the community's resilience dimensions, and the intensity of economic, social, and other community capitals. This article reviews (1) the concept of resilience in relation to climate change and vulnerability; and (2) emerging perspectives on community-level impacts of climate change, resilience dimensions, and community capitals. It argues that overall resilience of a place-based community is located at the intersection of the community's resilience dimensions, community capitals, and the level of climate disruptions.

Community Psychology and Community Mental Health: A Call for Reengagement.

PubMed

Townley, Greg; Brown, Molly; Sylvestre, John

2018-03-01

Community psychology is rooted in community mental health research and practice and has made important contributions to this field. Yet, in the decades since its inception, community psychology has reduced its focus on promoting mental health, well-being, and liberation of individuals with serious mental illnesses. This special issue endeavors to highlight current efforts in community mental health from our field and related disciplines and point to future directions for reengagement in this area. The issue includes 12 articles authored by diverse stakeholder groups. Following a review of the state of community mental health scholarship in the field's two primary journals since 1973, the remaining articles center on four thematic areas: (a) the community experience of individuals with serious mental illness; (b) the utility of a participatory and cross-cultural lens in our engagement with community mental health; (c) Housing First implementation, evaluation, and dissemination; and (d) emerging or under-examined topics. In reflection, we conclude with a series of challenges for community psychologists involved in future, transformative, movements in community mental health. © Society for Community Research and Action 2018.

Evaluating Community Partnerships Addressing Community Resilience in Los Angeles, California

PubMed Central

Williams, Malcolm V.; Chandra, Anita; Spears, Asya; Varda, Danielle; Wells, Kenneth B.; Plough, Alonzo L.; Eisenman, David P.

2018-01-01

Community resilience has grown in importance in national disaster response and recovery efforts. However, measurement of community resilience, particularly the content and quality of relationships aimed at improving resilience, is lacking. To address this gap, we used a social network survey to measure the number, type, and quality of relationships among organizations participating in 16 coalitions brought together to address community resilience in the Los Angeles Community Disaster Resilience project. These coalitions were randomized to one of two approaches (community resilience or preparedness). Resilience coalitions received training and support to develop these partnerships and implement new activities. Both coalition types received expert facilitation by a public health nurse or community educator. We also measured the activities each coalition engaged in and the extent to which partners participated in these activities at two time points. We found that the community resilience coalitions were initially larger and had lower trust among members than the preparedness communities. Over time, these trust differences dissipated. While both coalitions grew, the resilience community coalitions maintained their size difference throughout the project. We also found differences in the types of activities implemented by the resilience communities; these differences were directly related to the trainings provided. This information is useful to organizations seeking guidance on expanding the network of community-based organizations that participate in community resilience activities. PMID:29584681

Evaluating Community Partnerships Addressing Community Resilience in Los Angeles, California.

PubMed

Williams, Malcolm V; Chandra, Anita; Spears, Asya; Varda, Danielle; Wells, Kenneth B; Plough, Alonzo L; Eisenman, David P

2018-03-27

Community resilience has grown in importance in national disaster response and recovery efforts. However, measurement of community resilience, particularly the content and quality of relationships aimed at improving resilience, is lacking. To address this gap, we used a social network survey to measure the number, type, and quality of relationships among organizations participating in 16 coalitions brought together to address community resilience in the Los Angeles Community Disaster Resilience project. These coalitions were randomized to one of two approaches (community resilience or preparedness). Resilience coalitions received training and support to develop these partnerships and implement new activities. Both coalition types received expert facilitation by a public health nurse or community educator. We also measured the activities each coalition engaged in and the extent to which partners participated in these activities at two time points. We found that the community resilience coalitions were initially larger and had lower trust among members than the preparedness communities. Over time, these trust differences dissipated. While both coalitions grew, the resilience community coalitions maintained their size difference throughout the project. We also found differences in the types of activities implemented by the resilience communities; these differences were directly related to the trainings provided. This information is useful to organizations seeking guidance on expanding the network of community-based organizations that participate in community resilience activities.

Microbial Community Metabolic Modeling: A Community Data-Driven Network Reconstruction: COMMUNITY DATA-DRIVEN METABOLIC NETWORK MODELING

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Henry, Christopher S.; Bernstein, Hans C.; Weisenhorn, Pamela

Metabolic network modeling of microbial communities provides an in-depth understanding of community-wide metabolic and regulatory processes. Compared to single organism analyses, community metabolic network modeling is more complex because it needs to account for interspecies interactions. To date, most approaches focus on reconstruction of high-quality individual networks so that, when combined, they can predict community behaviors as a result of interspecies interactions. However, this conventional method becomes ineffective for communities whose members are not well characterized and cannot be experimentally interrogated in isolation. Here, we tested a new approach that uses community-level data as a critical input for the networkmore » reconstruction process. This method focuses on directly predicting interspecies metabolic interactions in a community, when axenic information is insufficient. We validated our method through the case study of a bacterial photoautotroph-heterotroph consortium that was used to provide data needed for a community-level metabolic network reconstruction. Resulting simulations provided experimentally validated predictions of how a photoautotrophic cyanobacterium supports the growth of an obligate heterotrophic species by providing organic carbon and nitrogen sources.« less

Behavioural hypervolumes of spider communities predict community performance and disbandment

PubMed Central

Sih, Andrew; DiRienzo, Nicholas; Pinter-Wollman, Noa

2016-01-01

Trait-based ecology argues that an understanding of the traits of interactors can enhance the predictability of ecological outcomes. We examine here whether the multidimensional behavioural-trait diversity of communities influences community performance and stability in situ. We created experimental communities of web-building spiders, each with an identical species composition. Communities contained one individual of each of five different species. Prior to establishing these communities in the field, we examined three behavioural traits for each individual spider. These behavioural measures allowed us to estimate community-wide behavioural diversity, as inferred by the multidimensional behavioural volume occupied by the entire community. Communities that occupied a larger region of behavioural-trait space (i.e. where spiders differed more from each other behaviourally) gained more mass and were less likely to disband. Thus, there is a community-wide benefit to multidimensional behavioural diversity in this system that might translate to other multispecies assemblages. PMID:27974515

The Entrepreneurial Community College: Bringing Workforce, Economic and Community Development to Virginia Community Colleges.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drury, Richard L.

2001-01-01

Proposes creating an entrepreneurial college within the community college that will offer non-credit courses to the community and workforce. States that the courses would focus on the training needs of community industry, with the employer as the customer, rather than the student. Adds that the proposed college would also focus on community…

Community Researchers Meet Community Residents: Interpretation of Findings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New, Peter Kong-Ming; Hessler, Richard M.

1973-01-01

Three community studies were catalysts for researchers and residents to generate discussions on: (1) strategies and ethics of community research; (2) problems of ethics, including considerations for a code and comments on community involvement; and (3) recommendations for establishing a technical research consultation service'' in the Society for…

Community differences in the implementation of Strong Communities for Children.

PubMed

McLeigh, Jill D; McDonell, James R; Melton, Gary B

2015-03-01

In 1993, the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect recommended a neighborhood-based strategy to prevent child abuse and neglect. The Board further recommended the development of Prevention Zones to allow for testing of the effectiveness of community-wide child protection efforts in neighborhoods of differing population density, ethnic and cultural composition, and social and economic resources. Following the Board's recommendation, this article presents the results of a trial of the effectiveness of a neighborhood-based strategy in low- and high-resource communities. Using management, survey, and administrative data, the research showed that both community types experienced declines in founded cases of and injuries suggesting child maltreatment for children under age 5. Low-resource communities experienced greater levels of mobilization, as measured by community and institutional engagement, and a greater number of positive outcomes related to changes in the quality of life for families and community norms relative to child and family well-being. In particular, the low-resource communities experienced the largest increases in receiving help from neighbors, neighboring, perceived household safety for neighborhood children, and observed positive parenting. High-resource communities experienced greater increases in intermediate outcomes related to self-reported parenting practices. The findings suggest that, ultimately, community mobilization can occur and be an effective means of preventing child maltreatment across community types. It appears, however, that community mobilization may play a more significant role in low-resource communities. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project - a community-level, public health initiative to build community disaster resilience.

PubMed

Eisenman, David; Chandra, Anita; Fogleman, Stella; Magana, Aizita; Hendricks, Astrid; Wells, Ken; Williams, Malcolm; Tang, Jennifer; Plough, Alonzo

2014-08-19

Public health officials need evidence-based methods for improving community disaster resilience and strategies for measuring results. This methods paper describes how one public health department is addressing this problem. This paper provides a detailed description of the theoretical rationale, intervention design and novel evaluation of the Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project (LACCDR), a public health program for increasing community disaster resilience. The LACCDR Project utilizes a pretest-posttest method with control group design. Sixteen communities in Los Angeles County were selected and randomly assigned to the experimental community resilience group or the comparison group. Community coalitions in the experimental group receive training from a public health nurse trained in community resilience in a toolkit developed for the project. The toolkit is grounded in theory and uses multiple components to address education, community engagement, community and individual self-sufficiency, and partnerships among community organizations and governmental agencies. The comparison communities receive training in traditional disaster preparedness topics of disaster supplies and emergency communication plans. Outcome indicators include longitudinal changes in inter-organizational linkages among community organizations, community member responses in table-top exercises, and changes in household level community resilience behaviors and attitudes. The LACCDR Project is a significant opportunity and effort to operationalize and meaningfully measure factors and strategies to increase community resilience. This paper is intended to provide public health and academic researchers with new tools to conduct their community resilience programs and evaluation research. Results are not yet available and will be presented in future reports.

Building Vibrant Learning Communities: Framework and Actions to Strengthen Community Adult Learning Councils and Community Literacy Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alberta Advanced Education and Technology, 2007

2007-01-01

Because of the important role played by community learning providers, Premier Ed Stelmach asked Canadian Minister of Advanced Education and Technology to increase support for community education and literacy programs. Community Adult Learning Councils and other community providers of adult literacy and family literacy programming are primarily…

Sense of community responsibility in community collaboratives: advancing a theory of community as resource and responsibility.

PubMed

Nowell, Branda; Boyd, Neil M

2014-12-01

This paper contributes to the growing body of scholarship aimed at advancing our understanding of the experience of community by empirically investigating sense of community responsibility (SOC-R) in relation to traditional measures of sense of community (SOC) and indices of satisfaction, engagement, and leadership in interorganizational collaborative settings. Findings support the proposition that, although both are related to the experience of community, SOC and SOC-R emphasize different aspects of that experience and operate under different theoretical mechanisms of influence. SOC emphasizes community as a resource which was found to be a more salient aspect in differentiating those who will be more or less satisfied with their experience. In addition, SOC was found to predict general participation in a community collaborative. SOC-R emphasizes the experience of community as a responsibility which appears to be a stronger predictor in explaining higher order engagement requiring greater investment of time and resources. Even more importantly, this study indicates that SOC-R is uniquely equipped to help us advance models of community leadership. As such, it represents an important contribution to expanding our understanding of the factors that drive members' willingness to give of themselves toward collective aims.

UCLA Community College Bibliography: Women Community College Presidents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Amy

2007-01-01

This bibliography provides an overview of recent scholarship on female community college presidents. A significant and growing number of women are serving as community college presidents. Specifically, there has been an increase in women community college presidents from 11% in 1991 to nearly 28% in 2001. With more women holding presidencies at…

Community Based Organizations as Initiators of Partnerships with Community Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turner, Sharon Yael

2012-01-01

This study focused on community based organizations leading community colleges in workforce development partnerships to train unemployed and underemployed adults. These collaborations operate where community based organizations deliver case management and job search skills, while community colleges offer specific training. In order to examine…

Assessing community resilience: A CART survey application in an impoverished urban community

PubMed Central

Pfefferbaum, Rose L.; Pfefferbaum, Betty; Zhao, Yan D.; Van Horn, Richard L.; McCarter, Grady S. “Mack”; Leonard, Michael B.

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT This article describes an application of the Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART) Assessment Survey which has been recognized as an important community tool to assist communities in their resilience-building efforts. Developed to assist communities in assessing their resilience to disasters and other adversities, the CART survey can be used to obtain baseline information about a community, to identify relative community strengths and challenges, and to re-examine a community after a disaster or post intervention. This article, which describes an application of the survey in a community of 5 poverty neighborhoods, illustrates the use of the instrument, explicates aspects of community resilience, and provides possible explanations for the results. The paper also demonstrates how a community agency that serves many of the functions of a broker organization can enhance community resilience. Survey results suggest various dimensions of community resilience (as represented by core CART community resilience items and CART domains) and potential predictors. Correlates included homeownership, engagement with local entities/activities, prior experience with a personal emergency or crisis while living in the neighborhood, and involvement with a community organization that focuses on building safe and caring communities through personal relationships. In addition to influencing residents' perceptions of their community, it is likely that the community organization, which served as a sponsor for this application, contributes directly to community resilience through programs and initiatives that enhance social capital and resource acquisition and mobilization. PMID:28229014

Assessing community resilience: A CART survey application in an impoverished urban community.

PubMed

Pfefferbaum, Rose L; Pfefferbaum, Betty; Zhao, Yan D; Van Horn, Richard L; McCarter, Grady S Mack; Leonard, Michael B

2016-01-01

This article describes an application of the Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART) Assessment Survey which has been recognized as an important community tool to assist communities in their resilience-building efforts. Developed to assist communities in assessing their resilience to disasters and other adversities, the CART survey can be used to obtain baseline information about a community, to identify relative community strengths and challenges, and to re-examine a community after a disaster or post intervention. This article, which describes an application of the survey in a community of 5 poverty neighborhoods, illustrates the use of the instrument, explicates aspects of community resilience, and provides possible explanations for the results. The paper also demonstrates how a community agency that serves many of the functions of a broker organization can enhance community resilience. Survey results suggest various dimensions of community resilience (as represented by core CART community resilience items and CART domains) and potential predictors. Correlates included homeownership, engagement with local entities/activities, prior experience with a personal emergency or crisis while living in the neighborhood, and involvement with a community organization that focuses on building safe and caring communities through personal relationships. In addition to influencing residents' perceptions of their community, it is likely that the community organization, which served as a sponsor for this application, contributes directly to community resilience through programs and initiatives that enhance social capital and resource acquisition and mobilization.

Bellevue Community College Community Impact Report, Fall 2002.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bellevue Community Coll., WA.

This document presents data pertaining to the impact of Bellevue Community College (BCC), Washington, on the surrounding community. The study examines both short- and long-term impacts of BCC on the larger community. Short-term impacts include the revenue and expenditures for which BCC is responsible, which for 2001-02 totaled $86,431,309. During…

Community Development Services in the Community Junior College.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Romine, Stephen

A survey was conducted through the Mountain-Plains Community College Leadership Program of the University of Colorado to: (1) ascertain the value of various activities that might be useful as part of a community development program; (2) determine the extent of community development services now being provided and the extent to which they should be…

Community-Based Programming: An Opportunity and Imperative for the Community College.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boone, Edgar J.

1992-01-01

Defines community-based programing as a cooperative process in which the community college serves as leader and catalyst in effecting collaboration among community members, leaders, and groups. Recommends 15 tasks for community college leaders involved in community-based programing, including environmental scanning and coalition building. (DMM)

Aging & Community Health: A University-Community Partnership Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson-Dooley, Vanessa; Dumont, Kelly; Riapos, Jennifer A.

2018-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how university-community partnerships can be utilized to provide affordable and accessible health care for the elderly at community health clinics. A review of community health clinics, usage data from 2013 to 2014 by a sample of aging individuals will be described along with faculty perspectives about the…

Using the Community Readiness Model in Native Communities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jumper-Thurman, Pamela; Plested, Barbara A.; Edwards, Ruth W.; Helm, Heather M.; Oetting, Eugene R.

The effects of alcohol and other drug abuse are recognized as a serious problem in U.S. communities. Policy efforts and increased law enforcement have only a minimal impact if prevention strategies are not consistent with the community's level of readiness, are not culturally relevant, and are not community-specific. A model has been developed for…

Community Involvement in School: Social Relationships in a Bedroom Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Preston, Jane P.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe how community involvement in school is associated with the social relationships existing/lacking within a bedroom community. Thirty-five interviews with school council members, teachers, and community members highlighted that traditional forms of community involvement in school generate…

Community-based advocacy training: applying asset-based community development in resident education.

PubMed

Hufford, Laura; West, Daniel C; Paterniti, Debora A; Pan, Richard J

2009-06-01

Communities and Physicians Together (CPT) at University of California, Davis Health System provides a novel approach to teaching residents to be effective community advocates. Founded in 1999, CPT is a partnership between a pediatric residency program, five community collaboratives located in diverse neighborhoods, and a grassroots child advocacy organization. Using the principles of Asset-Based Community Development, the program emphasizes establishing partnerships with community members and organizations to improve child health and identifies community assets and building capacity. Community members function as the primary faculty for CPT.The authors describe the CPT curriculum, which teaches residents to build partnerships with their assigned community. Residents have three, two-week blocks each year for CPT activities and maintain a longitudinal relationship with their community. In the first year, collaborative coordinators from each community orient residents to their community. Residents identify community assets and perform activities designed to provide them with a community member's perspective. In the second and third years, residents partner with community members and organizations to implement a project to improve the health of children in that community. CPT also provides faculty development to community partners including a workshop on medical culture and resident life. A qualitative evaluation demonstrated residents' attitudes of their role as pediatricians in the community changed with CPT.CPT is unique because it provides a model of service learning that emphasizes identifying and utilizing strengths and building capacity. This approach differs from the traditional medical model, which emphasizes deficits and needs.

The Chinese community patient’s life satisfaction, assessment of community medical service, and trust in community health delivery system

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Although the Chinese government put a lot of effort into promoting the community patient’s life satisfaction, there still lacked the holistic and systematic approaches to promote the community patient’s life satisfaction in various regions of China. On the basis of the literature, it was found that both the community patient’s assessment of community medical service and trust in community health delivery system were important considerations when the community patient comprehensively evaluated community medical service to generate life satisfaction. So this study was set up to test whether and to what extent the community patient’s assessments of various major aspects of community medical service/various major aspects of the community patient’s trust in community health delivery system influenced life satisfaction in whole China/in various regions of China. Methods In order to explore the situation of China’s community health delivery system before 2009 and provide a reference for China’s community health delivery system reform, the data that could comprehensively and accurately reflect the community patient’s life satisfaction, assessment of community medical service, and trust in community health delivery system in various regions of China was needed, so this study collaborated with the National Bureau of Statistics of China to carry out a large-scale 2008 national community resident household survey (N = 3,306) for the first time in China. And the specified ordered probit models were established to analyze the dataset from this household survey. Results Among major aspects of community medical service, the medical cost (particularly in developed regions), the doctor-patient communication (particularly in developed regions), the medical facility and hospital environment (particularly in developed regions), and the medical treatment process (particularly in underdeveloped regions) were all key considerations (p<0.05 for t statistics) in

From Community to Meta-Community Mental Health Care.

PubMed

Bouras, Nick; Ikkos, George; Craig, Thomas

2018-04-20

Since the 1960s, we have witnessed the development and growth of community mental health care that continues to dominate mental health policy and practice. Several high-income countries have implemented community mental health care programmes but for many others, including mostly low- and middle-income countries, it remains an aspiration. Although community mental health care has been positive for many service users, it has also had severe shortcomings. Expectations that it would lead to fuller social integration have not been fulfilled and many service users remain secluded in sheltered or custodial environments with limited social contacts and no prospect of work. Others receive little or no service at all. In today’s complex landscape of increasingly specialised services for people with mental health problems, the number of possible interfaces between services is increasing. Together with existing uneven financing systems and a context of constant change, these interfaces are challenging us to develop effective care pathways adjusted to the needs of service users and their carers. This discussion paper reviews the developments in community mental health care over the recent years and puts forward the concept of “Meta-Community Mental Health Care”. “Meta-Community Mental Health Care” embraces pluralism in understanding and treating psychiatric disorders, acknowledges the complexities of community provision, and reflects the realities and needs of the current era of care.

From Community to Meta-Community Mental Health Care

PubMed Central

Bouras, Nick; Ikkos, George; Craig, Thomas

2018-01-01

Since the 1960s, we have witnessed the development and growth of community mental health care that continues to dominate mental health policy and practice. Several high-income countries have implemented community mental health care programmes but for many others, including mostly low- and middle-income countries, it remains an aspiration. Although community mental health care has been positive for many service users, it has also had severe shortcomings. Expectations that it would lead to fuller social integration have not been fulfilled and many service users remain secluded in sheltered or custodial environments with limited social contacts and no prospect of work. Others receive little or no service at all. In today’s complex landscape of increasingly specialised services for people with mental health problems, the number of possible interfaces between services is increasing. Together with existing uneven financing systems and a context of constant change, these interfaces are challenging us to develop effective care pathways adjusted to the needs of service users and their carers. This discussion paper reviews the developments in community mental health care over the recent years and puts forward the concept of “Meta-Community Mental Health Care”. “Meta-Community Mental Health Care” embraces pluralism in understanding and treating psychiatric disorders, acknowledges the complexities of community provision, and reflects the realities and needs of the current era of care. PMID:29677100

Community gardening: a parsimonious path to individual, community, and environmental resilience.

PubMed

Okvat, Heather A; Zautra, Alex J

2011-06-01

The goal of this paper is to introduce community gardening as a promising method of furthering well-being and resilience on multiple levels: individual, social group, and natural environment. We examine empirical evidence for the benefits of gardening, and we advocate the development and testing of social ecological models of community resilience through examination of the impact of community gardens, especially in urban areas. The definition of community is extended beyond human social ties to include connections with other species and the earth itself, what Berry (1988) has called an Earth community. We discuss the potential contribution of an extensive network of community gardens to easing the global climate change crisis and address the role of community psychologists in community gardening research and policy-oriented action.

Conceptualising Discursive Communities: Developing Community in Contemporary Society

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Azzopardi, Andrew

2011-01-01

What happens when people find themselves left out of communities? Who is missing and why does it matter? What can one do to narrow the gap? What is community? How has community been represented in theory? The quality of life of a population is an important concern in so many areas, and a significant part of our standard of living is measured by…

The Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project — A Community-Level, Public Health Initiative to Build Community Disaster Resilience

PubMed Central

Eisenman, David; Chandra, Anita; Fogleman, Stella; Magana, Aizita; Hendricks, Astrid; Wells, Ken; Williams, Malcolm; Tang, Jennifer; Plough, Alonzo

2014-01-01

Public health officials need evidence-based methods for improving community disaster resilience and strategies for measuring results. This methods paper describes how one public health department is addressing this problem. This paper provides a detailed description of the theoretical rationale, intervention design and novel evaluation of the Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project (LACCDR), a public health program for increasing community disaster resilience. The LACCDR Project utilizes a pretest–posttest method with control group design. Sixteen communities in Los Angeles County were selected and randomly assigned to the experimental community resilience group or the comparison group. Community coalitions in the experimental group receive training from a public health nurse trained in community resilience in a toolkit developed for the project. The toolkit is grounded in theory and uses multiple components to address education, community engagement, community and individual self-sufficiency, and partnerships among community organizations and governmental agencies. The comparison communities receive training in traditional disaster preparedness topics of disaster supplies and emergency communication plans. Outcome indicators include longitudinal changes in inter-organizational linkages among community organizations, community member responses in table-top exercises, and changes in household level community resilience behaviors and attitudes. The LACCDR Project is a significant opportunity and effort to operationalize and meaningfully measure factors and strategies to increase community resilience. This paper is intended to provide public health and academic researchers with new tools to conduct their community resilience programs and evaluation research. Results are not yet available and will be presented in future reports. PMID:25153472

Assessing Community Leadership: Understanding Community Capacity for Health Improvement.

PubMed

Castle, Billie; Wendel, Monica; Kelly Pryor, Brandy N; Ingram, Monique

The purpose of this study was to pilot a quantitative instrument to measure aspects of community leadership within an assessment framework. The instrument includes 14 Likert-type questions asking residents how they perceive leaders within 5 sectors: Louisville Metro Council/Mayor's Office, the faith community, education, business, and the civic sector. Louisville/Jefferson County, Kentucky, has a population of about 743 000 residents. Respondents were asked to examine leadership within West Louisville, an economically deprived area of the city made up of 9 contiguous neighborhoods. This area is predominantly African American (78% compared with 22% in Louisville Metro), with an overall poverty rate of 43% (compared with 18% in Louisville Metro), and unemployment rate of 23% (compared with 8% in Louisville Metro). Residents of West Louisville are looking to leadership to address many of the inequities. Twenty-seven participants representing 7 community sectors completed the survey, of whom 90% work in West Louisville. The instrument measured local perceptions of leadership strength, effectiveness, trust, communication, community building, and leadership development. The majority of respondents agree that strong leadership exists across the 5 sectors, with variation regarding perceptions of the quality of that leadership. City leadership within the Mayor's Office and Metro Council is largely viewed positively, while the growing tensions within the education sector were reflected in the survey results. The perception of community leadership is important to understanding local community capacity to improve health and also inclusivity of community voice in the assessment and community improvement processes. Results from such assessments can offer useful information for strengthening community capacity and sustaining relationships needed to enact progressive and equitable solutions to address local issues. Leaders in a variety of settings can utilize this instrument to

Gender and Community Organization Leadership in the Chicago Indian Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Straus, Anne Terry; Valentino, Debra

2003-01-01

This article concerns eight decades (1920-2000) of community organization in the American Indian community in Chicago. While the trends discussed may be particular to that community or time frame, the authors expect that there are parallels in other urban Indian communities. The Chicago American Indian Center was the first urban Indian center in…

Communities and community genetics in Ethiopia.

PubMed

Tadesse, Luche; Tafesse, Fikru; Hamamy, Hanan

2014-01-01

The rates of congenital and genetic disorders in low and middle income countries are similar or might be higher than in high income countries due to a multitude of risk factors and the dearth of community genetic services. To direct effective preventive, diagnostic and counseling services, collecting data on the incidence and prevalence of various congenital and genetic disorders and their risk factors is a pre-requisite for establishing genetic services at the community level and mainly at the primary health care setting. This brief review is meant to assess the available epidemiological data in Ethiopia pertaining to congenital and genetic disorders on which the future community genetic services could be built. Existing epidemiological data on congenital and genetic disorders in Ethiopia is limited, and the few studies conducted revealed that folate and iodine deficiencies are prevalent among women in the reproductive age. Pregnant women's infection with syphilis and rubella is prevailing. Based on available data, cleft lip and palate, congenital heart diseases, club-foot, and gastro-intestinal malformations are the most common birth defects in Ethiopia. Community based studies to accurately demonstrate the incidence and prevalence levels of these disorders are almost unavailable. To plan for organization and implementation of community genetic services at the primary health care level in Ethiopia, conducting standardized epidemiological studies is currently highly recommended.

Communities and community genetics in Ethiopia

PubMed Central

Tadesse, Luche; Tafesse, Fikru; Hamamy, Hanan

2014-01-01

The rates of congenital and genetic disorders in low and middle income countries are similar or might be higher than in high income countries due to a multitude of risk factors and the dearth of community genetic services. To direct effective preventive, diagnostic and counseling services, collecting data on the incidence and prevalence of various congenital and genetic disorders and their risk factors is a pre-requisite for establishing genetic services at the community level and mainly at the primary health care setting. This brief review is meant to assess the available epidemiological data in Ethiopia pertaining to congenital and genetic disorders on which the future community genetic services could be built. Existing epidemiological data on congenital and genetic disorders in Ethiopia is limited, and the few studies conducted revealed that folate and iodine deficiencies are prevalent among women in the reproductive age. Pregnant women's infection with syphilis and rubella is prevailing. Based on available data, cleft lip and palate, congenital heart diseases, club-foot, and gastro-intestinalmalformations are the most common birth defects in Ethiopia. Community based studies to accurately demonstrate the incidence and prevalence levels of these disorders are almost unavailable. To plan for organization and implementation of community genetic services at the primary health care level in Ethiopia, conducting standardized epidemiological studies is currently highly recommended. PMID:25404975

State-Level Community Benefit Regulation and Nonprofit Hospitals' Provision of Community Benefits.

PubMed

Singh, Simone R; Young, Gary J; Loomer, Lacey; Madison, Kristin

2018-04-01

Do nonprofit hospitals provide enough community benefits to justify their tax exemptions? States have sought to enhance nonprofit hospitals' accountability and oversight through regulation, including requirements to report community benefits, conduct community health needs assessments, provide minimum levels of community benefits, and adhere to minimum income eligibility standards for charity care. However, little research has assessed these regulations' impact on community benefits. Using 2009-11 Internal Revenue Service data on community benefit spending for more than eighteen hundred hospitals and the Hilltop Institute's data on community benefit regulation, we investigated the relationship between these four types of regulation and the level and types of hospital-provided community benefits. Our multivariate regression analyses showed that only community health needs assessments were consistently associated with greater community benefit spending. The results for reporting and minimum spending requirements were mixed, while minimum income eligibility standards for charity care were unrelated to community benefit spending. State adoption of multiple types of regulation was consistently associated with higher levels of hospital-provided community benefits, possibly because regulatory intensity conveys a strong signal to the hospital community that more spending is expected. This study can inform efforts to design regulations that will encourage hospitals to provide community benefits consistent with policy makers' goals. Copyright © 2018 by Duke University Press.

Building community research capacity: process evaluation of community training and education in a community-based participatory research program serving a predominantly Puerto Rican community.

PubMed

Tumiel-Berhalter, Laurene M; McLaughlin-Diaz, Victoria; Vena, John; Crespo, Carlos J

2007-01-01

Education and training build community research capacity and have impact on improvements of health outcomes. This manuscript describes the training and educational approaches to building research capacity that were utilized in a community-based participatory research program serving a Puerto Rican population and identifies barriers and strategies for overcoming them. A process evaluation identified a multitiered approach to training and education that was critical to reaching the broad community. This approach included four major categories providing a continuum of education and training opportunities: networking, methods training, on-the-job experience, and community education. Participation in these opportunities supported the development of a registry, the implementation of a survey, and two published manuscripts. Barriers included the lack of a formal evaluation of the education and training components, language challenges that limited involvement of ethnic groups other than Puerto Ricans, and potential biases associated with the familiarity of the data collector and the participant. The CBPR process facilitated relationship development between the university and the community and incorporated the richness of the community experience into research design. Strategies for improvement include incorporating evaluation into every training and educational opportunity and developing measures to quantify research capacity at the individual and community levels. Evaluating training and education in the community allows researchers to quantify the impact of CBPR on building community research capacity.

Campus Community Collaborations: Examples and Resources for Community Colleges.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pickeral, Terry, Ed.; Peters, Karen, Ed.

Describing collaborative activities between community colleges and the communities they serve, this sourcebook provides 15 essays by practitioners at colleges across the United States. Following introductory materials and the essay, "The Roots of Campus-Community Collaboration" (Terry Pickeral), the following essays are presented detailing…

Best practices for community gardening in a US-Mexico border community.

PubMed

Mangadu, Thenral; Kelly, Michael; Orezzoli, Max C E; Gallegos, Rebecca; Matharasi, Pracheta

2017-12-01

Minority communities such as those on the US-Mexico border are placed at disproportionate high risk for child and adult obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. A built environment characterized by an arid desert climate, lack of access to healthy foods, barriers to increasing physical activity, cultural and community norms which deter healthy eating and sustainable food production, shape obesity-related health disparities in these communities. Three pilot community gardens (implemented by two local governmental organizations and one community-based organization) were funded through the local Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) initiative in El Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces and Anthony, New Mexico (US-MX border communities with high obesity rates) in order to encourage healthy lifestyles among families in the region. A mixed-methods evaluation (n = 223) examined the implementation process, immediate outcomes and best practices of implementing and sustaining community gardens in these minority binational communities. In addition to nutrition-related outcomes, the potential for psychosocial outcomes from participating in community and school garden projects were observed. The best practices in relation to (i) assessing community norms related to growing food, (ii) increasing access to land and water for community/school gardening and (iii) enhancing social support for gardening are discussed. The implications of these best practices for obesity prevention and implementing community gardens in a minority US-MX border community characterized by cultural, geographical and socioeconomic barriers are examined. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Community Wise: paving the way for empowerment in community reentry.

PubMed

Windsor, Liliane Cambraia; Jemal, Alexis; Benoit, Ellen

2014-01-01

Theoretical approaches traditionally applied in mental health and criminal justice interventions fail to address the historical and structural context that partially explains health disparities. Community Wise was developed to address this gap. It is a 12week group intervention informed by Critical Consciousness Theory and designed to prevent substance abuse, related health risk behaviors, psychological distress, and reoffending among individuals with a history of incarceration and substance abuse. This paper reports findings from the first implementation and pilot evaluation of Community Wise in two community-based organizations. This pre-posttest evaluation pilot-tested Community Wise and used findings to improve the intervention. Twenty-six participants completed a phone and clinical screening, baseline, 6- and 12-week follow-ups, and a focus group at the end of the intervention. Measures assessed participants' demographic information, psychological distress, substance use, criminal offending, HIV risk behaviors, community cohesion, community support, civic engagement, critical consciousness, ethnic identification, group cohesion, client satisfaction, and acquired treatment skills. Research methods were found to be feasible and useful in assessing the intervention. Results indicated that while Community Wise is a promising intervention, several changes need to be made in order to enhance the intervention. Community Wise is a new approach where oppressed individuals join in critical dialogue, tap into existing community resources, and devise, implement and evaluate their own community solutions to structural barriers. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The State as Community in Community-based Participatory Research

PubMed Central

Goold, Susan Dorr; Rowe, Zachary; Szymecko, Lisa; Coombe, Chris; Danis, Marion; Hammad, Adnan; Calhoun, Karen; Salman, Cengiz

2017-01-01

Background Community-based participatory research (CBPR) typically defines communities by geography, ethnicity, shared health needs, or some combination. Objectives We describe a CBPR project aiming to engage diverse minority and underserved communities throughout Michigan in deliberations about health research priorities. Methods A Steering Committee (SC) with 15 members from minority and underserved communities, and 4 members from research organizations led the project, with the help of regional advisory groups (RAGs) formed at the SC’s request. Evaluation of the SC used questionnaires, focused group discussion, and review of SC meetings to describe engagement, partnership, and communication. Lessons Learned An academic-community partnership with a diverse, dispersed and broadly defined community found value in RAGs, dedicated academic staff, face-to-face meetings, varied communication modalities, capacity building tailored to varying levels of CBPR experience, and ongoing evaluation. Conclusions A geographically and culturally diverse partnership presents challenges and opportunities in representativeness, relationship building, capacity building, and communication. PMID:28569676

Measurement of community empowerment in three community programs in Rapla (Estonia).

PubMed

Kasmel, Anu; Andersen, Pernille Tanggaard

2011-03-01

Community empowerment approaches have been proven to be powerful tools for solving local health problems. However, the methods for measuring empowerment in the community remain unclear and open to dispute. This study aims to describe how a context-specific community empowerment measurement tool was developed and changes made to three health promotion programs in Rapla, Estonia. An empowerment expansion model was compiled and applied to three existing programs: Safe Community, Drug/HIV Prevention and Elderly Quality of Life. The consensus workshop method was used to create the measurement tool and collect data on the Organizational Domains of Community Empowerment (ODCE). The study demonstrated considerable increases in the ODCE among the community workgroup, which was initiated by community members and the municipality's decision-makers. The increase was within the workgroup, which had strong political and financial support on a national level but was not the community's priority. The program was initiated and implemented by the local community members, and continuous development still occurred, though at a reduced pace. The use of the empowerment expansion model has proven to be an applicable, relevant, simple and inexpensive tool for the evaluation of community empowerment.

Hibbing Community College's Community Computer Center.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Regional Technology Strategies, Inc., Carrboro, NC.

This paper reports on the development of the Community Computer Center (CCC) at Hibbing Community College (HCC) in Minnesota. HCC is located in the largest U.S. iron mining area in the United States. Closures of steel-producing plants are affecting the Hibbing area. Outmigration, particularly of younger workers and their families, has been…

European Community.

PubMed

1987-05-01

The European Community was established in 1951 to reconcile France and Germany after World War II and to make possible the eventual federation of Europe. By 1986, there were 12 member countries: France, Italy, Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Greece, Spain, and Portugal. Principal areas of concern are internal and external trade, agriculture, monetary coordination, fisheries, common industrial and commercial policies, assistance, science and research, and common social and regional policies. The European Community has a budget of US$34.035 billion/year, funded by customs duties and 1.4% of each member's value-added tax. The treaties establishing the European Community call for members to form a common market, a common customs tariff, and common agricultural, transport, economic, and nuclear policies. Major European Community institutions include the Commission, Council of Ministers, European Parliament, Court of Justice, and Economic and Social Committee. The Community is the world's largest trading unit, accounting for 15% of world trade. The 2 main goals of the Community's industrial policy are to create an open internal market and to promote technological innovation in order to improve international competitiveness. The European Community aims to contribute to the economic and social development of Third World countries as well.

Building an Ethical Community in the Classroom: Community Meeting.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McClurg, Lois Gail

1998-01-01

Describes "community meetings" in early childhood classrooms, designed to create an intentional community devoted to learning to live with and consider the perspectives of others. Discusses how meetings work, community meeting and the topic of exclusion, students' learning about themselves, awareness as a kind of solution, airing a…

Community Capacity Building and Sustainability: Outcomes of Community-Based Participatory Research

PubMed Central

Hacker, Karen; Tendulkar, Shalini A.; Rideout, Catlin; Bhuiya, Nazmim; Trinh-Shevrin, Chau; Savage, Clara P.; Grullon, Milagro; Strelnick, Hal; Leung, Carolyn; DiGirolamo, Ann

2013-01-01

Background For communities, the value of community-based participatory research (CBPR) is often manifested in the outcomes of increased capacity and sustainable adoption of evidence-based practices for social change. Educational opportunities that promote discourse between community and academic partners can help to advance CBPR and better define these outcomes. Objectives This paper describes a community–academic conference to develop shared definitions of community capacity building and sustainability related to CBPR and to identify obstacles and facilitators to both. Methods “Taking It to the Curbside: Engaging Communities to Create Sustainable Change for Health” was planned by five Clinical Translational Science Institutes and four community organizations. After a keynote presentation, breakout groups of community and academic members met to define community capacity building and sustainability, and to identify facilitators and barriers to achieving both. Groups were facilitated by researcher–community partner teams and conversations were recorded and transcribed. Qualitative analysis for thematic content was conducted by a subset of the planning committee. Results Important findings included learning that (1) the concepts of capacity and sustainability were considered interconnected; (2) partnership was perceived as both a facilitator and an outcome of CBPR; (3) sustainability was linked to “transfer of knowledge” from one generation to another within a community; and (4) capacity and sustainability were enhanced when goals were shared and health outcomes were achieved. Conclusions Community capacity building and sustainability are key outcomes of CBPR for communities. Co-learning opportunities that engage and mutually educate both community members and academics can be useful strategies for identifying meaningful strategies to achieve these outcomes. PMID:22982848

Community Capitals as Community Resilience to Climate Change: Conceptual Connections

PubMed Central

Kais, Shaikh Mohammad; Islam, Md Saidul

2016-01-01

In the last few decades, disaster risk reduction programs and climate initiatives across the globe have focused largely on the intimate connections between vulnerability, recovery, adaptation, and coping mechanisms. Recent focus, however, is increasingly paid to community resilience. Community, placed at the intersection between the household and national levels of social organization, is crucial in addressing economic, social, or environmental disturbances disrupting human security. Resilience measures a community’s capability of bouncing back—restoring the original pre-disaster state, as well as bouncing forward—the capacity to cope with emerging post-disaster situations and changes. Both the ‘bouncing back’ and ‘moving forward’ properties of a community are shaped and reshaped by internal and external shocks such as climate threats, the community’s resilience dimensions, and the intensity of economic, social, and other community capitals. This article reviews (1) the concept of resilience in relation to climate change and vulnerability; and (2) emerging perspectives on community-level impacts of climate change, resilience dimensions, and community capitals. It argues that overall resilience of a place-based community is located at the intersection of the community’s resilience dimensions, community capitals, and the level of climate disruptions. PMID:27929448

Building community resilience to disasters through a community-based intervention: CART applications.

PubMed

Pfefferbaum, Rose L; Pfefferbaum, Betty; Van Horn, Richard L; Neas, Barbara R; Houston, J Brian

2013-01-01

The Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART)* is a community-driven, publicly available, theory-based, and evidence-informed community intervention designed to build community resilience to disasters and other adversities. Based on principles of participatory action research, CART applications contribute to community resilience by encouraging and supporting community participation and cooperation, communication, self-awareness, and critical reflection. The primary value of CART lies in its ability to stimulate analysis, collaboration, skill building, resource sharing, and purposeful action. In addition to generating community assessment data, CART can be used as a vehicle for delivering other interventions and creating sustainable capacity within communities. Two models for CART implementation are described.

The community comes to campus: the Patient and Community Fair.

PubMed

Towle, Angela; Godolphin, William; Kline, Cathy

2015-08-01

Community-based learning connects students with local communities so that they learn about the broad context in which health and social care is provided; however, students usually interact with only one or a few organisations that serve a particular population. One example of a community-based learning activity is the health fair in which students provide health promotion and screening for local communities. We adapted the health fair concept to develop a multi-professional educational event at which, instead of providing service, students learn from and about the expertise and resources of not-for-profit organisations. The fair is an annual 1-day event that students can attend between, or in place of, classes. Each community organisation has a booth to display information. One-hour 'patient panels' are held on a variety of topics throughout the day. Evaluation methods include questionnaires, exit interviews and visitor tracking sheets. Over 5 years (2009-2013), the fair increased in size with respect to estimated attendance, number of participating organisations, number of patient panels and number of students for whom the fair is a required curriculum component. Students learn about a range of patient experiences and community resources, and information about specific diseases or conditions. The fair is an efficient way for students to learn about a range of community organisations. It fosters university-community engagement through continuing connections between students, faculty members and community organisations. Lessons learned include the need for community organisations to have techniques to engage students, and ways to overcome challenges of evaluating an informal 'drop-in' event. The fair is an efficient way for students to learn about a range of community organisations. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Building Communities: How Rural Community Colleges Develop Their Communities and the People Who Live in Them

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Michael T.; Tuttle, Courtney C.

2007-01-01

Community colleges in rural environments provide a variety of services. There is a great deal of documentation supporting those services that are academic and economic. The noneconomic and nonacademic results of community college activities, however, have an undocumented yet significant impact on local communities. The current study focused on how…

Reading Area Community College Community Needs Assessment Telephone Survey.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reading Area Community Coll., PA.

A telephone survey was conducted in 1981 at Reading Area Community College (RACC) to determine the educational needs of the community, particularly those of prospective students and employers. More specifically, the study sought to determine how the Berks County community perceived the quality of education provided at RACC and to ascertain the…

The essence of 'community' within community nursing: a district nursing perspective.

PubMed

McGarry, Julie

2003-09-01

Over the past decade or so, there has been a marked shift in the location and nature of nursing care from the hospital setting to primary and community care. The past decade has also witnessed the development of a number of policy initiatives which indicate that the drive towards the community as a key location of nursing care is set to continue. Although notions of community have been explored extensively within the literature from a number of perspectives, there is an absence of a clear definition, and more particularly for the purposes of the present study, one from a nursing perspective. This lack of conceptual clarity is further compounded when notions of community and the place of nursing within the community are considered contemporaneously. The present pilot study, which was based on semi-structured interviews with district nurses, seeks to address this deficit and explore how district nurses define the nature of their role, both in terms of providing nursing care within the community and also in terms of defining community within the context of their work. The study illuminates the principal position of the home in defining the essence of community within community nursing and notions surrounding the nature of relationships which exist within this setting. This is highlighted through the identification of emerging themes: the maintenance of personal-professional boundaries, notions of holistic care and professional definitions of community. These observations raise important questions regarding the extent to which the location of care and the taken-for-granted assumptions surrounding community-based nursing care have been translated into practice to date. This also raises key issues regarding the tensions which exist for nurses trying to balance notions of community and community-based care within the parameters of organisational and professional boundaries.

Education resources in remote Australian Indigenous community dog health programs: a comparison of community and extra-community-produced resources.

PubMed

Constable, Sophie Elizabeth; Dixon, Roselyn May; Dixon, Robert John

2013-09-01

Commercial dog health programs in Australian Indigenous communities are a relatively recent occurrence. Health promotion for these programs is an even more recent development, and lacks data on effective practices. This paper analyses 38 resources created by veterinary-community partnerships in Indigenous communities, to 71 resources available through local veterinary service providers. On average, community-produced resources used significantly more of the resource area as image, more imagery as communicative rather than decorative images, larger fonts and smaller segments of text and used images of people with a range of skin tones. As well as informal registers of Standard Australian English, community-produced resources used Aboriginal English and/or Creole languages in their text, while extra-community (EC)-produced resources did not. The text of EC resources had Flesh-Kincaid reading grade levels that excluded a large proportion of community recipients. Also, they did not cover some topics of importance in communities, used academic, formal and technical language, and did not depict people of a representative range of skin tones. As such, community-produced resources were more relevant to the unique situations in remote communities, while EC resources were often inappropriate and in some cases could even distance recipients by using inappropriate language, formats and imagery.

Community College Program Planning: A Method to Measure and Meet Community Need

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perez-Vergara, Kelly; Lathrop, Rachel; Orlowski, Martin

2018-01-01

Offering academic programs that meet community need has long been a core mission of community colleges. However, determining which job skills and credentials are needed for employment in the community is challenging. In order to facilitate a holistic and community-based perspective, our 2-year community college developed a structured curricular…

University of Hawaii Leeward Community College, Exploring America's Communities. Progress Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hawaii Univ., Honolulu. Leeward Community Coll.

In 1996, Leeward Community College (Hawaii) participated in the American Association of Community Colleges' Exploring America's Communities project, which works to strengthen the teaching and learning of American history, literature, and culture at U.S. community colleges. Working as a team, faculty members examined the multi-cultural groups in…

Community health information sources--a survey in three disparate communities.

PubMed

Dart, Jared; Gallois, Cindy; Yellowlees, Peter

2008-02-01

To determine the current utilisation, importance, trust and future preference for contemporary sources of health information in three different socioeconomic groups. A pilot study including key informant interviews and direct observation was conducted in a low socioeconomic community. From this work a survey questionnaire was designed and implemented across three different communities. Semi-structured key informant interviews and focus groups capturing 52 respondents. Paper-based surveys were left in community organisations and local health practices in a low socioeconomic (LSE) community on the outskirts of Ipswich, Queensland, a mid-high socioeconomic (MSE) community in the western suburbs of Brisbane, and at a local university. Rank of current and preferred future sources of health information, importance and trustworthiness of health information sources. Across all three communities the local doctor was the most currently used, important, trusted and preferred future source of health information. The most striking difference between the three communities related to the current use and preferred future use of the internet. The internet was a more currently used source of health information and more important source in the university population than the LSE or MSE populations. It was also a less preferred source of future health information in the LSE population than the MSE or university populations. Importantly, currently used sources of health information did not reflect community members' preferred sources of health information. People in different socioeconomic communities obtain health information from various sources. This may reflect access issues, education and awareness of the internet as a source of health information, less health information seeking as well as a reluctance by the e-health community to address the specific needs of this group.

The community ecology of pathogens: coinfection, coexistence and community composition.

PubMed

Seabloom, Eric W; Borer, Elizabeth T; Gross, Kevin; Kendig, Amy E; Lacroix, Christelle; Mitchell, Charles E; Mordecai, Erin A; Power, Alison G

2015-04-01

Disease and community ecology share conceptual and theoretical lineages, and there has been a resurgence of interest in strengthening links between these fields. Building on recent syntheses focused on the effects of host community composition on single pathogen systems, we examine pathogen (microparasite) communities using a stochastic metacommunity model as a starting point to bridge community and disease ecology perspectives. Such models incorporate the effects of core community processes, such as ecological drift, selection and dispersal, but have not been extended to incorporate host-pathogen interactions, such as immunosuppression or synergistic mortality, that are central to disease ecology. We use a two-pathogen susceptible-infected (SI) model to fill these gaps in the metacommunity approach; however, SI models can be intractable for examining species-diverse, spatially structured systems. By placing disease into a framework developed for community ecology, our synthesis highlights areas ripe for progress, including a theoretical framework that incorporates host dynamics, spatial structuring and evolutionary processes, as well as the data needed to test the predictions of such a model. Our synthesis points the way for this framework and demonstrates that a deeper understanding of pathogen community dynamics will emerge from approaches working at the interface of disease and community ecology. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

Measurement of Community Empowerment in Three Community Programs in Rapla (Estonia)

PubMed Central

Kasmel, Anu; Andersen, Pernille Tanggaard

2011-01-01

Community empowerment approaches have been proven to be powerful tools for solving local health problems. However, the methods for measuring empowerment in the community remain unclear and open to dispute. This study aims to describe how a context-specific community empowerment measurement tool was developed and changes made to three health promotion programs in Rapla, Estonia. An empowerment expansion model was compiled and applied to three existing programs: Safe Community, Drug/HIV Prevention and Elderly Quality of Life. The consensus workshop method was used to create the measurement tool and collect data on the Organizational Domains of Community Empowerment (ODCE). The study demonstrated considerable increases in the ODCE among the community workgroup, which was initiated by community members and the municipality’s decision-makers. The increase was within the workgroup, which had strong political and financial support on a national level but was not the community’s priority. The program was initiated and implemented by the local community members, and continuous development still occurred, though at a reduced pace. The use of the empowerment expansion model has proven to be an applicable, relevant, simple and inexpensive tool for the evaluation of community empowerment. PMID:21556179

Community.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grauer, Kit, Ed.

1995-01-01

Art in context of community is the theme of this newsletter. The theme is introduced in an editorial "Community-Enlarging the Definition" (Kit Grauer). Related articles include: (1) "The Children's Bridge is not Destroyed: Heart in the Middle of the World" (Emil Robert Tanay); (2) "Making Bridges: The Sock Doll…

Community Bioethics: The Health Decisions Community Council.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gallegos, Tom; Mrgudic, Kate

1993-01-01

Sees health care decision making posing variety of complex issues for individuals, families, and providers. Describes Health Decisions Community Council (HDCC), community-based bioethics committee established to offer noninstitutional forum for discussion of health care dilemmas. Notes that social work skills and values for autonomy and…

Using Community Arts Events to Enhance Collective Efficacy and Community Engagement toAddress Depression in an African American Community

PubMed Central

Jones, Loretta; Jones, Andrea; Corbett, Charles E.; Booker, Theodore; Wells, Kenneth B.; Collins, Barry

2009-01-01

Objectives. We used community-partnered participatory research (CPPR) to measure collective efficacy and its role as a precursor of community engagement to improve depression care in the African American community of South Los Angeles. Methods. We collected survey data from participants at arts events sponsored by a CPPR workgroup. Both exploratory (photography exhibit; n = 747) and confirmatory (spoken word presentations; n = 104) structural equation models were developed to examine how knowledge and attitudes toward depression influenced community engagement. Results. In all models, collective efficacy to improve depression care independently predicted community engagement in terms of addressing depression (B = 0.64–0.97; P < .001). Social stigma was not significantly associated with collective efficacy or community engagement. In confirmatory analyses, exposure to spoken word presentations and previous exposure to CPPR initiatives increased perceived collective efficacy to improve depression care (B = 0.19–0.24; P < .05). Conclusions. Enhancing collective efficacy to improve depression care may be a key component of increasing community engagement to address depression. CPPR events may also increase collective efficacy. Both collective efficacy and community engagement are relevant constructs in the South Los Angeles African American community. PMID:19059844

Community organizing network for environmental health: using a community health development approach to increase community capacity around reduction of environmental triggers.

PubMed

Parker, Edith A; Chung, Lynna K; Israel, Barbara A; Reyes, Angela; Wilkins, Donele

2010-04-01

The Community Organizing Network for Environmental Health (CONEH), a project of Community Action Against Asthma, used a community health development approach to improve children's asthma-related health through increasing the community's capacity to reduce physical and social environmental triggers for asthma. Three community organizers were hired to work with community groups and residents in neighborhoods in Detroit on the priority areas of air quality, housing, and citizen involvement in the environmental project and policy decision-making. As part of the evaluation of the CONEH project, 20 one-on-one semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted between August and November 2005 involving steering committee members, staff members, and key community organization staff and/or community members. Using data from the evaluation of the CONEH project, this article identifies the dimensions of community capacity that were enhanced as part of a CBPR community health development approach to reducing physical and social environmental triggers associated with childhood asthma and the factors that facilitated or inhibited the enhancement of community capacity.

Kothmale Community Radio Interorg Project: True Community Radio or Feel-Good Propaganda?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harvey-Carter, Liz

2009-01-01

The Kothmale Community Radio and Interorg project in Sri Lanka has been hailed as an example of how a community radio initiative should function in a developing nation. However, there is some question about whether the Kothmale Community Interorg Project is a true community radio initiative that empowers local communities to access ICT services…

Community Cookbooks: Sponsors of Literacy and Community Identity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mastrangelo, Lisa

2015-01-01

This article looks at the various ways that communities can be "read" through their cookbooks. Recipes and collections can reveal much about communities, including shared memories/traditions, geographical identifications, and representations of class.

[Community self-help houses as a form of community social support].

PubMed

Dabrowski, S; Brodniak, W; Gierlacki, J; Welbel, S

1998-01-01

Two forms of community-based social support were introduced by the Polish Mental Health Act--community specialist social help services and community self-help houses--for seriously mentally ill and severely mentally retarded persons. According to the art. 8 community social support should be organized by social help agencies in consultation with psychiatric facilities. Data obtained from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy indicated that from 21th of January 1995 (when the Mental Health Act was put in force) until 30th of June 1997 social help agencies and non-governmental organizations sponsored by social help agencies have set up 134 community self-help houses with 4103 places. In the middle of last year nearly 3500 persons were using these houses. Most of the houses were located in the following districts: Gdańsk (20), Gorzów (16), Płock (12), Warszawa (8 for 164 persons). Vast majority of them served as day rehabilitation houses, while only a few provided sheltered housing as well. Tentative evaluation of functioning of these houses shows that: operational definition of community self-help house given in the target network of nursing homes and community self-help houses should be modified to include statutory purposes of community social support provided in art.8, selection of the persons using community self-help houses should follow the legal requirement of the Mental Health Act (art. 8), separated rehabilitation programs for mentally ill (psychotic) and mentally retarded persons need to be provided, participation of psychiatric facilities in the organization of the community self-help houses should be increased, functioning of the community self-help houses ought to be supervised by specialists, staff of the community self-help houses need to be systematically trained.

Community resiliency as a measure of collective health status: perspectives from rural communities.

PubMed

Kulig, Judith C; Edge, Dana; Joyce, Brenda

2008-12-01

Community resiliency is a theoretical framework useful for describing the process used by communities to address adversity. A mixed-method 2-year case study was conducted to gather information about community resiliency in 2 rural communities. This article focuses on the themes generated from qualitative interviews with 55 members of these communities. The participants viewed community as a place of interdependence and interaction. The majority saw community resiliency as the ability to address challenges. Characteristics included physical and social infrastructure, population characteristics, conceptual characteristics, and problem-solving processes. Barriers included negative individual attitudes and lack of infrastructure in rural communities. Nurses could play a key role in enhancing the resiliency of rural communities by developing and implementing programs based on the Community Resiliency Model, which was supported in this study.

Using communities that care for community child maltreatment prevention.

PubMed

Salazar, Amy M; Haggerty, Kevin P; de Haan, Benjamin; Catalano, Richard F; Vann, Terri; Vinson, Jean; Lansing, Michaele

2016-03-01

The prevention of mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) disorders among children and adolescents is a national priority. One mode of implementing community-wide MEB prevention efforts is through evidence-based community mobilization approaches such as Communities That Care (CTC). This article provides an overview of the CTC framework and discusses the adaptation process of CTC to prevent development of MEBs through preventing child abuse and neglect and bolstering child well-being in children aged 0 to 10. Adaptations include those to the intervention itself as well as those to the evaluation approach. Preliminary findings from the Keeping Families Together pilot study of this evolving approach suggest that the implementation was manageable for sites, and community board functioning and community adoption of a science-based approach to prevention in pilot sites looks promising. Implications and next steps are outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Dimensionality of Community Satisfaction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, R. Gary; Knop, Edward

Using factor analysis (both principal factor solutions and rotated factor solutions) to search for underlying statistical commonality among 12 indicators of community satisfaction in 6 Colorado communities, the research explores various dimensions of community satisfaction that may be important across different communities. The communities under…

Descriptions of Community by People with Spinal Cord Injuries: Concepts to Inform Community Integration and Community Rehabilitation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuipers, Pim; Kendall, Melissa B.; Amsters, Delena; Pershouse, Kiley; Schuurs, Sarita

2011-01-01

Effective measurement and optimization of re-entry into the community after injury depends on a degree of understanding of how those injured persons actually perceive their community. In light of the limited research about foundational concepts regarding community integration after spinal cord injury, this study investigated how a large number of…

Re-imagining occupational therapy clients as communities: Presenting the community-centred practice framework.

PubMed

Hyett, Nerida; Kenny, Amanda; Dickson-Swift, Virginia

2018-01-09

Occupational therapists' are increasingly working with communities and providing services at the community level. There is, however, a lack of conceptual frameworks to guide this work. The aim of this article is to present a new conceptual framework for community-centered practice in occupational therapy. The conceptual framework was developed from qualitative multi-case research on exemplars of community participation. The first was, a network of Canadian food security programs, and the second, a rural Australian community banking initiative. Key themes were identified from across the case studies, and cross-case findings interpreted using occupational therapy and occupational science knowledge, and relevant social theory. The outcome is a four-stage, occupation-focused, community-centered practice framework. The Community-Centred Practice Framework can be used by occupational therapists to understand and apply a community-centered practice approach. The four stages are: (1) Community Identity, (2) Community Occupations, (3) Community Resources and Barriers, and (4) Participation Enablement. Further research is needed to trial and critically evaluate the framework, to assess its usefulness as a robust, occupation-focused, frame of reference to guide community-centered practice in occupational therapy. The proposed framework should assist occupational therapists to conceptualize community-centered practice, and to utilize and apply theory.

Community assembly and coexistence in communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.

PubMed

Vályi, Kriszta; Mardhiah, Ulfah; Rillig, Matthias C; Hempel, Stefan

2016-10-01

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are asexual, obligately symbiotic fungi with unique morphology and genomic structure, which occupy a dual niche, that is, the soil and the host root. Consequently, the direct adoption of models for community assembly developed for other organism groups is not evident. In this paper we adapted modern coexistence and assembly theory to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. We review research on the elements of community assembly and coexistence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, highlighting recent studies using molecular methods. By addressing several points from the individual to the community level where the application of modern community ecology terms runs into problems when arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are concerned, we aim to account for these special circumstances from a mycocentric point of view. We suggest that hierarchical spatial structure of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities should be explicitly taken into account in future studies. The conceptual framework we develop here for arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi is also adaptable for other host-associated microbial communities.

Community assembly and coexistence in communities of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

PubMed Central

Vályi, Kriszta; Mardhiah, Ulfah; Rillig, Matthias C; Hempel, Stefan

2016-01-01

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are asexual, obligately symbiotic fungi with unique morphology and genomic structure, which occupy a dual niche, that is, the soil and the host root. Consequently, the direct adoption of models for community assembly developed for other organism groups is not evident. In this paper we adapted modern coexistence and assembly theory to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. We review research on the elements of community assembly and coexistence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, highlighting recent studies using molecular methods. By addressing several points from the individual to the community level where the application of modern community ecology terms runs into problems when arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are concerned, we aim to account for these special circumstances from a mycocentric point of view. We suggest that hierarchical spatial structure of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities should be explicitly taken into account in future studies. The conceptual framework we develop here for arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi is also adaptable for other host-associated microbial communities. PMID:27093046

Community Organizing Network for Environmental Health: Using a Community Health Development Approach to Increase Community Capacity around Reduction of Environmental Triggers

PubMed Central

Chung, Lynna K.; Israel, Barbara A.; Reyes, Angela; Wilkins, Donele

2010-01-01

The Community Organizing Network for Environmental Health (CONEH), a project of Community Action Against Asthma, used a community health development approach to improve children’s asthma-related health through increasing the community’s capacity to reduce physical and social environmental triggers for asthma. Three community organizers were hired to work with community groups and residents in neighborhoods in Detroit on the priority areas of air quality, housing, and citizen involvement in the environmental project and policy decision-making. As part of the evaluation of the CONEH project, 20 one-on-one semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted between August and November 2005 involving steering committee members, staff members, and key community organization staff and/or community members. Using data from the evaluation of the CONEH project, this article identifies the dimensions of community capacity that were enhanced as part of a CBPR community health development approach to reducing physical and social environmental triggers associated with childhood asthma and the factors that facilitated or inhibited the enhancement of community capacity. PMID:20306137

Community Size, Community Attachment and Newspaper Readership.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stephens, Lowndes F.

Residents in several states and communities ranging in size from farms to inner cities of more than 500,000 people were surveyed to further explore the strong relationship between community ties and newspaper readership indicated by results of a previous study sponsored by the American Newspaper Publishers Association. The findings revealed that…

Dialogical action: moving from community-based to community-driven participatory research.

PubMed

Montoya, Michael J; Kent, Erin E

2011-07-01

Proponents of community-based research advocate for the active involvement and engagement of community members, citing improved construct validity, intervention efficacy, and accountability. However, to create the conditions in which expertise is mutually constructed and in which no one is the object of research, a reconsideration of the fundamental ethos of community involvement and engagement is required. In this article, we seek to accomplish two goals: (a) to briefly assess the definitions of community health, focus groups, and dissemination that are often used in community-based research; and (b) to introduce an application of dialogical action that goes beyond traditional focus group methodology to promote the creation of an evolving and dynamic dialogue among campus and community stakeholders. An urban case study is presented.

Community Education and the Community College: A Success Story in Southwest Michigan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Gerald C.; And Others

1975-01-01

A series of three viewpoints on the community education program at Kellogg Community College. Initial competition between community education directors and the college director of community education has changed to cooperation, resulting in increased enrollments and reduced advertising costs. (DC)

Bounded Community: Designing and Facilitating Learning Communities in Formal Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Brent G.; Ludwig-Hardman, Stacey; Thornam, Christine L.; Dunlap, Joanna C.

2004-01-01

Learning communities can emerge spontaneously when people find common learning goals and pursue projects and tasks together in pursuit of those goals. "Bounded" learning communities (BLCs) are groups that form within a structured teaching or training setting, typically a course. Unlike spontaneous communities, BLCs develop in direct response to…

AAC and community partnerships: the participation path to community inclusion.

PubMed

Batorowicz, Beata; McDougall, Stacy; Shepherd, Tracy A

2006-09-01

The Life Needs Model (LNM) of service delivery emphasizes the importance of community participation in children's development and quality of life. This article is a case illustration of two community partnership programs based on the LNM. StoryTime and Dress Up and Drama provide participation opportunities in the community for children who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). The authors describe the development and implementation of both programs. Regardless of level of functioning, each child who participated in the programs did so by communicating, interacting socially, and controlling the environment. Multiple benefits for children, parents/caregivers, community partners, and AAC clinicians are highlighted. The authors hope that this article will assist others in developing partnerships and implementing inclusive practices within their communities.

Reducing Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Coastal Hazards through Building Community Resilience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhj, Premathilake

2010-05-01

Reducing Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Coastal Hazards through Building Community Resilience B H J Premathilake Coast Conservation Department Sri Lanka Email: bhjprem@yahoo.com This paper contains two parts; Part one describes the comprehensive approach adopted by our project to build social, economical, institutional and environmental resilience of the tsunami affected communities in Sri Lanka to cope with future natural disasters. Community development, Coastal resource management and Disaster management are the three pillars of this model and these were built simultaneously to bring the community into a higher level of resilience to coastal hazards. Second part describes the application of Coastal Community Resilience (CCR) Assessment framework to evaluate the progress achieved by the project in building overall resilience of the communities during its period. It further describes how to estimate the contribution of this specific project for the improved resilience status of the selected communities in a multi stakeholder environment.

Community Education: A Community Planning Process Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wiglesworth, Bill, Comp.

Designed to assist in the planning of community education and services, this booklet offers an argument in support of as well as step-by-step implementation instructions for a 2-day planning process. Following a discussion of the advantages of cooperative planning, the community planning process is outlined. Examined next are the reasons why a…

Commentary on the Future of Community Psychology: Perspective of a Research Community Psychologist.

PubMed

Milburn, Norweeta G

2016-12-01

Community psychology is commented upon from the perspective of a community psychologist who was trained in the Community Psychology Program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Her background and training are reviewed. A brief survey of research on homelessness as a frame for community psychology research is presented. Concluding remarks are provided on the future of research in community psychology. © Society for Community Research and Action 2016.

Operating characteristics of residential care communities, by community bed size: United States, 2012.

PubMed

Caffrey, Christine; Harris-Kojetin, Lauren; Rome, Vincent; Sengupta, Manisha

2014-11-01

In 2012, the majority of residential care communities had 4–25 beds, yet 71% of residents lived in communities with more than 50 beds. A lower percentage of communities with 4–25 beds were chain-affiliated, nonprofit, and in operation 10 years or more, compared with communities with 26–50 and more than 50 beds. Dementia-exclusive care or dementia care units were more common as community size increased. A higher percentage of communities with more than 50 beds screened for cognitive impairment and offered dementia-specific programming compared with communities with 4–25 and 26–50 beds. A higher percentage of communities with more than 50 beds screened for depression compared with communities with 4–25 beds. Compared with communities with 4–25 beds, a higher percentage of communities with 26–50 beds and more than 50 beds provided therapeutic, hospice, mental health, and dental services; but a lower percentage of communities with more than 50 beds provided skilled nursing services than did smaller communities. This report presents national estimates of residential care communities, using data from the first wave of NSLTCP. This brief profile of residential care communities provides useful information to policymakers, providers, researchers, and consumer advocates as they plan to meet the needs of an aging population. The findings also highlight the diversity of residential care communities across different sizes. Corresponding state estimates and their standard errors for the national figures in this data brief can be found on the NSLTCP website at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsltcp/ nsltcp_products.htm. These national and state estimates establish a baseline for monitoring trends among residents living in residential care. All material appearing in this report is in the public domain and may be reproduced or copied without permission; citation as to source, however, is appreciated.

Community Health

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The Environmental Health Resources for Community Members site provides tools and information to help local leaders and members of the community protect public health by understanding and addressing environmental conditions.

Community-based prevention marketing: organizing a community for health behavior intervention.

PubMed

Bryant, Carol A; Brown, Kelli R McCormack; McDermott, Robert J; Forthofer, Melinda S; Bumpus, Elizabeth C; Calkins, Susan A; Zapata, Lauren B

2007-04-01

This article describes the application and refinement of community-based prevention marketing (CBPM), an example of community-based participatory research that blends social marketing theories and techniques and community organization principles to guide voluntary health behavior change. The Florida Prevention Research Center has worked with a community coalition in Sarasota County, Florida to define locally important health problems and issues and to develop responsive health-promotion interventions. The CBPM framework has evolved as academic and community-based researchers have gained experience applying it. Community boards can use marketing principles to design evidence-based strategies for addressing local public health concerns. Based on 6 years of experience with the "Believe in All Your Possibilities" program, lessons learned that have led to revision and improvement of the CBPM framework are described.

The Community-Building College: Leading the Way to Community Revitalization.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harlacher, Ervin L.; Gollattscheck, James F.

Arguing that the nation's educational system must be renewed to empower citizens and communities, this two-part monograph describes the importance of building learning communities and offers a blueprint to guide community colleges in this undertaking. The first part of the monograph provides three chapters focusing on creating a vision for the…

Community Capacity for Implementing Clean Development Mechanism Projects Within Community Forests in Cameroon

PubMed Central

McCall, Michael K.; Bressers, Hans Th. A.

2007-01-01

There is a growing assumption that payments for environmental services including carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emission reduction provide an opportunity for poverty reduction and the enhancement of sustainable development within integrated natural resource management approaches. Yet in experiential terms, community-based natural resource management implementation falls short of expectations in many cases. In this paper, we investigate the asymmetry between community capacity and the Land Use Land Use Change Forestry (LULUCF) provisions of the Clean Development Mechanism within community forests in Cameroon. We use relevant aspects of the Clean Development Mechanism criteria and notions of “community capacity” to elucidate determinants of community capacity needed for CDM implementation within community forests. The main requirements are for community capacity to handle issues of additionality, acceptability, externalities, certification, and community organisation. These community capacity requirements are further used to interpret empirically derived insights on two community forestry cases in Cameroon. While local variations were observed for capacity requirements in each case, community capacity was generally found to be insufficient for meaningful uptake and implementation of Clean Development Mechanism projects. Implications for understanding factors that could inhibit or enhance community capacity for project development are discussed. We also include recommendations for the wider Clean Development Mechanism/Kyoto capacity building framework. PMID:17377732

Measuring disaster-resilient communities: a case study of coastal communities in Indonesia.

PubMed

Kafle, Shesh Kanta

2012-01-01

Vulnerability reduction and resilience building of communities are central concepts in recent policy debates. Although there are fundamental linkages, and complementarities exist between the two concepts, recent policy and programming has focused more on the latter. It is assumed here that reducing underlying causes of vulnerabilities and their interactions with resilience elements is a prerequisite for obtaining resilience capabilities. An integrated approach, incorporating both the vulnerability and resilience considerations, has been taken while developing an index for measuring disaster-resilient communities. This study outlines a method for measuring community resilience capabilities using process and outcome indicators in 43 coastal communities in Indonesia. An index was developed using ten process and 25 outcome indicators, selected on the basis of the ten steps of the Integrated Community Based Risk Reduction (ICBRR) process, and key characteristics of disaster resilient communities were taken from various literatures. The overall index value of all 43 communities was 63, whereas the process and outcome indicator values were measured as 63 and 61.5 respectively. The core components of this index are process and outcome indicators. The tool has been developed with an assumption that both the process and outcome indicators are equally important in building disaster-resilient communities. The combination of both indicators is an impetus to quality change in the community. Process indicators are important for community understanding, ownership and the sustainability of the programme; whereas outcome indicators are important for the real achievements in terms of community empowerment and capacity development. The process of ICBRR approach varies by country and location as per the level of community awareness and organisational strategy. However, core elements such as the formation of community groups, mobilising those groups in risk assessment and planning

Community participation in health activities in an Amazon community of Brazil.

PubMed

Tauil, M C; de Azevedo, A C

1978-01-01

This article describes community participation in a comprehensive eight-year health program at Porto Nacional, a town in Brazils Amazon region. The authors discuss various techniques employed to encourage community participation, indicate methods used to resolve low-key conflicts in a positive manner, describe the major contributions made by community participation in this program, and present a number of conclusions considered applicable to other communities in this part of Brazil.

Designing Programs for Community Groups. New Directions for Community Colleges, Number 45.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martorana, S. V., Ed.; Piland, William E., Ed.

1984-01-01

This collection of articles addresses the role of community colleges in serving the specialized interests of organized community groups. After introductory comments on the topic, Seymour Eskow discusses how societal changes necessitate a reexamination of the role of the community college and an increased orientation to community organizations.…

Community Garden Information Systems: Analyzing and Strengthening Community-Based Resource Sharing Networks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loria, Kristen

2013-01-01

Extension professionals play an increasingly central role in supporting community garden and other community-based agriculture projects. With growing interest in community gardens as tools to improve community health and vitality, the best strategies for supporting these projects should be explored. Due to the importance of inter-personal networks…

Social science constructs in ecosystem assessments: revisiting community capacity and community resiliency.

Treesearch

Ellen M. Donoghue; Victoria E. Sturtevant

2007-01-01

This article explores the development of sociological constructs in community assessment components of large-scale ecosystem assessments. We compare the conceptual and operational development of the constructs of community capacity and community resiliency used in three community assessments in the western United States: the Forest Ecosystem Management Assessment Team...

Examining Electronic Learning Communities through the Communities of Practice Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linton, Jayme N.

2015-01-01

This qualitative interpretive case study used Wenger's (1998) communities of practice (CoP) framework to analyze how the electronic learning community (eLC) process at an established state virtual high school operated like a community of practice. Components of the eLC process were analyzed according to elements of the CoP framework, which…

Real, Relevant, Meaningful Learning: Community-Based Education in Native Communities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Enos, Anya Dozier

The Community-Based Education Model (CBEM) at Santa Fe Indian School (SFIS) in New Mexico was studied to determine the elements that contribute to its success and that may be replicated in other community education projects. The CBEM engages students and tribal communities in issues related to their environment, natural resources, and health in an…

Community concepts.

PubMed

Yeung, Thomas; Bates, Tony

2004-03-01

Since the publication of "Sustainable Communities--building for the future", Government attention has focused largely on high-density affordable housing in the four "growth areas": Thames Gateway; Ashford; Milton Keynes--South Midlands, and London--Stansted--Cambridge. In this article, Thomas Yeung and Tony Bates suggest that a greater and more sustainable impact would be achieved if architects, planners, and developers considered the potential for community-based water and waste management and on-site energy generation and distribution right from the start of the project. In particular, they consider that the communal nature of hospitals, universities, and public/community housing provides a great opportunity for on-site renewable CHP and/or distributed heating, which could combine global environmental benefits with improved local amenities. They describe a simple model for prioritising energy management in the built environment, and draw on lessons learnt at ETRCL in Dagenham and BedZED in Surrey to offer a few recommendations for Government and developers. Tony Bates is the business development manager for Scott Wilson in the South East and is responsible for the promotion of sustainable communities through relationships with architects, developers, land owners and local authorities. Thomas Yeung leads the Energy Infrastructure Technologies group in Scott Wilson. This team offers an integrated approach to clean community-based energy generation, energy management, waste and water management, sustainable transport, and sustainable buildings/communities.

Loyalty in Online Communities

PubMed Central

Hamilton, William L.; Zhang, Justine; Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, Cristian; Jurafsky, Dan; Leskovec, Jure

2018-01-01

Loyalty is an essential component of multi-community engagement. When users have the choice to engage with a variety of different communities, they often become loyal to just one, focusing on that community at the expense of others. However, it is unclear how loyalty is manifested in user behavior, or whether certain community characteristics encourage loyalty. In this paper we operationalize loyalty as a user-community relation: users loyal to a community consistently prefer it over all others; loyal communities retain their loyal users over time. By exploring a large set of Reddit communities, we reveal that loyalty is manifested in remarkably consistent behaviors. Loyal users employ language that signals collective identity and engage with more esoteric, less popular content, indicating that they may play a curational role in surfacing new material. Loyal communities have denser user-user interaction networks and lower rates of triadic closure, suggesting that community-level loyalty is associated with more cohesive interactions and less fragmentation into subgroups. We exploit these general patterns to predict future rates of loyalty. Our results show that a user’s propensity to become loyal is apparent from their initial interactions with a community, suggesting that some users are intrinsically loyal from the very beginning. PMID:29354326

Loyalty in Online Communities.

PubMed

Hamilton, William L; Zhang, Justine; Danescu-Niculescu-Mizil, Cristian; Jurafsky, Dan; Leskovec, Jure

2017-05-01

Loyalty is an essential component of multi-community engagement. When users have the choice to engage with a variety of different communities, they often become loyal to just one, focusing on that community at the expense of others. However, it is unclear how loyalty is manifested in user behavior, or whether certain community characteristics encourage loyalty. In this paper we operationalize loyalty as a user-community relation: users loyal to a community consistently prefer it over all others; loyal communities retain their loyal users over time. By exploring a large set of Reddit communities, we reveal that loyalty is manifested in remarkably consistent behaviors. Loyal users employ language that signals collective identity and engage with more esoteric, less popular content, indicating that they may play a curational role in surfacing new material. Loyal communities have denser user-user interaction networks and lower rates of triadic closure, suggesting that community-level loyalty is associated with more cohesive interactions and less fragmentation into subgroups. We exploit these general patterns to predict future rates of loyalty. Our results show that a user's propensity to become loyal is apparent from their initial interactions with a community, suggesting that some users are intrinsically loyal from the very beginning.

Getting Actionable About Community Resilience: The Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience Project

PubMed Central

Williams, Malcolm; Plough, Alonzo; Stayton, Alix; Wells, Kenneth B.; Horta, Mariana; Tang, Jennifer

2013-01-01

Community resilience (CR)—ability to withstand and recover from a disaster—is a national policy expectation that challenges health departments to merge disaster preparedness and community health promotion and to build stronger partnerships with organizations outside government, yet guidance is limited. A baseline survey documented community resilience–building barriers and facilitators for health department and community-based organization (CBO) staff. Questions focused on CBO engagement, government–CBO partnerships, and community education. Most health department staff and CBO members devoted minimal time to community disaster preparedness though many serve populations that would benefit. Respondents observed limited CR activities to activate in a disaster. The findings highlighted opportunities for engaging communities in disaster preparedness and informed the development of a community action plan and toolkit. PMID:23678906

Getting actionable about community resilience: the Los Angeles County Community Disaster Resilience project.

PubMed

Chandra, Anita; Williams, Malcolm; Plough, Alonzo; Stayton, Alix; Wells, Kenneth B; Horta, Mariana; Tang, Jennifer

2013-07-01

Community resilience (CR)--ability to withstand and recover from a disaster--is a national policy expectation that challenges health departments to merge disaster preparedness and community health promotion and to build stronger partnerships with organizations outside government, yet guidance is limited. A baseline survey documented community resilience-building barriers and facilitators for health department and community-based organization (CBO) staff. Questions focused on CBO engagement, government-CBO partnerships, and community education. Most health department staff and CBO members devoted minimal time to community disaster preparedness though many serve populations that would benefit. Respondents observed limited CR activities to activate in a disaster. The findings highlighted opportunities for engaging communities in disaster preparedness and informed the development of a community action plan and toolkit.

Building capacity in disadvantaged communities: development of the community advocacy and leadership program.

PubMed

Sharpe, Patricia A; Flint, Sylvia; Burroughs-Girardi, Ericka L; Pekuri, Linda; Wilcox, Sara; Forthofer, Melinda

2015-01-01

Successful community groups have the capacity to mobilize community assets to address needs. Capacity-building education is integral to building competent communities. A community-university team developed and pilot tested an education program for community advocates from disadvantaged neighborhoods with high chronic disease burden. The Community Advocacy and Leadership Program (CALP) included eight monthly workshops, a mini-grant opportunity, and technical assistance. A nominal group with community health practitioners, focus group with community advocates, and a literature search comprised a triangulated educational needs assessment. A participating pretest with 35 community health practitioners guided curriculum refinement. Seven representatives from three community groups in a medically underserved South Carolina county participated in pilot implementation and evaluation. Qualitative and quantitative data informed the process and impact evaluation. The mean knowledge score at 1 month after the program was 77% (range, 52%-96%). The mean score on post-program self-assessment of skills improvement was 3.8 out of a possible 4.0 (range, 3.6-4.0). Two groups submitted successful community mini-grant applications for playground improvements, and the third group successfully advocated for public funding of neighborhood park improvements. Participants reported favorable impressions and both personal and community benefits from participation. A community-university partnership successfully conducted a local educational needs assessment and developed and pilot tested a capacity development program within a CBPR partnership. Successes, challenges, and lessons learned will guide program refinement, replication, and dissemination.

Community Attachment and Satisfaction: The Role of a Community's Social Network Structure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crowe, Jessica

2010-01-01

This paper links the micro and macro levels of analysis by examining how different aspects of community sentiment are affected by one's personal ties to the community compared with the organizational network structure of the community. Using data collected from residents of six communities in Washington State, network analysis combined with…

Resilience, Community, and Resilient Communities: Conditioning Contexts and Collective Action

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chaskin, Robert J.

2008-01-01

This article explores the idea of community as it relates to the concept of resilience. It focuses on community both as context (local environments providing a set of risk and protective factors that have an influence on the well-being of community members) and as collective actors that can exhibit resilience in themselves by organizing and acting…

An Open Letter to the Cancer Community Regarding Community Clinical Trials

Cancer.gov

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is in the process of combining its two community-based research networks to create a single network that builds on the strengths of the Community Clinical Oncology Program/Minority-Based Community Clinical Oncology Prog

Community Leadership and Community Theory: A Practical Synthesis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pigg, Kenneth E.

1999-01-01

Attempts to synthesize a view of community leadership arising from community relationships with an interactional or field theory perspective. Suggests a change in focus from what leaders do to the quality of relationships between leaders and followers, requiring a different kind of leadership development. (SK)

A Mixed-Methods Approach to Understanding Community Participation in Community Health Needs Assessments.

PubMed

Pennel, Cara L; McLeroy, Kenneth R; Burdine, James N; Matarrita-Cascante, David; Wang, Jia

Nonprofit hospitals are exempt from paying taxes. To maintain this status, they must provide benefit to the community they serve. In an attempt to improve accountability to these communities and the federal government, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 includes a provision that requires all nonprofit hospitals to conduct a community health needs assessment (CHNA) and implement strategies to address identified health priorities every 3 years. This Act's provision, operationalized by a regulation developed and enforced by the Internal Revenue Service, mandates the involvement of public health agencies and other community stakeholders in the completion of the CHNA. To better understand community participation in nonprofit hospital-directed community health assessment and health improvement planning activities. Using a 2-phased, mixed-methods study design, we (1) conducted content analysis of 95 CHNA/implementation plan reports and (2) interviewed hospital and health system key informants, consultants, and community stakeholders involved in CHNA and planning processes. Community participation was assessed in terms of types of stakeholders involved and the depth of their involvement. Our findings suggest that many hospitals engaged and involved community stakeholders in certain aspects of the assessment process, but very few engaged a broad array of community stakeholder and community members in meaningful participation throughout the CHNA and health improvement planning process. Vast improvements in community participation and collaborative assessment and planning can be made in future CHNAs. On the basis of the findings, recommendations are made for further research. Practice implications include expanding community engagement and participation by stakeholder and activity type and using a common community health improvement model that better aligns hospital CHNA processes and implementation strategies with other organizations and agencies.

Community organizing and community health: piloting an innovative approach to community engagement applied to an early intervention project in south London

PubMed Central

Bolton, Matthew; Moore, Imogen; Ferreira, Ana; Day, Crispin; Bolton, Derek

2016-01-01

Background The importance of community engagement in health is widely recognized, and key themes in UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommendations for enhancing community engagement are co-production and community control. This study reports an innovative approach to community engagement using the community-organizing methodology, applied in an intervention of social support to increase social capital, reduce stress and improve well-being in mothers who were pregnant and/or with infants aged 0–2 years. Methods Professional community organizers in Citizens-UK worked with local member civic institutions in south London to facilitate social support to a group of 15 new mothers. Acceptability of the programme, adherence to principles of co-production and community control, and changes in the outcomes of interest were assessed quantitatively in a quasi-experimental design. Results The programme was found to be feasible and acceptable to participating mothers, and perceived by them to involve co-production and community control. There were no detected changes in subjective well-being, but there were important reductions in distress on a standard self-report measure (GHQ-12). There were increases in social capital of a circumscribed kind associated with the project. Conclusions Community organizing provides a promising model and method of facilitating community engagement in health. PMID:25724610

COMMUNITY BASED ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

EPA Science Inventory

Community Based Environmental Protection intends to make environmental protection spring from the needs and values of the community of interest. Real community involvement in protecting the environment requires a process in which the environmental needs of communities and ecosyst...

Community Management That Works: How to Build and Sustain a Thriving Online Health Community

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Health care professionals, patients, caregivers, family, friends, and other supporters are increasingly joining online health communities to share information and find support. But social Web (Web 2.0) technology alone does not create a successful online community. Building and sustaining a successful community requires an enabler and strategic community management. Community management is more than moderation. The developmental life cycle of a community has four stages: inception, establishment, maturity, and mitosis. Each stage presents distinct characteristics and management needs. This paper describes the community management strategies, resources, and expertise needed to build and maintain a thriving online health community; introduces some of the challenges; and provides a guide for health organizations considering this undertaking. The paper draws on insights from an ongoing study and observation of online communities as well as experience managing and consulting a variety of online health communities. Discussion includes effective community building practices relevant to each stage, such as outreach and relationship building, data collection, content creation, and other proven techniques that ensure the survival and steady growth of an online health community. PMID:23759312

Corporate Philanthropy Toward Community Health Improvement in Manufacturing Communities.

PubMed

McHugh, Megan; Farley, Diane; Maechling, Claude R; Dunlop, Dorothy D; French, Dustin D; Holl, Jane L

2018-06-01

Virtually all large employers engage in corporate philanthropy, but little is known about the extent to which it is directed toward improving community health. We conducted in-depth interviews with leaders of corporate philanthropy from 13 of the largest manufacturing companies in the US to understand how giving decisions were made, the extent to which funding was directed towards improving community health, and whether companies coordinate with local public health agencies. We found that corporate giving was sizable and directed towards communities in which the manufacturers have a large presence. Giving was aligned with the social determinants of health (i.e., aimed at improving economic stability, the neighborhood and physical environment, education, food security and nutrition, the community and social context, and the health care system). However, improving public health was not often cited as a goal of corporate giving, and coordination with public health agencies was limited. Our results suggest that there may be opportunities for public health agencies to help guide corporate philanthropy, particularly by sharing community-level data and offering their measurement and evaluation expertise.

Community assembly rules affect the diversity of expanding communities.

PubMed

Peng, Zechen; Zhou, Shurong

2014-11-01

Despite centuries of interest in species range limits, few studies have taken a whole community into consideration. Actually, multiple species may simultaneously respond to environmental changes, for example, global warming, leading a series of dynamical communities toward the advancing front. We investigated multiple species range expansions through the analysis of a two-species dispersion model and simulations of multiple species assemblages regulated by neutral and fecundity-survival trade-offs (FSTs), respectively, and found that species assemblages regulated by different mechanisms would initiate different expanding patterns in geographic ranges in response to environmental changes. The neutral model generally predicts a higher biodiversity near the core of an expanding range, and a lower community similarity compared with a FST model. Without considering the evolution of life history traits, an assortment of the reproduction ability happens at the advancing front under FSTs at the expense of a higher death rate or lower competitive ability. These results emphasize the importance of community assembly rules to the biodiversity maintenance of range expanding communities.

Alternative community structures in a kelp-urchin community: A qualitative modeling approach

USGS Publications Warehouse

Montano-Moctezuma, G.; Li, H.W.; Rossignol, P.A.

2007-01-01

Shifts in interaction patterns within a community may result from periodic disturbances and climate. The question arises as to the extent and significance of these shifting patterns. Using a novel approach to link qualitative mathematical models and field data, namely using the inverse matrix to identify the community matrix, we reconstructed community networks from kelp forests off the Oregon Coast. We simulated all ecologically plausible interactions among community members, selected the models whose outcomes match field observations, and identified highly frequent links to characterize the community network from a particular site. We tested all possible biologically reasonable community networks through qualitative simulations, selected those that matched patterns observed in the field, and further reduced the set of possibilities by retaining those that were stable. We found that a community can be represented by a set of alternative structures, or scenarios. From 11,943,936 simulated models, 0.23% matched the field observations; moreover, only 0.006%, or 748 models, were highly reliable in their predictions and met conditions for stability. Predator-prey interactions as well as non-predatory relationships were consistently found in most of the 748 models. These highly frequent connections were useful to characterize the community network in the study site. We suggest that alternative networks provide the community with a buffer to disturbance, allowing it to continuously reorganize to adapt to a variable environment. This is possible due to the fluctuating capacities of foraging species to consume alternate resources. This suggestion is sustained by our results, which indicate that none of the models that matched field observations were fully connected. This plasticity may contribute to the persistence of these communities. We propose that qualitative simulations represent a powerful technique to raise new hypotheses concerning community dynamics and to

Enhancing Community Service Learning via Practical Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ronen, Ilana; Shemer-Elkiyam, Tal

2015-01-01

The advantages of learning communities focused on analyzing social issues and educational repercussions in the field are presented in this study. The research examines the contribution of a learning community to enhancing student teachers' responsibility and their social involvement. The assumption was that participating in learning community…

Valuing Our Communities: Ethical Considerations for Economic Evaluation of Community-Based Prevention.

PubMed

Crowley, Max; Jones, Damon

2017-12-01

Restricted public budgets and increasing efforts to link the impact of community interventions to public savings have increased the use of economic evaluation. While this type of evaluation can be important for program planning, it also raises important ethical issues about how we value the time of local stakeholders who support community interventions. In particular, researchers navigate issues of scientific accuracy, institutional inequality, and research utility in their pursuit of even basic cost estimates. We provide an example of how we confronted these issues when estimating the costs of a large-scale community-based intervention. Principles for valuing community members' time and conducting economic evaluations of community programs are discussed. © Society for Community Research and Action 2017.

Development of community plans to enhance survivorship from colorectal cancer: community-based participatory research in rural communities.

PubMed

Lengerich, Eugene J; Kluhsman, Brenda C; Bencivenga, Marcyann; Allen, Regina; Miele, Mary Beth; Farace, Elana

2007-09-01

In 2002, 10.4% of the 10 million persons alive who have ever been diagnosed with cancer had colorectal cancer (CRC). Barriers, such as distance, terrain, access to care and cultural differences, to CRC survivorship may be especially relevant in rural communities. We tested the hypothesis that teams from rural cancer coalitions and hospitals would develop a Community Plan (CP) to enhance CRC survivorship. We used community-based participatory research and the PRECEDE-PROCEED model to train teams from rural cancer coalitions and hospitals in Pennsylvania and New York. We measured knowledge at three points in time and tested the change with McNemar's test, corrected for multiple comparisons (p < 0.0167). We also conducted a qualitative review of the CP contents. Fourteen (93.3%) of the 15 coalitions or hospitals initially recruited to the study completed a CP. Knowledge in public health, sponsorship of A National Action Plan for Cancer Survivorship, and CRC survivorship and treatment increased. Teams identified perceived barriers and community assets. All teams planned to increase awareness of community assets and almost all planned to enhance treatment-related care and psychosocial care for the CRC survivor; 50% planned to enhance primary care and CRC screening. The study demonstrated the interest and ability of rural organizations to plan to enhance CRC survivorship, including linkage of CRC survivorship to primary care. Rural cancer coalitions and hospitals may be a vehicle to develop local action for A National Action Plan. Access to more comprehensive care for CRC cancer survivors in rural communities appears to be facilitated by the community-based initiative described and investigated in this study. Efforts such as these could be replicated in other rural communities and may impact the care and quality of life of survivors with many types of cancers. While access to health services may be increased through community-based initiatives, we still need to measure

Community perspectives

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1975-01-01

General aviation is considered from the perspective of the local community's decision-making process in determining its needs for access to general aviation services. The decision-making model, preliminary decision, community characteristics, and planning processes are discussed.

[The process of empowering community development: the experience of a community in Taipei city].

PubMed

Li, I-Chuan; Chen, Yu-Chi; Wang, Hui-Chun

2006-04-01

Community participation and development are the most difficult aspects of building healthy communities. They are also, however, the most essential parts of the process. It has been established that empowerment can ultimately enhance individual self-efficacy, influence organizational and social structures, and increase the sense of community and citizen's capabilities. This article demonstrates the experience of one community in Taipei City during a lengthy period of organization and development. It illustrates the different stages involved in community development and the functions of community health professionals. It seeks to provide insight into the importance of using empowerment in promoting communities' capabilities and the fact that only by developing organic communities that are rich in the energy of life can we develop sustainable communities.

Training community health students to develop community-requested social marketing campaigns: an innovative partnership.

PubMed

Lindsey, Billie J; Hawk, Carol Wetherill

2013-01-01

This paper describes a sustained partnership between a university community health program and local and regional community health agencies. As a key component of the Health Communication and Social Marketing course, the partnership involves undergraduate community health students working for and with community agencies and community members to design social marketing campaigns based on community-identified health needs. The goals of the course are to (1) provide students with the opportunity to work within the community to apply their skills in program planning, evaluation, and communication and (2) provide community agencies with a tailored campaign that can be implemented in their communities. Throughout the 10-week quarter, teams of students follow the principles of community participation in planning a social marketing campaign. These include (1) audience segmentation and formative assessment with the intended audience to determine campaign content and strategies and (2) pretesting and revisions of campaign messages and materials based on community feedback. This partnership contributes to the promotion of health in the local community and it builds the skills and competencies of future health educators. It demonstrates a successful and sustainable combination of community-based participatory research and experiential learning. From 2005 to 2011, 35 campaigns have been developed, many which have been implemented.

Strengthening community leadership: evaluation findings from the california healthy cities and communities program.

PubMed

Kegler, Michelle C; Norton, Barbara L; Aronson, Robert E

2008-04-01

Collaborative approaches to community health improvement such as healthy cities and communities have the potential to strengthen community capacity through leadership development. The healthy cities and communities process orients existing local leadership to new community problem-solving strategies and draws out leadership abilities among residents not previously engaged in civic life. In an evaluation of the California Healthy Cities and Communities (CHCC) Program, leadership development was one of several outcomes assessed at the civic-participation level of the social ecology. Data collection methods included focus groups and surveys, semistructured interviews with coordinators and community leaders, and review of program documents. Findings suggest that the CHCC program enhanced capacity by expanding new leadership opportunities through coalition participation, program implementation, and civic leadership roles related to spin-off organizations and broader collaborative structures. Communities in rural regions were particularly successful in achieving significant leadership outcomes.

Soil Communities Promote Temporal Stability and Species Asynchrony in Experimental Grassland Communities

PubMed Central

Pellkofer, Sarah; van der Heijden, Marcel G. A.; Schmid, Bernhard; Wagg, Cameron

2016-01-01

Background Over the past two decades many studies have demonstrated that plant species diversity promotes primary productivity and stability in grassland ecosystems. Additionally, soil community characteristics have also been shown to influence the productivity and composition of plant communities, yet little is known about whether soil communities also play a role in stabilizing the productivity of an ecosystem. Methodology/Principal Findings Here we use microcosms to assess the effects of the presence of soil communities on plant community dynamics and stability over a one-year time span. Microcosms were filled with sterilized soil and inoculated with either unaltered field soil or field soil sterilized to eliminate the naturally occurring soil biota. Eliminating the naturally occurring soil biota not only resulted in lower plant productivity, and reduced plant species diversity, and evenness, but also destabilized the net aboveground productivity of the plant communities over time, which was largely driven by changes in abundance of the dominant grass Lolium perenne. In contrast, the grass and legumes contributed more to net aboveground productivity of the plant communities in microcosms where soil biota had been inoculated. Additionally, the forbs exhibited compensatory dynamics with grasses and legumes, thus lowering temporal variation in productivity in microcosms that received the unaltered soil inocula. Overall, asynchrony among plant species was higher in microcosms where an unaltered soil community had been inoculated, which lead to higher temporal stability in community productivity. Conclusions/Significance Our results suggest that soil communities increase plant species asynchrony and stabilize plant community productivity by equalizing the performance among competing plant species through potential antagonistic and facilitative effects on individual plant species. PMID:26829481

Food-web complexity, meta-community complexity and community stability.

PubMed

Mougi, A; Kondoh, M

2016-04-13

What allows interacting, diverse species to coexist in nature has been a central question in ecology, ever since the theoretical prediction that a complex community should be inherently unstable. Although the role of spatiality in species coexistence has been recognized, its application to more complex systems has been less explored. Here, using a meta-community model of food web, we show that meta-community complexity, measured by the number of local food webs and their connectedness, elicits a self-regulating, negative-feedback mechanism and thus stabilizes food-web dynamics. Moreover, the presence of meta-community complexity can give rise to a positive food-web complexity-stability effect. Spatiality may play a more important role in stabilizing dynamics of complex, real food webs than expected from ecological theory based on the models of simpler food webs.

Successful Community Development Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Thomas G.

This paper sketches several successful community economic development programs that have implications for rural education. Case studies are used to discuss community characteristics that contribute to development success. In Virginia, a Community Certification Program offers statewide business recruitment services to communities that meet program…

The Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART): an intervention to build community resilience to disasters.

PubMed

Pfefferbaum, Rose L; Pfefferbaum, Betty; Van Horn, Richard L; Klomp, Richard W; Norris, Fran H; Reissman, Dori B

2013-01-01

Community resilience has emerged as a construct to support and foster healthy individual, family, and community adaptation to mass casualty incidents. The Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART) is a publicly available theory-based and evidence-informed community intervention designed to enhance community resilience by bringing stakeholders together to address community issues in a process that includes assessment, feedback, planning, and action. Tools include a field-tested community resilience survey and other assessment and analytical instruments. The CART process encourages public engagement in problem solving and the development and use of local assets to address community needs. CART recognizes 4 interrelated domains that contribute to community resilience: connection and caring, resources, transformative potential, and disaster management. The primary value of CART is its contribution to community participation, communication, self-awareness, cooperation, and critical reflection and its ability to stimulate analysis, collaboration, skill building, resource sharing, and purposeful action.

The Learning Community.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boo, Mary Richardson; Decker, Larry E.

This guide to community education offers strategies and suggestions for responding to the call for more community involvement in partnership efforts that will benefit education and society. First, a brief introduction summarizes the philosophy of community education, defining it as a belief that learning is lifelong and that self-help efforts…

I Am Community.

PubMed

Bunkers, Sandra Schmidt

2016-04-01

This column explores the humanbecoming paradigm perspective of community. Community is written about as a vastness of the galaxy; as serene valley, mountain, turbulent sea; and, as nameless stranger, friend, family. Presented are tenets and indicators for living the art of humanbecoming community for health professionals. © The Author(s) 2016.

The Community School in the Nation. Community Issues.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gittell, Marilyn

The major stimulus of the community school movement is a general dissatisfaction with the existing public education system, the greatest thrust having come from the minority groups. The two major difficulties appear to be the creation of independent schools or districts under local community control, and the development of adequate funding…

Sustaining Communities: A Collaborative Approach to Community Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skinner, Raymond A.

2009-01-01

In this article, the author talks about incorporating what those in academia do best--scholarship and teaching--and what government bureaucrats do best in administering housing and community revitalization programs into a strong and sustainable system of community engagement and outreach. He frames the discussion by focusing on some examples of…

Community noise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bragdon, C. R.

Airport and community land use planning as they relate to airport noise reduction are discussed. Legislation, community relations, and the physiological effect of airport noise are considered. Noise at the Logan, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis/St. Paul airports is discussed.

Community noise

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bragdon, C. R.

1982-01-01

Airport and community land use planning as they relate to airport noise reduction are discussed. Legislation, community relations, and the physiological effect of airport noise are considered. Noise at the Logan, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis/St. Paul airports is discussed.

Community Colleges Online

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crawford, Corinne; Persaud, Colin

2013-01-01

Presently, community colleges are bursting at the seams. In 2011, community colleges turned away more than 400,000 prospective students. In the next six years, 63 percent of all U.S. jobs will require postsecondary education. Twenty two million new workers with postsecondary degrees will be needed by 2018. Community colleges are turning…

Celebrating indigenous communities compassionate traditions.

PubMed

Prince, Holly

2018-01-01

Living in a compassionate community is not a new practice in First Nations communities; they have always recognized dying as a social experience. First Nations hold extensive traditional knowledge and have community-based practices to support the personal, familial, and community experiences surrounding end-of-life. However, western health systems were imposed and typically did not support these social and cultural practices at end of life. In fact, the different expectations of western medicine and the community related to end of life care has created stress and misunderstanding for both. One solution is for First Nations communities to develop palliative care programs so that people can receive care at home amongst their family, community and culture. Our research project "Improving End-of-Life Care in First Nations Communities" (EOLFN) was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research [2010-2015] and was conducted in partnership with four First Nations communities in Canada (see www.eolfn.lakeheadu.ca). Results included a community capacity development approach to support Indigenous models of care at end-of-life. The workshop will describe the community capacity development process used to develop palliative care programs in First Nations communities. It will highlight the foundation to this approach, namely, grounding the program in community values and principles, rooted in individual, family, community and culture. Two First Nations communities will share stories about their experiences developing their own palliative care programs, which celebrated cultural capacity in their communities while enhancing medical palliative care services in a way that respected and integrated with their community cultural practices. This workshop shares the experiences of two First Nations communities who developed palliative care programs by building upon community culture, values and principles. The underlying model guiding development is shared.

Natural Hazard Preparedness in an Auckland Community: Child and Community Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bolton, Patricia; Dirks, Kim; Neuwelt, Pat

2014-01-01

Community engagement in natural hazard preparedness is crucial to ensure sustainable initiatives. Children are important members of communities, and can actively contribute to community preparedness. This article presents research undertaken with 11- to 12-year-old students from a school in Auckland, New Zealand, and leaders associated with the…

Oakton Community College Annual Report to the Community, Fiscal Year 1997.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oakton Community Coll., Des Plaines, IL.

Oakton Community College's (Illinois) Annual Report to the Community for fiscal year 1997 includes information about the college's operations and finances. Prepared to acquaint the community with the school, the report contains letters from the board chairman and president, and outlines the college's mission statement and student services and…

Reforming the community research program: from Community Clinical Oncology Program to the National Cancer Institute Community Oncology Research Program.

PubMed

Zon, Robin T

2014-01-01

Community research has been an integral and influential component of the National Research Program since the late 1970s. Institutionalization of community research in the Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) has resulted in successful collaborations, meaningful accrual, achievement of quality standards, and translation of research into clinical practice. Although the national clinical trial system is undergoing modernization and improvement, the success of the CCOP and minority-based CCOP in cancer treatment, prevention, and control research is being extended to include cancer care delivery research in the newly created National Cancer Institute (NCI) Community Oncology Research Program. This article briefly presents a historic perspective of community involvement in federally sponsored clinical trials and introduces the continued involvement in the newly created NCI program.

Constant Communities in Complex Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chakraborty, Tanmoy; Srinivasan, Sriram; Ganguly, Niloy; Bhowmick, Sanjukta; Mukherjee, Animesh

2013-05-01

Identifying community structure is a fundamental problem in network analysis. Most community detection algorithms are based on optimizing a combinatorial parameter, for example modularity. This optimization is generally NP-hard, thus merely changing the vertex order can alter their assignments to the community. However, there has been less study on how vertex ordering influences the results of the community detection algorithms. Here we identify and study the properties of invariant groups of vertices (constant communities) whose assignment to communities are, quite remarkably, not affected by vertex ordering. The percentage of constant communities can vary across different applications and based on empirical results we propose metrics to evaluate these communities. Using constant communities as a pre-processing step, one can significantly reduce the variation of the results. Finally, we present a case study on phoneme network and illustrate that constant communities, quite strikingly, form the core functional units of the larger communities.

Serving Communities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brook, Les, Ed.

This book contains 15 articles about various aspects of community further education (FE) programs in Great Britain, including program rationales/benefits, administration, and delivery. The following articles are included: "Foreword" (Bradshaw); "Commitment to Community Is Good Business and Practical Politics" (Brook); "Can…

National Community Solar Platform

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rupert, Bart

This project was created to provide a National Community Solar Platform (NCSP) portal known as Community Solar Hub, that is available to any entity or individual who wants to develop community solar. This has been done by providing a comprehensive portal to make CEC’s solutions, and other proven community solar solutions, externally available for everyone to access – making the process easy through proven platforms to protect subscribers, developers and utilities. The successful completion of this project provides these tools via a web platform and integration APIs, a wide spectrum of community solar projects included in the platform, multiple groupsmore » of customers (utilities, EPCs, and advocates) using the platform to develop community solar, and open access to anyone interested in community solar. CEC’s Incubator project includes web-based informational resources, integrated systems for project information and billing systems, and engagement with customers and users by community solar experts. The combined effort externalizes much of Clean Energy Collective’s industry-leading expertise, allowing third parties to develop community solar without duplicating expensive start-up efforts. The availability of this platform creates community solar projects that are cheaper to build and cheaper to participate in, furthering the goals of DOE’s SunShot Initiative. Final SF 425 Final SF 428 Final DOE F 2050.11 Final Report Narrative« less

Community-partnered research conference model: the experience of Community Partners in Care study.

PubMed

Khodyakov, Dmitry; Pulido, Esmeralda; Ramos, Ana; Dixon, Elizabeth

2014-01-01

Conducting community-partnered research conferences is a powerful yet underutilized approach to translating research into practice and improving result dissemination and intervention sustainability strategies. Nonetheless, detailed descriptions of conference features and ways to use them in empirical research are rare. We describe how community-partnered conferences may be integrated into research projects by using an example of Community Partners in Care (CPIC), a large, cluster-randomized, controlled, trial (RCT) that uses community-partnered participatory research (CPPR) principles. Our conceptual model illustrates the role community-partnered research conferences may play in three study phases and describes how different conference features may increase community engagement, build two-way capacity, and ensure equal project ownership. As the number of community-partnered studies grows, so too does the need for practical tools to support this work. Community-partnered research conferences may be effectively employed in translational research to increase two-way capacity building and promote long-term intervention success.

Community-Partnered Research Conference Model: The Experience of Community Partners in Care Study

PubMed Central

Khodyakov, Dmitry; Pulido, Esmeralda; Ramos, Ana; Dixon, Elizabeth

2013-01-01

The Problem Conducting community-partnered research conferences is a powerful yet underutilized approach to translating research into practice and improving result dissemination and intervention sustainability strategies. Nonetheless, detailed descriptions of conference features and ways to use them in empirical research are rare. Purpose of Article We describe how community-partnered conferences may be integrated into research projects by using an example of Community Partners in Care, a large cluster-randomized controlled trial that uses Community Partnered Participatory Research principles. Key Points Our conceptual model illustrates the role community-partnered research conferences may play in three study phases and describes how different conference features may increase community engagement, build two-way capacity, and ensure equal project ownership. Conclusion(s) As the number of community-partnered studies grows, so too does the need for practical tools to support this work. Community-partnered research conferences may be effectively employed in translational research to increase two-way capacity-building and promote long-term intervention success. PMID:24859106

Touching Community: The Risky and Impressive Work of an Experimental Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tavares, Hannah M.

2016-01-01

This essay describes the collaboration of the author with a community-based organization of women serving a predominantly, but not exclusively, immigrant and diasporic Filipino community in the county of Hawai'i to co-create an education project. It offers an analysis of two seemingly divergent communities and their presumably distinct practices…

How Identification Processes and Inter-Community Relationships Affect Sense of Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mannarini, Terri; Rochira, Alessia; Talo, Cosimo

2012-01-01

Based on the Social Identity and Social Categorization Theory framework, this study investigated how identification with the physical component of a community (i.e., the place identity), the perception of a community (i.e., the ingroup) in terms of cohesion and entitativity, and the perception of one or more territorial communities as laying…

Preparation for Encounter; Training Peace Corps Volunteers for Community Involvement Through Community Exploration.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ruopp, Phillips; Wrobel, Paul

A result of two years' experience at the Virgin Islands Training Center, this handbook on Peace Corps volunteer training for community involvement covers types of activities used (one-day community visits, small discussion groups on communities visited, group consultations to develop community exploration methods, field training and its…

Community Impact Assessment Handbook.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Northern Alberta Development Council, Peace River.

This handbook is intended for communities that wish to undertake their own community impact assessment (CIA). The goal is to enable communities to plan for changes before they occur, so they can cope with changes when they do occur. CIA involves forecasting and evaluating the full range of unintended consequences for the community of development…

Outcomes and impact of community-based rehabilitation programmes in Chinese communities.

PubMed

Chung, Eva Y; Packer, Tanya L

2017-04-01

To identify the most common and most valued outcomes of community-based rehabilitation (CBR) in Chinese communities and to map these to the CBR evaluation framework. A multiple, embedded case study design was used. Four CBR programmes in China met the criteria for inclusion and participated. Data collection, via participant "story telling", followed the procedures of the most significant change technique (MSC) over a period for five months. Content analysis with thematic coding was used to detect the common significant changes described in "top-rated" stories and in the entire pool of stories. Meta-analysis using the CBR framework was carried out to enrich the understanding of programme outcomes. A total of 101 stories were collected in the two rounds of story collection from the four programmes. Aggregated results demonstrated that, across all programmes, 78.21% of stories focused on changes in people with disabilities, 9.9% described aspects of programme development, 8.91% reported on outcomes related to CBR workers, and only 2.97% were focused on advocacy. When mapped against the elements of the CBR framework the MSCs among these four programmes were (1) psychosocial changes, (2) increased family participation and (3) improved physical functioning. CBR practice in Chinese communities remains orientated towards an approach of functional rehabilitation rather than community-based inclusive development. Implications for rehabilitation Community-based rehabilitation is a strategy for community-based inclusive development. Commonly reported significant outcomes of community-based rehabilitation programmes in China focus on changes in psychosocial and physical status of people with disabilities and family participation. Community-based rehabilitation in China continues to focus on traditional rehabilitation. New efforts and directions are needed to also include goals of equity and community inclusion. Further efforts to promote the use of CBR guideline with the goal

CommunityRx: A Population Health Improvement Innovation That Connects Clinics To Communities.

PubMed

Lindau, Stacy T; Makelarski, Jennifer; Abramsohn, Emily; Beiser, David G; Escamilla, Veronica; Jerome, Jessica; Johnson, Daniel; Kho, Abel N; Lee, Karen K; Long, Timothy; Miller, Doriane C

2016-11-01

The CommunityRx system, a population health innovation, combined an e-prescribing model and community engagement to strengthen links between clinics and community resources for basic, wellness, and disease self-management needs in Chicago. The components of CommunityRx were a youth workforce, whose members identified 19,589 public-serving entities in the 106-square-mile implementation region between 2012 and 2014; community health information specialists, who used the workforce's findings to generate an inventory of 14,914 health-promoting resources; and a health information technology (IT) platform that was integrated with three electronic health record systems at thirty-three clinical sites. By mapping thirty-seven prevalent social and medical conditions to community resources, CommunityRx generated 253,479 personalized HealtheRx prescriptions for more than 113,000 participants. Eighty-three percent of the recipients found the HealtheRx very useful, and 19 percent went to a place they learned about from the HealtheRx. All but one organization continued using the CommunityRx system after the study period ended. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using health IT and workforce innovation to bridge the gap between clinical and other health-promoting sectors. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.

ENVIRONMENTAL RISK AND IMPACT IN COMMUNITIES OF COLOR AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES

EPA Science Inventory

Research has shown that communities of color and economically/educationally disadvantaged communities are at a greater risk of impact from environmental hazards. In many past studies in environmental justice (EJ) communities, scientists have used surrogate measures of exposure b...

Community Engagement in Epidemiological Research

PubMed Central

Sapienza, Jessica N.; Corbie-Smith, Giselle; Keim, Sarah; Fleischman, Alan R.

2007-01-01

Objectives Engaging communities has become a critical aspect of planning and implementing health research. The role community engagement should play in epidemiological and observational research remains unclear since much of this research is not directly generated by community concerns and is not interventional in nature. The National Children's Study (NCS), an observational longitudinal study of 100,000 children and their families, provides a model to help guide the development of community engagement strategies in epidemiologic research. Methodology This manuscript describes community engagement activities of the NCS during the planning phases of the study. Results There are many challenges of community engagement in epidemiologic research particularly before the actual research sites are determined. After communities of interest are designated many further issues must be resolved, including: defining the specific community, determining which residents or institutions represent the identified community, and developing trust and rapport through respectful engagement. Conclusions Community engagement is critical to the long-term success of any longitudinal epidemiologic study. A partnership with the community should be formed to ensure mutual respect and the establishment of an enduring relationship. Genuine community engagement offers the hope of enhancing recruitment, retention, and participant satisfaction. PMID:17512886

Communities defining environmental health: examples from the Colorado (U.S.A.) Healthy Communities Initiative.

PubMed

Conner, R F; Tanjasiri, S P

2000-01-01

Communities are increasingly defining 'health' for themselves, then becoming the main actors in actions to improve their health and well being. These community members work from a broad and inclusive definition of 'health' that often incorporates environmental health as a key aspect. They also assume an ecological, or systems, viewpoint that integrates many aspects of the community that affect health and well being, including housing, health, economy, education, transportation, youth and family issues, as well as health and illness care. This paper describes a program that involves 28 large and small, urban and rural communities in the United States state of Colorado that undertook this type of community-based health improvement project. The Colorado Healthy Communities Initiative (CHCI) was designed to bring together citizens in Colorado to work collaboratively to make their communities healthier. This paper describes the program's background, including its principles, processes, and participants, then focuses on the particular aspects of environmental health that communities included in their definitions of a 'healthy community'.

Community size as a factor in health partnerships in community parks and recreation, 2007.

PubMed

Payne, Laura L; Zimmermann, Jo An M; Mowen, Andrew J; Orsega-Smith, Elizabeth; Godbey, Geoffrey C

2013-07-25

Although partnerships between park and recreation agencies and health agencies are prevalent, little research has examined partnership characteristics and effectiveness among communities of different sizes. The objective of this study was to determine whether park and recreation leaders' perceptions of partnership characteristics, effectiveness, and outcomes vary by community size. A web-based survey was completed in 2007 by 1,217 National Recreation and Park Association members. Community size was divided into 4 categories: very small, small, medium, and large. Questions measured agencies' recognition of the need for partnerships, their level of experience, and the effectiveness and outcomes of partnerships. Larger communities were significantly more likely to recognize the need for and have more experience with partnerships than smaller communities. Very small and large communities partnered significantly more often with senior services, nonprofit health promotion agencies, and public health agencies than did small and medium ones. Large and small communities were significantly more likely than very small and medium communities to agree that their decision making in partnerships is inclusive and that they have clearly defined goals and objectives. Large communities were significantly more likely than very small communities to report that their partnership helped leverage resources, make policy changes, meet their mission statement, and link to funding opportunities. Community size shapes partnership practices, effectiveness, and outcomes. Very small communities are disadvantaged in developing and managing health partnerships. Increasing education, training, and funding opportunities for small and rural park and recreation agencies may enable them to more effectively partner with organizations to address community health concerns.

Community Size as a Factor in Health Partnerships in Community Parks and Recreation, 2007

PubMed Central

Zimmermann, Jo An M.; Mowen, Andrew J.; Orsega-Smith, Elizabeth; Godbey, Geoffrey C.

2013-01-01

Introduction Although partnerships between park and recreation agencies and health agencies are prevalent, little research has examined partnership characteristics and effectiveness among communities of different sizes. The objective of this study was to determine whether park and recreation leaders’ perceptions of partnership characteristics, effectiveness, and outcomes vary by community size. Methods A web-based survey was completed in 2007 by 1,217 National Recreation and Park Association members. Community size was divided into 4 categories: very small, small, medium, and large. Questions measured agencies’ recognition of the need for partnerships, their level of experience, and the effectiveness and outcomes of partnerships. Results Larger communities were significantly more likely to recognize the need for and have more experience with partnerships than smaller communities. Very small and large communities partnered significantly more often with senior services, nonprofit health promotion agencies, and public health agencies than did small and medium ones. Large and small communities were significantly more likely than very small and medium communities to agree that their decision making in partnerships is inclusive and that they have clearly defined goals and objectives. Large communities were significantly more likely than very small communities to report that their partnership helped leverage resources, make policy changes, meet their mission statement, and link to funding opportunities. Conclusion Community size shapes partnership practices, effectiveness, and outcomes. Very small communities are disadvantaged in developing and managing health partnerships. Increasing education, training, and funding opportunities for small and rural park and recreation agencies may enable them to more effectively partner with organizations to address community health concerns. PMID:23886043

Community interaction and child maltreatment.

PubMed

Kim, Bomi; Maguire-Jack, Kathryn

2015-03-01

The way in which parents interact with their environment may have implications for their likelihood of abuse and neglect. This study examines the parent-environment relationship through community involvement and perception, using social disorganization theory. We hypothesize mothers who participate in their communities and have positive perceptions of them may be less likely to maltreat their children because of the potential protective capacity of neighborhood supports. Using information from the 5 year Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (n=2991), the mother's self-reported acts of psychological and physical maltreatment and neglect are measured. A mother's community involvement index is the number of community activities a mother was involved in, and community perception is measured by two five-item Likert scales assessing perception of community collective efficacy. We analyze the relationship between community variables and each of mother's maltreatment behaviors as well as the interaction between community factors using a series of nested logistic regressions. Higher levels of community involvement are associated with lower levels of psychological aggression. More positive perception of community social control is associated with lower levels of physical assault. A moderation effect of community perception suggests that a mother's perception of her community changes the relationship between community involvement and psychological child abuse. The results provide important policy and empirical implications to build positive and supportive communities as a protective factor in child maltreatment. Getting parents involved in their communities can improve the environment in which children and families develop, and decrease the likelihood that maltreatment will occur. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

MirandaNet: A Learning Community--A Community of Learners.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cuthell, John

2002-01-01

Explains MirandaNet, a learning community of teachers and academics as agents of change who use information and communications technology to change their teaching and learning practice and to develop innovative models for continuing professional development. Discusses distributed cognition in an online community. (LRW)

Community Collaboration: A Creative Partnership with Catonsville Community College.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marrow, Alvin J.; McLaughlin, Jack

Catonsville Community College (CCC), in Maryland, has developed partnerships with business, industry, government, and other educational institutions to address the educational needs of the community. Programs established as a result of these partnerships include the following: (1) an automotive technology program sponsored by major automobile…

Single-site community consultation for emergency research in a community hospital setting.

PubMed

Galbraith, Kyle L; Keck, Anna-Sigrid; Little, Charletta

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate community member feedback from community consultation and public disclosure activities performed for a clinical investigation involving a device designed to treat traumatic brain injury in prehospital contexts. The clinical investigation of that device was to be performed under the federal regulations providing an exception from prospective informed consent requirements in emergency settings. Secondarily, we sought to assess the community consultation process by measuring the levels of outreach provided by the different communication methods used in these activities, with special attention to the effectiveness of social media for community outreach. The medical device investigation consists of a single-site pilot study based at a 345-bed community hospital in east central Illinois, which also serves as the area's only level I trauma center. Investigators, in collaboration with the local institutional review board, fulfilled community consultation and public disclosure requirements through four public town hall meetings, seven targeted focus groups, targeted mailings to 884 community leaders and researchers, a press conference and press release, internal and external websites, and multiple postings to the hospital's Facebook and Twitter accounts. Community members provided feedback by completing paper or electronic comment cards. A total of 428 community members attended the four town hall meetings and seven focus group sessions. Attendance at each meeting ranged from 4 to 20 attendees for the town hall meetings and 8 to 140 attendees for the focus groups. The investigation's external website received 626 unique visitors and the intranet website received 528 unique visits. Social media postings on Facebook and Twitter received six comments and eight "likes" to indicate that an individual read the posting. In total, attendees completed 175 comment cards to provide their feedback. Community member attitudes regarding the

Soil fungal communities respond to grassland plant community richness and soil edaphics

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Fungal communities in soil have significant influences on terrestrial ecosystem dynamics, yet our understanding of the drivers of fungal diversity and community structure in soil is limited. Fungal communities associated with the rhizosphere of four native perennial grassland plant species grown in ...

A whole community approach to emergency management: Strategies and best practices of seven community programs.

PubMed

Sobelson, Robyn K; Wigington, Corinne J; Harp, Victoria; Bronson, Bernice B

2015-01-01

In 2011, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) published the Whole Community Approach to Emergency Management: Principles, Themes, and Pathways for Action, outlining the need for increased individual preparedness and more widespread community engagement to enhance the overall resiliency and security of communities. However, there is limited evidence of how to build a whole community approach to emergency management that provides real-world, practical examples and applications. This article reports on the strategies and best practices gleaned from seven community programs fostering a whole community approach to emergency management. The project team engaged in informal conversations with community stakeholders to learn about their programs during routine monitoring activities, site visits, and during an in-person, facilitated workshop. A total of 88 community members associated with the programs examples contributed. Qualitative analysis was conducted. The findings highlighted best practices gleaned from the seven programs that other communities can leverage to build and maintain their own whole community programs. The findings from the programs also support and validate the three principles and six strategic themes outlined by FEMA. The findings, like the whole community document, highlight the importance of understanding the community, building relationships, empowering action, and fostering social capital to build a whole community approach.

Ocean acidification alters early successional coral reef communities and their rates of community metabolism.

PubMed

Noonan, Sam H C; Kluibenschedl, Anna; Fabricius, Katharina E

2018-01-01

Ocean acidification is expected to alter community composition on coral reefs, but its effects on reef community metabolism are poorly understood. Here we document how early successional benthic coral reef communities change in situ along gradients of carbon dioxide (CO2), and the consequences of these changes on rates of community photosynthesis, respiration, and light and dark calcification. Ninety standardised benthic communities were grown on PVC tiles deployed at two shallow-water volcanic CO2 seeps and two adjacent control sites in Papua New Guinea. Along the CO2 gradient, both the upward facing phototrophic and the downward facing cryptic communities changed in their composition. Under ambient CO2, both communities were dominated by calcifying algae, but with increasing CO2 they were gradually replaced by non-calcifying algae (predominantly green filamentous algae, cyanobacteria and macroalgae, which increased from ~30% to ~80% cover). Responses were weaker in the invertebrate communities, however ascidians and tube-forming polychaetes declined with increasing CO2. Differences in the carbonate chemistry explained a far greater amount of change in communities than differences between the two reefs and successional changes from five to 13 months, suggesting community successions are established early and are under strong chemical control. As pH declined from 8.0 to 7.8, rates of gross photosynthesis and dark respiration of the 13-month old reef communities (upper and cryptic surfaces combined) significantly increased by 10% and 20%, respectively, in response to altered community composition. As a consequence, net production remained constant. Light and dark calcification rates both gradually declined by 20%, and low or negative daily net calcification rates were observed at an aragonite saturation state of <2.3. The study demonstrates that ocean acidification as predicted for the end of this century will strongly alter reef communities, and will significantly

Ocean acidification alters early successional coral reef communities and their rates of community metabolism

PubMed Central

Kluibenschedl, Anna; Fabricius, Katharina E.

2018-01-01

Ocean acidification is expected to alter community composition on coral reefs, but its effects on reef community metabolism are poorly understood. Here we document how early successional benthic coral reef communities change in situ along gradients of carbon dioxide (CO2), and the consequences of these changes on rates of community photosynthesis, respiration, and light and dark calcification. Ninety standardised benthic communities were grown on PVC tiles deployed at two shallow-water volcanic CO2 seeps and two adjacent control sites in Papua New Guinea. Along the CO2 gradient, both the upward facing phototrophic and the downward facing cryptic communities changed in their composition. Under ambient CO2, both communities were dominated by calcifying algae, but with increasing CO2 they were gradually replaced by non-calcifying algae (predominantly green filamentous algae, cyanobacteria and macroalgae, which increased from ~30% to ~80% cover). Responses were weaker in the invertebrate communities, however ascidians and tube-forming polychaetes declined with increasing CO2. Differences in the carbonate chemistry explained a far greater amount of change in communities than differences between the two reefs and successional changes from five to 13 months, suggesting community successions are established early and are under strong chemical control. As pH declined from 8.0 to 7.8, rates of gross photosynthesis and dark respiration of the 13-month old reef communities (upper and cryptic surfaces combined) significantly increased by 10% and 20%, respectively, in response to altered community composition. As a consequence, net production remained constant. Light and dark calcification rates both gradually declined by 20%, and low or negative daily net calcification rates were observed at an aragonite saturation state of <2.3. The study demonstrates that ocean acidification as predicted for the end of this century will strongly alter reef communities, and will significantly

Using an academic-community partnership model and blended learning to advance community health nursing pedagogy.

PubMed

Ezeonwu, Mabel; Berkowitz, Bobbie; Vlasses, Frances R

2014-01-01

This article describes a model of teaching community health nursing that evolved from a long-term partnership with a community with limited existing health programs. The partnership supported RN-BSN students' integration in the community and resulted in reciprocal gains for faculty, students and community members. Community clients accessed public health services as a result of the partnership. A blended learning approach that combines face-to-face interactions, service learning and online activities was utilized to enhance students' learning. Following classroom sessions, students actively participated in community-based educational process through comprehensive health needs assessments, planning and implementation of disease prevention and health promotion activities for community clients. Such active involvement in an underserved community deepened students' awareness of the fundamentals of community health practice. Students were challenged to view public health from a broader perspective while analyzing the impacts of social determinants of health on underserved populations. Through asynchronous online interactions, students synthesized classroom and community activities through critical thinking. This paper describes a model for teaching community health nursing that informs students' learning through blended learning, and meets the demands for community health nursing services delivery. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Moral communities.

PubMed

Chambers, David W

2006-11-01

This article explores the twin issues of whether organizations can act as ethical agents and what it means to exert moral influence over others. A discursive perspective is advanced that characterizes ethics as the action of communities based on promises. The received view of ethics as either the universal principles or individual responsibility is criticized as inadequate. Moral influence within community is considered under the various headings of democracy, office, brotherhood, agency, witness, and promise making. Moral influence among communities can include the damaging methods of "the superior position," coercion and misrepresentation, and appeal to third parties and the sound methods of rhetoric and promise making.

Know your community - Biochar: agronomic and environmental uses community

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The “Biochar: Agronomic and Environmental Uses” Community was formed in November 2010 (https://www.agronomy.org/membership/communities/biochar-agronomic-and-environmental-uses). The community’s initial function has been providing a forum at the tri-society’s national meetings to fill the need for a ...

Community Connections. Time Warner Community Responsibility Report, 1998-2000.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Owens, Jane; Stein, Carol

This report highlights efforts by Time Warner personnel to strengthen community connections through various programs and services aimed at supporting: education, the arts, volunteerism, diversity, and business-community action. The report is divided into sections focusing on each of these areas. The first section, Education, describes programs…

Community College Finance Resource Development. UCLA Community College Bibliography

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carducci, Rozana

2006-01-01

The references in this bibliography provide an overview of recent scholarship on community college finance and resource development. In addition to documents that present a national portrait and comparative analysis of community college funding models and resource management practices, this bibliography also includes recent publications that…

Community-Based Nursing versus Community Health Nursing: What Does It All Mean?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zotti, Marianne E.; And Others

1996-01-01

Offers practice models for community-based nursing and community health nursing that demonstrate the different roles, philosophies, and activities of the two approaches. Points to curriculum changes that are needed to prepare students to practice in an increasingly community-oriented health care industry. (Author)

Training Volunteers in Community Education: A Manual for Staff Members in Community Decision-Making Settings.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slotnik, William J.; And Others

Methods for encouraging community involvement and training community volunteers for decision making positions in community schools are described. The functions of community schools are to provide a broad diversity of learning opportunities and to involve citizens in assessing community needs, evaluating services, and advocating…

Community interventions for cardiovascular disease.

PubMed

Parker, Donna R; Assaf, Annlouise R

2005-12-01

Review of the community-based CVD intervention programs suggests that a number of components have been successful using varying methods and materials for CVD risk reduction. It should be noted, however, that in multi-intervention programs it is often difficult to determine which components of the intervention were responsible for the overall success of the study. The community-based approach to CVD prevention is generalizable, cost-effective (because of the use of mass communication methods), and has the potential for modifying the environment and influencing health policies. Based on the experiences and successes of a number of community projects, recommendations have been proposed for developing future programs. Although they are not totally comprehensive, it has been suggested that a community-based intervention program should consider the following recommendations: 1) An understanding of the community: the needs and priorities of the community should be assessed, and close collaboration with individuals from the community, including community leaders, opinion leaders, community health care providers, and community organizations from various sectors of the community, should be consulted. Efforts should be focused on underserved and vulnerable populations. 2) Inclusion of community activities: these activities should be integrated within the context of the community environment, including primary health care services, voluntary organizations, grocery stores, restaurants, work sites, schools, and local media. 3) Inclusion mass media messages: the mass media can provide information and reinforcement of the behavior change. 4) Develop cost-effective interventions to assure that the community is exposed to an effective dose of the intervention. 5) Work with community organizations to help change social and physical environments to make them more conducive to health and healthy life-styles changes. 6) Develop a reliable monitoring and evaluation system: monitor the

Empowering community settings: agents of individual development, community betterment, and positive social change.

PubMed

Maton, Kenneth I

2008-03-01

The pathways and processes through which empowering community settings influence their members, the surrounding community and the larger society are examined. To generate the proposed pathways and processes, a broad range of studies of community settings were reviewed, in the domains of adult well-being, positive youth development, locality development, and social change. A set of organizational characteristics and associated processes leading to member empowerment across domains were identified, as well as three pathways through which empowering settings in each domain contribute to community betterment and positive social change. The paper concludes with an examination of the ways that community psychology and allied disciplines can help increase the number and range of empowering settings, and enhance the community and societal impact of existing ones.

L-Lake macroinvertebrate community

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Specht, W.L.

1996-06-01

To characterize the present benthic macroinvertebrate community of L-Lake, Regions 5 and 7 of the reservoir were sampled in September 1995 at the same locations sampled in 1988 and 1989 during the L-Lake monitoring program. The macroinvertebrate community of 1995 is compared to that of 1988 and 1989. The species composition of L-Lake`s macroinvertebrate community has changed considerably since 1988-1989, due primarily to maturation of the reservoir ecosystem. L-Lake contains a reasonably diverse macroinvertebrate community that is capable of supporting higher trophic levels, including a diverse assemblage of fish species. The L-Lake macroinvertebrate community is similar to those of manymore » other southeastern reservoirs, and there is no indication that the macroinvertebrate community is perturbed by chemical or physical stressors.« less

Community Engagement in a Graduate-Level Community Literacy Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marshall Bowen, Lauren; Arko, Kirsti; Beatty, Joel; Delaney, Cindy; Dorpenyo, Isidore; Moeller, Laura; Roberts, Elsa; Velat, John

2014-01-01

A case study of a graduate-level community literacy seminar that involved a tutoring project with adult digital literacy learners, this essay illustrates the value of community outreach and service-learning for graduate students in writing studies. Presenting multiple perspectives through critical reflection, student authors describe how their…

A phylogenetic community approach for studying termite communities in a West African savannah.

PubMed

Hausberger, Barbara; Korb, Judith

2015-10-01

Termites play fundamental roles in tropical ecosystems, and mound-building species in particular are crucial in enhancing species diversity, from plants to mammals. However, it is still unclear which factors govern the occurrence and assembly of termite communities. A phylogenetic community approach and null models of species assembly were used to examine structuring processes associated with termite community assembly in a pristine savannah. Overall, we did not find evidence for a strong influence of interspecific competition or environmental filtering in structuring these communities. However, the presence of a single species, the mound-building termite Macrotermes bellicosus, left a strong signal on structuring and led to clustered communities of more closely related species. Hence, this species changes the assembly rules for a whole community. Our results show the fundamental importance of a single insect species for community processes, suggesting that more attention to insect species is warranted when developing conservation strategies. © 2015 The Author(s).

Community-partnered evaluation of depression services for clients of community-based agencies in under-resourced communities in Los Angeles.

PubMed

Miranda, Jeanne; Ong, Michael K; Jones, Loretta; Chung, Bowen; Dixon, Elizabeth L; Tang, Lingqi; Gilmore, Jim; Sherbourne, Cathy; Ngo, Victoria K; Stockdale, Susan; Ramos, Esmeralda; Belin, Thomas R; Wells, Kenneth B

2013-10-01

As medical homes are developing under health reform, little is known regarding depression services need and use by diverse safety-net populations in under-resourced communities. For chronic conditions like depression, primary care services may face new opportunities to partner with diverse community service providers, such as those in social service and substance abuse centers, to support a collaborative care model of treating depression. To understand the distribution of need and current burden of services for depression in under-resourced, diverse communities in Los Angeles. Baseline phase of a participatory trial to improve depression services with data from client screening and follow-up surveys. Of 4,440 clients screened from 93 programs (primary care, mental health, substance abuse, homeless, social and other community services) in 50 agencies, 1,322 were depressed according to an eight-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8) and gave contact information; 1,246 enrolled and 981 completed surveys. Ninety-three programs, including 17 primary care/public health, 18 mental health, 20 substance abuse, ten homeless services, and 28 social/other community services, participated. Comparisons by setting in 6-month retrospective recall of depression services use. Depression prevalence ranged from 51.9 % in mental health to 17.2 % in social-community programs. Depressed clients used two settings on average to receive depression services; 82 % used any setting. More clients preferred counseling over medication for depression treatment. Need for depression care was high, and a broad range of agencies provide depression care. Although most participants had contact with primary care, most depression services occurred outside of primary care settings, emphasizing the need to coordinate and support the quality of community-based services across diverse community settings.

Developing the community empowered research training program: building research capacity for community-initiated and community-driven research.

PubMed

Kwon, Simona; Rideout, Catlin; Tseng, Winston; Islam, Nadia; Cook, Won Kim; Ro, Marguerite; Trinh-Shevrin, Chau

2012-01-01

Health promotion practice research conducted by or in partnership with community-based organizations (CBOs) serving Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AA and NHPI) can address health disparities. Few CBOs have the tools to integrate or initiate research into their programmatic agenda. The New York University (NYU) Center for the Study of Asian American Health (CSAAH) and the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF) created a partnership with the goal to support CBO research infrastructure development by creating the Community Empowered Research Training (CERT) program. A survey was conducted and discussions held with CBO leaders representing AA and NHPI communities to inform the development of the CERT program. The majority of participants are engaged in service-related research and reported interest in building their research capacity. CBOs may require help reframing how data can be collected and used to better inform programmatic activities and to address health disparities facing AA and NHPI communities. CBOs possess both an interest in and access to local knowledge that can inform health priorities. Findings have been applied to the CERT program to build capacity to support community-initiated/driven research to address health disparities affecting AAs and NHPIs.

The Power of Community Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Totten, W. Fred

Community education is an all inclusive phenomenon functioning in the community to help people of all ages, races, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds to fulfill their learning needs and to aid in the development and improvement of the entire community. The community school can be the leading agent in the implementation of community education.…

Questioning the Community College Role. New Directions for Community Colleges, Number 32.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vaughan, George B., Ed.

1980-01-01

These nine articles question the community college's fulfillment of its educational and social roles. George Vaughan summarizes the writings of prominent critics of the community college and suggests that two-year college educators analyze and profit from their criticisms. Burton Clark reconsiders the community college's "cooling out" function and…

Community-based research in action: tales from the Ktunaxa community learning centres project.

PubMed

Stacy, Elizabeth; Wisener, Katherine; Liman, Yolanda; Beznosova, Olga; Lauscher, Helen Novak; Ho, Kendall; Jarvis-Selinger, Sandra

2014-01-01

Rural communities, particularly Aboriginal communities, often have limited access to health information, a situation that can have significant negative consequences. To address the lack of culturally and geographically relevant health information, a community-university partnership was formed to develop, implement, and evaluate Aboriginal Community Learning Centres (CLCs). The objective of this paper is to evaluate the community-based research process used in the development of the CLCs. It focuses on the process of building relationships among partners and the CLC's value and sustainability. Semistructured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders, including principal investigators, community research leads, and supervisors. The interview transcripts were analyzed using an open-coding process to identify themes. Key challenges included enacting shared project governance, negotiating different working styles, and hiring practices based on commitment to project objectives rather than skill set. Technological access provided by the CLCs increased capacity for learning and collective community initiatives, as well as building community leads' skills, knowledge, and self-efficacy. An important lesson was to meet all partners "where they are" in building trusting relationships and adapting research methods to fit the project's context and strengths. Successful results were dependent upon persistence and patience in working through differences, and breaking the project into achievable goals, which collectively contributed to trust and capacity building. The process of building these partnerships resulted in increased capacity of communities to facilitate learning and change initiatives, and the capacity of the university to engage in successful research partnerships with Aboriginal communities in the future.

Community responses to violence.

PubMed

Elliott, B A

1993-06-01

Community level efforts are effective in the reduction of violence. Community-level interventions have three goals: to prevent the escalation of risk for violence among the families in the community, to assist families at risk of or using violence, and to protect victims of abuse. To prevent violence or reduce its prevalence, community groups need to collaborate to reduce the community-level risk factors. Assisting families and protecting victims of violence requires coordination of community services, including law enforcement, schools, therapists, courts, child care, and social services. All of these goals can best be achieved through the efforts of a community level, multidisciplinary council or board that directs the programs. A community process to establish an integrated program involves several steps. The leaders that are identified need to represent all the disciplines and the entire geographic area involved in the project. Once the leaders start meeting, the baseline information and plan can be developed. Then the project itself can be undertaken, with the support of the media and other appropriate organizations. Several examples of effective projects document this process and its success; the best efforts involve coalitions of private and governmental agencies working together. Physicians are integral to this process. The practice of medicine provides opportunities every day to prevent and intervene in potential cases of abuse and violence. Also, by participating actively in the community, physicians can be effective leaders to change attitudes and behaviors and institute programs toward reducing violence.

Building Community.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwartz, Edward

The purpose of this eight-unit course is to explore the values and issues of modern urban neighborhoods. It focuses on how community leaders can apply the broad principle of justice to problems of security, reciprocity, and fellowship that face most neighborhoods today. The course is intended for use by community leaders in building community…

Caring for the community.

PubMed

Spitzer, Roxane

2004-01-01

Nurses can play a unique role in caring for their communities. The first and most obvious role is the direct care of patients, the underlying raison d'etre of nursing, and second is the indirect care of the patients' families and friends. The hands-on healing image of nurses is held by many people and personified through the years by such real-life examples as Clara Barton. It is also the image that attracts many to nursing and is fueled by desire--the desire to help, to make a positive difference, and to serve people. It is often a powerful one-on-one connection between caregiver and receiver, nurse and patient, that defines the role of nursing. Yet, nurses can--and should--play broader roles in caring for their communities. This includes the internal community within one's own organization, the environment in which nurses work, and the larger external community--or communities--in which one lives. By reaching out and caring for the broader communities, nurses have the opportunity to grow while the communities benefit from their participatory caring. In addition, the image of nursing is enhanced externally. The nurse as community caregiver melds the heart and soul of nursing for a new 21st century model of caring.

Cyanobacteria dominance influences resource use efficiency and community turnover in phytoplankton and zooplankton communities.

PubMed

Filstrup, Christopher T; Hillebrand, Helmut; Heathcote, Adam J; Harpole, W Stanley; Downing, John A

2014-04-01

Freshwater biodiversity loss potentially disrupts ecosystem services related to water quality and may negatively impact ecosystem functioning and temporal community turnover. We analysed a data set containing phytoplankton and zooplankton community data from 131 lakes through 9 years in an agricultural region to test predictions that plankton communities with low biodiversity are less efficient in their use of limiting resources and display greater community turnover (measured as community dissimilarity). Phytoplankton resource use efficiency (RUE = biomass per unit resource) was negatively related to phytoplankton evenness (measured as Pielou's evenness), whereas zooplankton RUE was positively related to phytoplankton evenness. Phytoplankton and zooplankton RUE were high and low, respectively, when Cyanobacteria, especially Microcystis sp., dominated. Phytoplankton communities displayed slower community turnover rates when dominated by few genera. Our findings, which counter findings of many terrestrial studies, suggest that Cyanobacteria dominance may play important roles in ecosystem functioning and community turnover in nutrient-enriched lakes. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

Great expectations and hard times: developing community indicators in a healthy communities initiative in Canada.

PubMed

Smith, Neale; Littlejohns, Lori Baugh; Hawe, Penelope; Sutherland, Lisa

2008-06-01

This paper reports on expectations for and community members' experience in the development of community indicators in a healthy communities initiative (HCI) in Alberta, Canada. The HCI process involved community visioning, the creation of action plans to further the vision by addressing key health priorities and/or community capacity building activities and the development of indicators to monitor and report on progress towards goals. Nineteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with community participants to discuss definitions of success in the HCI and participant experience in developing indicators. Three themes emerged: the formal indicators lacked relevance to community members; the community did not own the HCI indicators and participants instead drew upon measures of success which were largely experiential in nature. The study provides a critically reflective, candid account of on-the-ground work with communities. The findings reveal limitations in the process of developing community indicators in this HCI, which we attribute in part to skills and discontinuities on the staffing side of the health authority and in part to failure to recognize and fully appreciate 'different ways of knowing' between communities and agencies.

The Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART): development of a survey instrument to assess community resilience.

PubMed

Pfefferbaum, Rose L; Neas, Barbara R; Pfefferbaum, Betty; Norris, Fran H; Van Horn, Richard L

2013-01-01

While building community resilience to disasters is becoming an important strategy in emergency management, this is a new field of research with few available instruments for assessing community resilience. This article describes the development of the Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART) survey instrument. CART is a community intervention designed to enhance community resilience to disasters, in part, by engaging communities in measuring it. The survey instrument, originally based on community capacity and related literature and on key informant input, was refined through a series of four field tests. Community organizations worked with researchers in a participatory action process that provided access to samples and helped to guide the research. Exploratory factor analysis performed after each field test led to the identification of four interrelated constructs (also called domains) which represent the foundation for CART Connection and Caring, Resources, Transformative Potential, and Disaster Management. This model was confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis on two community samples. The CART survey can provide data for organizations and communities interested in assessing a community's resilience to disasters. Baseline data, preferably collected pre disaster can be compared to data collected post disaster and/or post intervention.

Responding to Community Needs through Community Follow-Up. Junior College Resource Review.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mehallis, Mantha Vlahos

This literature review examines the utilization of community needs assessment data in program planning and evaluation efforts at community colleges. The review first defines and looks at the purposes of community needs assessments, noting that while such studies are purported to facilitate the planning and evaluation of credit and non-credit…

Rural Schools and Communities: How Globalization Influences Rural School and Community Collaboration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Butler, Thomas

2008-01-01

This study examined how a rural school district and the communities in which the district belonged collaborated on a community development initiative. This dissertation examined the opportunities and constraints rural communities are facing and the role that a rural school system could play in increasing social and economic sustainability of rural…

The Impact of Integrating Community Advocacy Into Community Health Worker Roles on Health-Focused Organizations and Community Health Workers in Southern Arizona.

PubMed

Reinschmidt, Kerstin M; Ingram, Maia; Schachter, Kenneth; Sabo, Samantha; Verdugo, Lorena; Carvajal, Scott

2015-01-01

Organizational environments may encourage community health workers (CHWs) to engage community members in improving their communities. We conducted open-ended interviews and focus groups to explore how participation in the Acción intervention, which trained CHWs in community advocacy, affected organizational capacity to support their CHWs. Supervisors described improved organizational recognition and trust of CHWs. Organizational leaders reported organizational benefits and increased appreciation of CHW leadership. Both expressed increased interest in future advocacy trainings. Limiting factors included organizational mission, CHW position descriptions, and funding. Findings indicate that, with training and funding, CHW community advocacy can be integrated into organizations with congruent missions.

The People's College & the Street People: Community Colleges & Community Development (Part One of Two).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Banion, Terry; Gillett-Karam, Rosemary

1996-01-01

Argues that, despite the provision of community-based educational services, community colleges do not play a key role in social change in their communities. Reviews the history of community development in the colleges, suggesting that original goals were designed to be noncontroversial. Discusses increasing foundation support to address community…

Making "Community" an Authentic Part of School and Community Partnerships. Chapin Hall Discussion Paper

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walker, Lisa; Smithgall, Cheryl; Cusick, Gretchen Ruth

2012-01-01

With the idea that schools in low-income urban areas require stronger communities to improve educational outcomes, this discussion paper examines questions related to the authentic engagement of communities in school and community partnerships. It presents three key ideas for considering authentic engagement: place-based policy, community-based…

Community Social Organization: A Conceptual Linchpin in Examining Families in the Context of Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mancini, Jay A.; Bowen, Gary L.; Martin, James A.

2005-01-01

The concept of social organization provides an important framework for understanding families in the context of communities and focuses our attention on norms, networks, and associated processes that typify community life. We discuss the significance of community for understanding family outcomes, discuss challenges in defining community context,…

Contextual community prevention theory: building interventions with community agency collaboration.

PubMed

Morales, Eduardo S

2009-11-01

Translation from research to practice faces numerous problems that include replicating effectiveness, fidelity to the protocol and processes, and adaptations to different types of target populations. Working collaboratively with existing service providers can speed up the time for development and can ease the implementation of empirical randomized trials. Contextual community prevention theory is an innovative approach that focuses on changing behaviors of community members by creating a visible institutional presence that draws and pulls the targeted population into the organization's activities and interventions. The result is an institution or organization within the community that provides a new active and dynamic context, engaging its community members into its activities, interventions, and functions. An HIV prevention program developed collaboratively from the ground up for Latino gay/bisexual men is presented. Results from the program evaluation efforts across the years suggest promise for testing its efficacy through a randomized trial. HIV prevention efforts need to develop dynamic support systems within communities where these men have ownership, have control, and feel safe; otherwise HIV infection rates in this population will increase. Copyright 2009 by the American Psychological Association

Engaging the Deaf American sign language community: lessons from a community-based participatory research center.

PubMed

McKee, Michael; Thew, Denise; Starr, Matthew; Kushalnagar, Poorna; Reid, John T; Graybill, Patrick; Velasquez, Julia; Pearson, Thomas

2012-01-01

Numerous publications demonstrate the importance of community-based participatory research (CBPR) in community health research, but few target the Deaf community. The Deaf community is understudied and underrepresented in health research despite suspected health disparities and communication barriers. The goal of this paper is to share the lessons learned from the implementation of CBPR in an understudied community of Deaf American Sign Language (ASL) users in the greater Rochester, New York, area. We review the process of CBPR in a Deaf ASL community and identify the lessons learned. Key CBPR lessons include the importance of engaging and educating the community about research, ensuring that research benefits the community, using peer-based recruitment strategies, and sustaining community partnerships. These lessons informed subsequent research activities. This report focuses on the use of CBPR principles in a Deaf ASL population; lessons learned can be applied to research with other challenging-to-reach populations.

Drug-Free Schools & Communities: Program Planning Guidelines & Community Inventory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montana State Board of Crime Control, Helena.

This book is designed to provide Montana communities with the most current research-based information available concerning drug and alcohol prevention/education program planning. It also provides a concise overview of the programs being conducted in various Montana communities. It is intended for use as a resource manual, to provide readers with…

Perceptions from Students and the Community about Community Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lendy, Shari J.

2009-01-01

In this study I explored the existing perceptions of community college in the western suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. Three different groups of people were interviewed in the research process including high school students, college students and citizens who lived in towns supported by a community college. Common themes of perception found within the…

Community participation and mental health during retirement in community sample of Australians.

PubMed

Olesen, Sarah C; Berry, Helen L

2011-03-01

This study considered whether community participation during later adulthood is more strongly associated with mental health during retirement than it is while in employment; i.e. in the absence of paid work. Participants were 322 men and 311 women aged 45 years and older, who were part of a random sample of an Australian coastal community. The frequency of participation across 14 types of community-based activities was assessed. Overall mental health was measured on a 10-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale. Linear regression models tested the multivariate associations between distress and community participation, and whether this association differed for retired and working people. Retirees did not participate in their communities more than working people. The association between community participation and psychological distress did not differ by retirement status when people of all ages were considered together; however, stronger associations between several activities and (less) distress were found for retirees compared to their working peers in a younger cohort (aged 45 to 54). This cohort coincides with the average age of transition to retirement in Australia. These findings offer some support for the view that community participation may assist in managing the mental health implications of the transition from work to retirement.

Promoting Community Health and Eliminating Health Disparities Through Community-Based Participatory Research.

PubMed

Xia, Ruiping; Stone, John R; Hoffman, Julie E; Klappa, Susan G

2016-03-01

In physical therapy, there is increasing focus on the need at the community level to promote health, eliminate disparities in health status, and ameliorate risk factors among underserved minorities. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is the most promising paradigm for pursuing these goals. Community-based participatory research stresses equitable partnering of the community and investigators in light of local social, structural, and cultural elements. Throughout the research process, the CBPR model emphasizes coalition and team building that joins partners with diverse skills/expertise, knowledge, and sensitivities. This article presents core concepts and principles of CBPR and the rationale for its application in the management of health issues at the community level. Community-based participatory research is now commonly used to address public health issues. A literature review identified limited reports of its use in physical therapy research and services. A published study is used to illustrate features of CBPR for physical therapy. The purpose of this article is to promote an understanding of how physical therapists could use CBPR as a promising way to advance the profession's goals of community health and elimination of health care disparities, and social responsibility. Funding opportunities for the support of CBPR are noted. © 2016 American Physical Therapy Association.

The Difference a Cohort Makes: Understanding Developmental Learning Communities in Community Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wathington, Heather D.; Pretlow, Joshua; Mitchell, Claire

2011-01-01

Learning communities, a small cohort of students enrolled together in two or more linked courses, have become a popular intervention to help underprepared students succeed in college. Though learning communities abound in practice, the key structural feature of a learning community--the cohort--may not be fully understood. Authors posit that a…

Using Community Health Workers in Community-Based Growth Promotion: What Stakeholders Think

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Afulani, Patience A.; Awoonor-Williams, John K.; Opoku, Ernest C.; Asunka, Joseph

2012-01-01

The Nutrition and Malaria Control for Child Survival Project is a community-based growth promotion project that utilizes Community Health Workers (CHWs), referred to as Community Child Growth Promoters (CCGPs), as the principal change agents. The purpose of this study was to identify perceptions of key stakeholders about the project and the role…

Community Music as "Music" Education: On the Educational Potential of Community Music

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koopman, Constantijn

2007-01-01

This article deals with the educational potential of community music. First, the author introduces the concept of community music and discusses its special position in today's society. Community music can play a significant role in promoting active music-making, particularly for those people who do not make use of standard musical arrangements.…

RAINE Public Communities

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The file geodatabase (fgdb) contains the New England Town Boundaries and information related specifically to the Resilience and Adaptation in New England (RAINE) web application. This includes data tables relating to particular aspects of towns notably features, funding, impacts, partners, plans, and programs (refer to V_MAP_STATIC tables). New England Town Boundary coverage is a compilation of coverages received from the six New England State GIS Offices. The EPA New England GIS Center appended the coverages together into a single file and generated attrributes to link to the Facility Identification Online system. These feature class points represent the communities (Communities in gdb) and featured RAINE communities (RAINE_Communities_201609), which contain more detailed information that is contained within the included data tables.

EarthConnections: Integrating Community Science and Geoscience Education Pathways for More Resilient Communities.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manduca, C. A.

2017-12-01

To develop a diverse geoscience workforce, the EarthConnections collective impact alliance is developing regionally focused, Earth education pathways. These pathways support and guide students from engagement in relevant, Earth-related science at an early age through the many steps and transitions to geoscience-related careers. Rooted in existing regional activities, pathways are developed using a process that engages regional stakeholders and community members with EarthConnections partners. Together they connect, sequence, and create multiple learning opportunities that link geoscience education and community service to address one or more local geoscience issues. Three initial pilots are demonstrating different starting points and strategies for creating pathways that serve community needs while supporting geoscience education. The San Bernardino pilot is leveraging existing academic relationships and programs; the Atlanta pilot is building into existing community activities; and the Oklahoma Tribal Nations pilot is co-constructing a pathway focus and approach. The project is using pathway mapping and a collective impact framework to support and monitor progress. The goal is to develop processes and activities that can help other communities develop similar community-based geoscience pathways. By intertwining Earth education with local community service we aspire to increase the resilience of communities in the face of environmental hazards and limited Earth resources.

Community Development in Ireland.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Anna

2003-01-01

In the last decade, community development in Ireland has emphasized social and economic inclusion, regeneration, and civic participation. Continuing challenges include designation of diverse community representatives, demand for increased administrative efficiency, and management of mandates and accountability. There are more community development…

Community Organizations and Sense of Community: Further Development in Theory and Measurement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peterson, N. Andrew; Speer, Paul W.; Hughey, Joseph; Armstead, Theresa L.; Schneider, John E.; Sheffer, Megan A.

2008-01-01

The Community Organization Sense of Community Scale (COSOC) is a frequently used or cited measure of the construct in community psychology and other disciplines, despite a lack of confirmation of its underlying 4-factor framework. Two studies were conducted to test the hypothesized structure of the COSOC, the potential effects of method bias on…

The Persistence of Neighboring as a Determinant of Community Attachment: A Community Field Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sundblad, Daniel R.; Sapp, Stephen G.

2011-01-01

We examined the community field perspective as a complement to the linear-development and systemic models of community attachment, wherein community attachment is defined as a social bond to the community of place. We empirically evaluated indicators of the actor's interaction within the social field, such as the perceived quality of neighboring…

Conducting a Community Audit: Assessing the Workforce Development Needs and Resources of Your Community.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

2000

This document details the purposes and principles of community audits and presents guidelines for designing and conducting a community audit to assess a local community's workforce development needs and resources. Section 1 presents an overview of the U.S. Department of Labor's Community Audit Project and explains the following key steps in…

"Community Aware" Education Policy: Enhancing Individual and Community Vitality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Casto, Hope; McGrath, Brian; Sipple, John W.; Todd, Liz

2016-01-01

This paper advances the theoretical and applied connection between education policy and community development. We call this community-aware education policy, and it is based on Dean's (2012) conception of human need that is thick (i.e., accounts for a relational context), rather than relying solely on a thin conception (i.e., instrumental view…

The ecologies of community caring.

PubMed

Bent, K N

1999-06-01

Caring has been called the interactive exemplar of nursing in that it relates other foundational concepts of person, health, and environment within the profession and discipline. However, to reflect the dynamic praxis of knowing, being, and doing that is community health nursing, caring must include a focus on communities, the environment, and the global society. The concepts of community and community interventions remain complex and difficult, thus, community caring remains unclear. This article will explore the concept and offer a model of caring praxis in community health nursing.

Engaging the Deaf American Sign Language Community: Lessons From a Community-Based Participatory Research Center

PubMed Central

McKee, Michael; Thew, Denise; Starr, Matthew; Kushalnagar, Poorna; Reid, John T.; Graybill, Patrick; Velasquez, Julia; Pearson, Thomas

2013-01-01

Background Numerous publications demonstrate the importance of community-based participatory research (CBPR) in community health research, but few target the Deaf community. The Deaf community is understudied and underrepresented in health research despite suspected health disparities and communication barriers. Objectives The goal of this paper is to share the lessons learned from the implementation of CBPR in an understudied community of Deaf American Sign Language (ASL) users in the greater Rochester, New York, area. Methods We review the process of CBPR in a Deaf ASL community and identify the lessons learned. Results Key CBPR lessons include the importance of engaging and educating the community about research, ensuring that research benefits the community, using peer-based recruitment strategies, and sustaining community partnerships. These lessons informed subsequent research activities. Conclusions This report focuses on the use of CBPR principles in a Deaf ASL population; lessons learned can be applied to research with other challenging-to-reach populations. PMID:22982845

Implementing Physical Activity Recommendations in a Tri-ethnic Rural Community through a Community-University Partnership

PubMed Central

Davis, Sally M.; Cruz, Theresa; Hess, Julia Meredith; Kozoll, Richard; Page-Reeves, Janet

2016-01-01

Background A tri-ethnic rural community with limited resources and a university Prevention Research Center developed a partnership to promote evidence-based physical activity. Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate how a community-university partnership can disseminate and implement The Community Guide’s recommendations for increasing physical activity and create a model for other under-resourced communities experiencing high rates of chronic disease. Methods Qualitative data collected through 47 semi-structured interviews, meeting minutes, and local newspaper articles were coded for themes and analyzed for patterns across the data. Results Implementation resulted in the creation of new paths and trails, increased walkability throughout the community, local park enhancements, and a community-wide campaign. Lessons learned included the importance of community-defined goals and outcomes, leadership, volunteerism, mutually beneficial goals, synergy, and having non-traditional partners. Conclusion This research provides a community-university partnership model for implementing evidence-based strategies to increase physical activity in rural communities. PMID:28736407

LPA-CBD an improved label propagation algorithm based on community belonging degree for community detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gui, Chun; Zhang, Ruisheng; Zhao, Zhili; Wei, Jiaxuan; Hu, Rongjing

In order to deal with stochasticity in center node selection and instability in community detection of label propagation algorithm, this paper proposes an improved label propagation algorithm named label propagation algorithm based on community belonging degree (LPA-CBD) that employs community belonging degree to determine the number and the center of community. The general process of LPA-CBD is that the initial community is identified by the nodes with the maximum degree, and then it is optimized or expanded by community belonging degree. After getting the rough structure of network community, the remaining nodes are labeled by using label propagation algorithm. The experimental results on 10 real-world networks and three synthetic networks show that LPA-CBD achieves reasonable community number, better algorithm accuracy and higher modularity compared with other four prominent algorithms. Moreover, the proposed algorithm not only has lower algorithm complexity and higher community detection quality, but also improves the stability of the original label propagation algorithm.

Benefits of community-based education to the community in South African health science facilities

PubMed Central

Flack, Penny

2013-01-01

Abstract Background Community-based education (CBE) is utilised by health science faculties worldwide to provide a relevant primary care experience for students and a service to underserved communities and, hopefully, to affect student career choices. The benefits to training institutions and students are well documented, but it may well be that communities, too, will be able to benefit from a more balanced partnership, where they are consulted in the planning of such training programmes. Method An exploratory qualitative study was undertaken by three South African universities in the provinces of Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. Focus group interviews were conducted in their local languages with groups of community leaders, patients and supervisors at community sites involved in CBE training. A thematic analysis of their views was undertaken with the aid of NVivo (version 9). Ethics approval was obtained from the respective universities and health care training sites. Results Benefits to the community could be categorised into short-term and long-term benefits. Short-term benefits included improved service delivery, reduction in hospital referrals, home visits and community orientated primary health care, improved communication with patients and enhanced professionalism of the health care practitioner. Long-term benefits included improved teaching through a relationship with an academic institution and student familiarity with the health care system. Students also became involved in community upliftment projects, thereby acting as agents of change in these communities. Conclusion Communities can certainly benefit from well-planned CBE programmes involving a training site - community site partnership.

75 FR 10561 - Request for Public Comment: Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, Community...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-03-08

...: Comments should be sent by mail to: Scott Berman, Acting Chief Operating Officer, CDFI Fund, U.S... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Community Development Financial Institutions Fund Request for Public Comment: Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, Community Development Financial and Technical...

Investigating brain community structure abnormalities in bipolar disorder using path length associated community estimation.

PubMed

Gadelkarim, Johnson J; Ajilore, Olusola; Schonfeld, Dan; Zhan, Liang; Thompson, Paul M; Feusner, Jamie D; Kumar, Anand; Altshuler, Lori L; Leow, Alex D

2014-05-01

In this article, we present path length associated community estimation (PLACE), a comprehensive framework for studying node-level community structure. Instead of the well-known Q modularity metric, PLACE utilizes a novel metric, Ψ(PL), which measures the difference between intercommunity versus intracommunity path lengths. We compared community structures in human healthy brain networks generated using these two metrics and argued that Ψ(PL) may have theoretical advantages. PLACE consists of the following: (1) extracting community structure using top-down hierarchical binary trees, where a branch at each bifurcation denotes a collection of nodes that form a community at that level, (2) constructing and assessing mean group community structure, and (3) detecting node-level changes in community between groups. We applied PLACE and investigated the structural brain networks obtained from a sample of 25 euthymic bipolar I subjects versus 25 gender- and age-matched healthy controls. Results showed community structural differences in posterior default mode network regions, with the bipolar group exhibiting left-right decoupling. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Community-based participatory research with Native American communities: the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program.

PubMed

Jernigan, Valarie Blue Bird

2010-11-01

Health disparities among Native Americans persist despite efforts to translate evidence-based programs from research to practice. Few evidence-based, theory-driven prevention and management interventions have been successfully translated within Native American communities. The use of community-based participatory research (CBPR) has shown promise in this process. This article provides an overview of the use of CBPR with Native American communities and discusses the translation of the Stanford Chronic Disease Self-Management Program, using a CBPR approach, with an urban Native American community. This article highlights not only how the CBPR process facilitates the successful translation of the Stanford program but also how CBPR is used within this community to build community capacity.

Building Community Resilience to Disasters

PubMed Central

Chandra, Anita; Acosta, Joie; Howard, Stefanie; Uscher-Pines, Lori; Williams, Malcolm; Yeung, Douglas; Garnett, Jeffrey; Meredith, Lisa S.

2011-01-01

Abstract Community resilience, or the sustained ability of a community to withstand and recover from adversity, has become a key policy issue at federal, state, and local levels, including in the National Health Security Strategy. Because resources are limited in the wake of an emergency, it is increasingly recognized that resilience is critical to a community's ability to reduce long recovery periods after an emergency. This article shares details of a report that provides a roadmap for federal, state, and local leaders who are developing plans to enhance community resilience for health security threats and describes options for building community resilience in key areas. Based on findings from a literature review and a series of community and regional focus groups, the authors provide a definition of community resilience in the context of national health security and a set of eight levers and five core components for building resilience. They then describe suggested activities that communities are pursuing and may want to strengthen for community resilience, and they identify challenges to implementation. PMID:28083162

Perspectives on community gardens, community kitchens and the Good Food Box program in a community-based sample of low-income families.

PubMed

Loopstra, Rachel; Tarasuk, Valerie

2013-01-08

Growing recognition of the problem of household food insecurity in Canada has meant public health practitioners are looking for effective ways to ameliorate this problem in their communities. Community gardens, community kitchens, and food box programs can offer nutritious foods for comparably lower costs, however, the uptake and perceptions of these programs in populations at risk of food insecurity have not been evaluated. Building on a previous finding of low program participation among 485 families living in high-poverty neighbourhoods in Toronto, the objective of this study was to understand reasons for non-participation. One year after the baseline study, 371 families were interviewed a second time and were asked to provide their reasons for not participating in community gardens, community kitchens, or the Good Food Box program. Responses were analyzed by inductive content analysis. At follow-up, only 12 families had participated in a community garden, 16 in a community kitchen, and 4 in the Good Food Box program. Reasons for non-participation grouped under two themes. First, families expressed that programs were not accessible because they lacked the knowledge of how or where to participate or because programs were not in their neighbourhoods. Second, programs lacked fit for families, as they were not suited to busy schedules, interests, or needs. This study provides unique perspective on participation in community food programs among food-insecure families and suggests that these programs may not be effective options for these families to improve their food access.

Finding Community: A Guide to Community Research and Action.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, W. Ron; And Others

For those concerned with contemporary social problems, whether as students, members of community groups, or individual citizens, this book attempts not only to describe the issues, but also to offer some starting points for local research and action. As an educational tool, it is based on the belief that a good way to learn about a community is to…

Engaging community volunteers in participatory action research in Tāmaki community of Auckland, New Zealand.

PubMed

Andajani-Sutjahjo, Sari; Liew, Theresa C H; Smith, John F; Esekielu, Iutita; Mason, Gabrielle; Tariu, Imele

2018-04-01

This article discusses the experiences of community volunteers' participation in a community-based participatory research project in Tāmaki, a low socio-economic and ethnically diverse suburban community within greater Auckland City, New Zealand. In the Tāmaki Community Action Research project, community volunteers were recruited and trained to conduct random household surveys (RHS) and asset mapping commissioned by community groups and government agencies in that area. The volunteers were involved in planning, coordination and ongoing governance of the project and ∼70 residents and local university students participated at different stages of the 2-year project. Over 600 RHS were completed and the volunteers' experiences were recorded in field notes, informal group discussions, daily team meetings and individual interviews and form the basis of this article. Only their experiences are discussed here, not the survey results which will be presented elsewhere. The project reflected the inherent asset-rich nature of the community via examples of individual volunteer empowerment and collective social/community capacity building. Volunteers increased their interpersonal and organizational skills, their understanding of the complexity of their community's logistics and cultural diversity, and gained an increased sense of community purpose and commitment. There was very strong endorsement of culturally sensitive research practice to recognize cultural differences and to engage productively within their richly ethnically diverse community. Full community volunteer participation in the project's governance (i.e. through design, training, implementation and ongoing consultation/management phases) was considered key to sustaining the life of project.

Building Community Capacity: Sustaining the Effects of Multiple, Two-Year Community-based Participatory Research Projects

PubMed Central

Rosenthal, Marjorie S.; Barash, Jed; Blackstock, Oni; Ellis-West, Shirley; Filice, Clara; Furie, Gregg; Greysen, S. Ryan; Malone, Sherman; Tinney, Barbara; Yun, Katherine; Lucas, Georgina I.

2015-01-01

Background The time-limited nature of health and public health research fellowships poses a challenge to trainees’ and community partners’ efforts to sustain effective, collaborative, community-based participatory research (CBPR) relationships. Objectives This paper presents CBPR case studies of partnerships between health services research trainees and community organization leaders in a medium-sized city to describe how participation in the partnership altered community partners’ understanding and willingness to conduct research and to engage with research-derived data. Methods Trainees and faculty used participatory methods with community leaders to identify research questions, and conduct and disseminate research. Throughout the process, trainees and faculty included research capacity building of community partners as a targeted outcome. Community partners were asked to reflect retrospectively on community research capacity building in the context of CBPR projects. Reflections were discussed and categorized by the authorship team, who grouped observations into topics that may serve as a foundation for development of future prospective analyses. Results Important ideas shared include that trainee participation in CBPR may have an enduring impact on the community by increasing the capacity of community partners and agencies to engage in research beyond that which they are conducting with the current trainee. Conclusion We posit that CBPR with research trainees may have an additive effect on community research capacity when it is conducted in collaboration with community leaders and focuses on a single region. More research is needed to characterize this potential outcome. PMID:25435563

Building community capacity: sustaining the effects of multiple, two-year community-based participatory research projects.

PubMed

Rosenthal, Marjorie S; Barash, Jed; Blackstock, Oni; Ellis-West, Shirley; Filice, Clara; Furie, Gregg; Greysen, S Ryan; Malone, Sherman; Tinney, Barbara; Yun, Katherine; Lucas, Georgina I

2014-01-01

The time-limited nature of health and public health research fellowships poses a challenge to trainees' and community partners' efforts to sustain effective, collaborative, community-based participatory research (CBPR) relationships. This paper presents CBPR case studies of partnerships between health services research trainees and community organization leaders in a medium-sized city to describe how participation in the partnership altered community partners' understanding and willingness to conduct research and to engage with research-derived data. Trainees and faculty used participatory methods with community leaders to identify research questions, and conduct and disseminate research. Throughout the process, trainees and faculty included research capacity building of community partners as a targeted outcome. Community partners were asked to reflect retrospectively on community research capacity building in the context of CBPR projects. Reflections were discussed and categorized by the authorship team, who grouped observations into topics that may serve as a foundation for development of future prospective analyses. Important ideas shared include that trainee participation in CBPR may have an enduring impact on the community by increasing the capacity of community partners and agencies to engage in research beyond that which they are conducting with the current trainee. We posit that CBPR with research trainees may have an additive effect on community research capacity when it is conducted in collaboration with community leaders and focuses on a single region. More research is needed to characterize this potential outcome.

Microbial Communities as Experimental Units

PubMed Central

DAY, MITCH D.; BECK, DANIEL; FOSTER, JAMES A.

2011-01-01

Artificial ecosystem selection is an experimental technique that treats microbial communities as though they were discrete units by applying selection on community-level properties. Highly diverse microbial communities associated with humans and other organisms can have significant impacts on the health of the host. It is difficult to find correlations between microbial community composition and community-associated diseases, in part because it may be impossible to define a universal and robust species concept for microbes. Microbial communities are composed of potentially thousands of unique populations that evolved in intimate contact, so it is appropriate in many situations to view the community as the unit of analysis. This perspective is supported by recent discoveries using metagenomics and pangenomics. Artificial ecosystem selection experiments can be costly, but they bring the logical rigor of biological model systems to the emerging field of microbial community analysis. PMID:21731083

The role of community context in planning and implementing community-based health promotion projects.

PubMed

Kegler, Michelle C; Rigler, Jessica; Honeycutt, Sally

2011-08-01

The current study examines how community context affected collaborative planning and implementation in eight sites participating in a healthy cities and communities initiative in California. Data are from 23 focus groups conducted with coalition members, and 76 semi-structured interviews with local coordinators and community leaders. Multiple case study methods were used to identify major themes related to how five contextual domains influenced collaborative planning and implementation. Results showed that history of collaboration can influence resources and interpersonal and organizational connections available for planning and implementation, as well as priorities selected for action. Community politics and history can affect which segments of the community participate in a planning process and what issues are prioritized, as well as the pool of partners willing to aid in implementation. Some community norms and values bring people together and others appear to limit involvement from certain groups. Community demographics and economic conditions may shape outreach strategies for planning and implementation, and may also shape priorities. Geography can play a role in assessment methods, priority selection, partners available to aid in implementation, and participation in activities and events. Results suggest that community context plays a substantive role in shaping how community-based health promotion projects unfold. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A community-based intervention to build community harmony in an Indigenous Guatemalan Mining Town.

PubMed

Caxaj, Claudia Susana; Parroquia de San Miguel Ixtahuacan, Kolol Qnan Tx'otx'

2018-01-24

The presence of large-scale mining operations poses many threats to communities. In a rural community in Guatemala, community leaders were motivated to address divisiveness and local conflict that have been exacerbated since the arrival of a mining company in the region. Prior research by our team identified spiritual and cultural strengths as important sources of strength and resilience in the community. We piloted a community-based intervention centred on spiritual and cultural practices in the region, to address divisiveness and build community harmony. One hundred and seventeen participants from over 18 villages in the municipality participated in the workshops and follow-up focus groups. Community leaders facilitated the intervention and partnered with the academic researcher throughout the research process. Overall, community members and facilitators expressed satisfaction with the workshop. Further, our analysis revealed three important processes important to the development of community harmony in the region: (a) mutual recognition and collectivisation; (b) affirmation of ancestral roots and connections to Mother Earth and (c) inspiring action and momentum towards solutions. These mechanisms, and the socio-political contexts that undermine them, have important implications for how global health programmes are developed and how collective processes for well-being are understood within an inequitable, conflict-laden world.

Cultivating Community: Detailing School and Community Engagement under Complex Conditions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hardy, Ian; Grootenboer, Peter

2016-01-01

This article reveals the nature of actions, discussions and relationships which helped forge school-community partnerships for engaged student learning and wider community participation for students and families living under difficult socio-economic circumstances. Specifically, the article draws upon interviews with key personnel and staff…

Experiencing the "Community" in Community College Teaching through Mural Making.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elmes, Ellen

2002-01-01

Uses the five stages of creativity designed by psychologist Jacob Getzel--first insight, saturation, incubation, illumination, and verification--to describe a mural project in a rural community college. Reports that the project successfully paired students with community members to paint two local murals. (NB)

Community University Research Agreement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Settee, Priscilla; Thomas-Prokop, Shelley

2007-01-01

This paper describes the process of engaging the extended Indigenous community within Saskatoon and the surrounding First Nations communities in what would be a first major research project between Indigenous communities and the University of Saskatchewan. A management committee was established comprised of all the major Saskatoon/Saskatchewan…

Engaging Faculty in Community Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fitzgerald, Glynis A.

2012-01-01

Researchers endorse the integration of community engagement (CE) into higher education as a way to improve the relevance of education, address community needs, and forge university-community partnerships (Zlotkowski, 1996). CE can help create stronger ties between universities and their communities and provide students with experiential learning…

Source Materials for the Healthy Communities Toolkit: A Resource Guide for Community and Faith-Based Organizations.

PubMed

Acosta, Joie; Chandra, Anita; Williams, Malcolm; Davis, Lois M

2011-01-01

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act places significant emphasis on the role of community-based health promotion initiatives; within this focus, community and faith-based organizations (CFBOs) are seen as critical partners for improving community well-being. This article describes a report that provides the content for a toolkit that will prepare community and faith-based organizations to take advantage of opportunities presented in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and engage faith and community leaders in promoting health in their communities. This includes key facts and figures about health topics, handouts for community groups, and web links for resources and other information in the following areas: healthcare reform; community health centers and development of the community health workforce; promotion of healthy families; mental health; violence and trauma; prevention of teen and unintended pregnancy and HIV/AIDS; and chronic disease prevention. The report also includes recommendations for testing the content of the toolkit with communities and considerations for its implementation.

Understanding community-forest relations.

Treesearch

Linda E. Kruger

2003-01-01

Improved understanding of the relationships between human communities and forests is necessary to understanding how alternative forest management policies and practices can affect different communities. This knowledge also enhances our ability to formulate plans that are responsive to the needs and concerns of local communities, thus reducing polarization and related...

Decoding communities in networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Radicchi, Filippo

2018-02-01

According to a recent information-theoretical proposal, the problem of defining and identifying communities in networks can be interpreted as a classical communication task over a noisy channel: memberships of nodes are information bits erased by the channel, edges and nonedges in the network are parity bits introduced by the encoder but degraded through the channel, and a community identification algorithm is a decoder. The interpretation is perfectly equivalent to the one at the basis of well-known statistical inference algorithms for community detection. The only difference in the interpretation is that a noisy channel replaces a stochastic network model. However, the different perspective gives the opportunity to take advantage of the rich set of tools of coding theory to generate novel insights on the problem of community detection. In this paper, we illustrate two main applications of standard coding-theoretical methods to community detection. First, we leverage a state-of-the-art decoding technique to generate a family of quasioptimal community detection algorithms. Second and more important, we show that the Shannon's noisy-channel coding theorem can be invoked to establish a lower bound, here named as decodability bound, for the maximum amount of noise tolerable by an ideal decoder to achieve perfect detection of communities. When computed for well-established synthetic benchmarks, the decodability bound explains accurately the performance achieved by the best community detection algorithms existing on the market, telling us that only little room for their improvement is still potentially left.

Decoding communities in networks.

PubMed

Radicchi, Filippo

2018-02-01

According to a recent information-theoretical proposal, the problem of defining and identifying communities in networks can be interpreted as a classical communication task over a noisy channel: memberships of nodes are information bits erased by the channel, edges and nonedges in the network are parity bits introduced by the encoder but degraded through the channel, and a community identification algorithm is a decoder. The interpretation is perfectly equivalent to the one at the basis of well-known statistical inference algorithms for community detection. The only difference in the interpretation is that a noisy channel replaces a stochastic network model. However, the different perspective gives the opportunity to take advantage of the rich set of tools of coding theory to generate novel insights on the problem of community detection. In this paper, we illustrate two main applications of standard coding-theoretical methods to community detection. First, we leverage a state-of-the-art decoding technique to generate a family of quasioptimal community detection algorithms. Second and more important, we show that the Shannon's noisy-channel coding theorem can be invoked to establish a lower bound, here named as decodability bound, for the maximum amount of noise tolerable by an ideal decoder to achieve perfect detection of communities. When computed for well-established synthetic benchmarks, the decodability bound explains accurately the performance achieved by the best community detection algorithms existing on the market, telling us that only little room for their improvement is still potentially left.

Online Workforce Development in Community Colleges: Connection with Community, Institutional, and Governance Factors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Githens, Rod Patrick; Sauer, Timothy M.; Crawford, Fashaad L.; Cumberland, Denise M.; Wilson, Kristin B.

2014-01-01

This study examined community and institutional factors that influence offering online workforce development programs in community colleges. The study included a random sample of 321 community college in the United States. Findings conclude that colleges operating under statewide governance structures and in states with more highly centralized…

Community College Image--By Hollywood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tucciarone, Krista M.

2007-01-01

This qualitative study analyzes how the most recent community college film, Evolution (2001) depicts and portrays the image of a community college as interpreted by attending community college students. Previous community college research suggests that college choice, enrollment, and funding may be affected by perceived image. Image is greatly…

Perceptions of the community on the pricing of community mental health services.

PubMed

Ogden, J R; Ogden, D T

1992-01-01

In the past few years there has been a decrease in governmental support of Community Mental Health centers. Because of this, there has been some concern, on the part of Community Mental Health professionals, as to the overall impact of this decreased governmental support. Research has been conducted that speculates on how best to handle this mini-crisis. One article suggests moving to an overall marketing approach to help combat this dollar support decline (Day and Ford 1988). Others provide methods for surveying Community Mental Health users (Ludke, Curry & Saywell 1983). William Winston (1988) suggests an overall psychographic segmentation approach to developing market targets. There has also been research detailing promotional methods for expanded marketing coverage (Moldenhauer 1988), however little has been written defining the pricing impact on Community Mental Health services. This study addresses the perceptions of Community Mental Health Center users toward the price variable of the marketing mix.

Can AmeriCorps Build Communities?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomson, Ann Marie; Perry, James L.

1998-01-01

An examination of AmeriCorps in five communities focused on its impact on the capacity of local community-based organizations to achieve community goals. Most partner organizations were unable to build sufficient commitment for self-governance; few programs were designed to encourage collective goals. Getting things done in local communities may…

Teacher Communities for Equity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cochran-Smith, Marilyn

2015-01-01

Teachers working together in learning communities is a popular aspect of school reform projects in countries around the world. However, teacher communities vary greatly from one another. This article describes two communities whose purpose is to help teachers work for equity by focusing on questions that emerge from practice and from genuine…

Defining Community College Achievements.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Arthur M.

In 1989, the Center for the Study of Community Colleges received a grant from the Ford Foundation to assist community colleges in defining their transfer rates and collecting data to support those definitions. The Center invited 240 community colleges with at least a 20% minority enrollment to participate in a Transfer Assembly. Interested…

Community College Presidents' Understanding of Spirituality as Part of a Community College Institution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beemer, Angela Rice

2013-01-01

This study explored how community college presidents understood spirituality as part of a community college institution. Using a purposive criterion sample, five community college presidents were interviewed in the natural setting of their individual colleges. The interviews took place over a thirteen month period of time. A phenomenological…

Financing Community Services for Persons with Disabilities: State Agency and Community Provider Perspectives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hemp, Richard

1992-01-01

This serial issue summarizes findings from a survey of 20 state mental retardation and developmental disabilities agencies and 93 community based providers on developing and financing community services. The survey queried respondents concerning: (1) which models or strategies for financing community services have been most effective; (2) what…

A Study of Service-Learning at Virginia Highlands Community College and Mountain Empire Community College.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hughes, Alice

This qualitative study was conducted to explore student perceptions of service learning as well as the importance of service learning to community college students. Data were collected through interviews with 24 community college participants from Virginia Highlands Community College and Mountain Empire Community College, both in southwest…

Is a community still a community? Reviewing definitions of key terms in community ecology.

PubMed

Stroud, James T; Bush, Michael R; Ladd, Mark C; Nowicki, Robert J; Shantz, Andrew A; Sweatman, Jennifer

2015-11-01

Community ecology is an inherently complicated field, confounded by the conflicting use of fundamental terms. Nearly two decades ago, Fauth et al. (1996) demonstrated that imprecise language led to the virtual synonymy of important terms and so attempted to clearly define four keywords in community ecology; "community," "assemblage," "guild," and "ensemble". We revisit Fauth et al.'s conclusion and discuss how the use of these terms has changed over time since their review. An updated analysis of term definition from a selection of popular ecological textbooks suggests that definitions have drifted away from those encountered pre-1996, and slightly disagreed with results from a survey of 100 ecology professionals (comprising of academic professors, nonacademic PhDs, graduate and undergraduate biology students). Results suggest that confusion about these terms is still widespread in ecology. We conclude with clear suggestions for definitions of each term to be adopted hereafter to provide greater cohesion among research groups.

Building Capacity to Increase Health Promotion Funding to American Indian Communities: Recommendations From Community Members.

PubMed

Pedersen, Maja; Held, Suzanne Christopher; Brown, Blakely

2016-11-01

Foundations and government agencies have historically played a critical role in supporting community-based health promotion programs. Increased access to health promotion funding may help address significant health issues existing within American Indian (AI) communities, such as childhood obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Understanding the capacity of AI communities to successfully apply for and receive funding may serve to increase resources for health promotion efforts within AI communities in Montana. This exploratory qualitative study completed 17 semistructured interviews across three AI reservations in the state of Montana. Dimensions of community capacity within the context of the funding application process and partnership with funding agencies were identified, including resources, leadership, community need, networks, and relationship with the funding agency. Dimensions of AI community capacity were then used to suggest capacity-building strategies for improved partnership between AI communities in Montana and the funding agencies. © 2016 Society for Public Health Education.

Achieving Results through Community School Partnerships: How District and Community Leaders Are Building Effective, Sustainable Relationships

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blank, Martin J.; Jacobson, Reuben; Melaville, Atelia

2012-01-01

A community school is a place and a set of partnerships connecting a school, the families of students, and the surrounding community. A community school is distinguished by an integrated focus on academics, youth development, family support, health and social services, and community development. The community school strategy is central to efforts…

Faculty and Community Collaboration in Sustained Community-University Engagement Partnerships

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Angela Danyell

2009-01-01

This dissertation is a qualitative case study of the factors of collaboration between faculty and community partners in sustained community-university engagement partnerships at a public research university in the Midwest. Based on secondary data from an annual, online, mixed-method survey of faculty-reported engagement activity, parallel yet…

[Community marketing of contraceptives].

PubMed

Urrutia, J M

1987-09-01

The 5-year-old community contraceptive distribution program developed by PROFAMILIA, Colombia's private family planning organization, has given excellent results, but several cost-effectiveness comparisons with social marketing programs have suggested that commercial distribution programs are superior. The community contraceptive distribution program has a high content of information and education activities, which produced significant increases in knowledge and use of contraception in the communities covered. It has been a fundamental support for the social marketing program, creating much of the demand for contraceptive products that the social marketing program has filled. The social marketing program has given good results in terms of volume of sales and in cost-effectiveness since 1976, prompting calls for replacement of the community contraceptive distribution program by the social marketing program in those sectors where knowledge and use of contraception have achieved acceptable levels. An experiment in the Department of Santander in 1984 and 1985 gave very favorable results, suggesting that community contraceptive distribution programs should be replaced by social marketing programs in all more developed markets. But economic problems in 1985 and the decision of manufacturers to decrease the profit margin for PROFAMILIA jeopardized the social marketing program. The community distribution program covered about 20% of the market. Reduced profits in the social marketing program threatened its continued expansion, at the same time that potential demand was growing because of increases in the fertile aged population and increased use of contraception. To meet the need, PROFAMILIA combined the community contraceptive distribution and social marketing programs into a new entity to be called community marketing. The strategy of the community marketing program will be to maintain PROFAMILIA's participation in the market and aid the growth of demand for

Inquiry in the Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanes, Jena; Sadler, Troy D.

2005-01-01

Projects based in the community give students the opportunity to engage in investigation as scientists and apply their work to make a difference at home. Community-based projects allow for easy implementation of high-end inquiry in the science classroom. When students become involved in research based in authentic community problems they gain a…

Community centrality and social science research.

PubMed

Allman, Dan

2015-12-01

Community centrality is a growing requirement of social science. The field's research practices are increasingly expected to conform to prescribed relationships with the people studied. Expectations about community centrality influence scholarly activities. These expectations can pressure social scientists to adhere to models of community involvement that are immediate and that include community-based co-investigators, advisory boards, and liaisons. In this context, disregarding community centrality can be interpreted as failure. This paper considers evolving norms about the centrality of community in social science. It problematises community inclusion and discusses concerns about the impact of community centrality on incremental theory development, academic integrity, freedom of speech, and the value of liberal versus communitarian knowledge. Through the application of a constructivist approach, this paper argues that social science in which community is omitted or on the periphery is not failed science, because not all social science requires a community base to make a genuine and valuable contribution. The utility of community centrality is not necessarily universal across all social science pursuits. The practices of knowing within social science disciplines may be difficult to transfer to a community. These practices of knowing require degrees of specialisation and interest that not all communities may want or have.

Community centrality and social science research

PubMed Central

Allman, Dan

2015-01-01

Community centrality is a growing requirement of social science. The field's research practices are increasingly expected to conform to prescribed relationships with the people studied. Expectations about community centrality influence scholarly activities. These expectations can pressure social scientists to adhere to models of community involvement that are immediate and that include community-based co-investigators, advisory boards, and liaisons. In this context, disregarding community centrality can be interpreted as failure. This paper considers evolving norms about the centrality of community in social science. It problematises community inclusion and discusses concerns about the impact of community centrality on incremental theory development, academic integrity, freedom of speech, and the value of liberal versus communitarian knowledge. Through the application of a constructivist approach, this paper argues that social science in which community is omitted or on the periphery is not failed science, because not all social science requires a community base to make a genuine and valuable contribution. The utility of community centrality is not necessarily universal across all social science pursuits. The practices of knowing within social science disciplines may be difficult to transfer to a community. These practices of knowing require degrees of specialisation and interest that not all communities may want or have. PMID:26440071

Community-Based Care

MedlinePlus

... our e-newsletter! Aging & Health A to Z Community-Based Care Basic Facts & Information A variety of healthcare options ... day care centers are either in churches or community centers. Adult day care is commonly used to care for people who ...

Engaging Institutional Review Boards in Developing a Brief, Community-Responsive Human Subjects Training for Community Partners.

PubMed

Calzo, Jerel P; Bogart, Laura M; Francis, Evelyn; Kornetsky, Susan Z; Winkler, Sabune J; Kaberry, Julie

2016-01-01

Engaging community partners as co-investigators in community-based participatory research (CBPR) requires certification in the rules, ethics, and principles governing research. Despite developments in making human research protection trainings more convenient and standardized (eg, self-paced Internet modules), time constraints and the structure of the content (which may favor academic audiences) may hinder the training of community partners. This paper is motivated by a case example in which academic and community partners, and stakeholders of a community-based organization actively engaged the leadership of a pediatric hospital-based institutional review board (IRB) in implementing a brief, community-responsive human subjects training session. A 2-hour, discussion-based human subjects training was developed via collaborations between the IRB and the community and academic partners. Interviews with trainees and facilitators after the training were used to evaluate its acceptability and possible future applications. Local IRBs have the potential to assist community partners in building sufficient knowledge of human subjects research protections to engage in specific projects, thereby expediting the progress of vital research to address community needs. We propose the need for developing truncated human subjects education materials to train and certify community partners, and creating formally organized entities within academic and medical institutions that specialize in community-based research to guide the development and implementation of alternative human subjects training certification opportunities for community partners.

Intimate partner violence prevention program in an Asian immigrant community: integrating theories, data, and community.

PubMed

Yoshihama, Mieko; Ramakrishnan, Aparna; Hammock, Amy C; Khaliq, Mahmooda

2012-07-01

To fill an existing gap in research and practice on intimate partner violence (IPV) in immigrant communities, the authors developed an IPV prevention program, called the Shanti Project, in an Asian Indian community in the Midwest. Building on the notion of shanti (harmony/peace), a cherished value and strength of the community, we created a communications campaign that combined social marketing and community-based participatory approaches. Recognizing the interactive influences of multiple levels of social ecology, campaign activities were designed to bring about changes at the individual, relationship/family, organization, and community levels. This article presents the development of this theoretically, empirically, and community-based IPV prevention program.

What is microbial community ecology?

PubMed

Konopka, Allan

2009-11-01

The activities of complex communities of microbes affect biogeochemical transformations in natural, managed and engineered ecosystems. Meaningfully defining what constitutes a community of interacting microbial populations is not trivial, but is important for rigorous progress in the field. Important elements of research in microbial community ecology include the analysis of functional pathways for nutrient resource and energy flows, mechanistic understanding of interactions between microbial populations and their environment, and the emergent properties of the complex community. Some emergent properties mirror those analyzed by community ecologists who study plants and animals: biological diversity, functional redundancy and system stability. However, because microbes possess mechanisms for the horizontal transfer of genetic information, the metagenome may also be considered as a community property.

Logic in the Community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seligman, Jeremy; Liu, Fenrong; Girard, Patrick

Communities consist of individuals bounds together by social relationships and roles. Within communities, individuals reason about each other's beliefs, knowledge and preferences. Knowledge, belief, preferences and even the social relationships are constantly changing, and yet our ability to keep track of these changes is an important part of what it means to belong to a community.

Community Education. AONTAS Policy Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Irish National Association of Adult Education, Dublin.

Ireland's economic and social problems in the 1980s spawned a new kind of community education. Key characteristics of the new community education are as follows: (1) it is a learning environment and located in the community; (2) it provides learning programs based on identified needs; (3) its control remains in the local community's hands; (4) its…

Research challenges and lessons learned from conducting community-based research with the Hmong community.

PubMed

Kue, Jennifer; Thorburn, Sheryl; Keon, Karen Levy

2015-05-01

Conducting research with underserved communities with little exposure to research presents a number of challenges and opportunities. Our study used a community-based approach to better understand factors that influence breast and cervical cancer screening among Hmong women. This article shares lessons learned during the process of developing and conducting qualitative research with a Hmong community with limited experience with research. We conducted 17 key informant and 84 in-depth interviews with Hmong women and men. Research team discussions, insights from Hmong research team members, input from our Community Advisory Committee, and project documents were sources of information about the process of conducting research in this community. Lessons learned concern including a cultural insider as an investigator; building community partnerships and support; establishing and working with a community advisory committee; hiring and training bilingual, bicultural staff; and using culturally appropriate materials and methods in a small, kinship-based community. We used multiple strategies to ensure that this study was conducted in a culturally appropriate manner. The lessons learned from our experiences can provide guidance to researchers on methodological and practical issues in conducting research with the Hmong and can inform future research with the Hmong and other similar underserved populations. © 2014 Society for Public Health Education.

From Controlled Trial to Community Adoption: The Multisite Translational Community Trial

PubMed Central

Murimi, Mary; Gonzalez, Anjelica; Njike, Valentine; Green, Lawrence W.

2011-01-01

Methods for translating the findings of controlled trials, such as the Diabetes Prevention Program, into real-world community application have not been clearly defined. A standardized research methodology for making and evaluating such a transition is needed. We introduce the multisite translational community trial (mTCT) as the research analog to the multisite randomized controlled trial. The mTCT is adapted to incorporate the principles and practices of community-based participatory research and the increased relevance and generalizability gained from diverse community settings. The mTCT is a tool designed to bridge the gap between what a clinical trial demonstrates can work in principle and what is needed to make it workable and effective in real-world settings. Its utility could be put to the test, in particular with practice-based research networks such as the Prevention Research Centers. PMID:21680935

Community-based violence awareness.

PubMed

Kelly, Patricia J; Lesser, Janna; Peralez-Dieckmann, Esther; Castilla, Martha

2007-03-01

Violence against women is a major influence on women's mental health. We used popular education techniques to train 14 Spanish-speaking women as promotoras (community health workers) to increase awareness about violence against women in low income Texas communities. These women then conducted over 80 presentations in Spanish in local community settings. The impact of the program on the promotoras and on women attending the presentations was evaluated using qualitative methods. This research lends support to the idea that nurses working in community mental health settings must use innovative primary prevention strategies and evaluation mechanisms to change awareness about violence against women.

Objective community integration of mental health consumers living in supported housing and of others in the community.

PubMed

Yanos, Philip T; Stefancic, Ana; Tsemberis, Sam

2012-01-01

Housing programs for people with severe mental illnesses aim to maximize community integration. However, little is known about how the community integration of mental health consumers living in supported housing compares with that of other community residents in the socially disadvantaged communities where supported housing is often located. The purpose of this study was to examine predictors of objective community integration of mental health consumers living in supported housing and of other persons living in the same communities. Participants were 124 adults (60 mental health consumers and 64 other community residents) residing in designated zip codes in the Bronx, New York. Participants were administered measures of psychiatric symptoms, substance use, physical community integration (participation in local activities), social integration (interactions with community members), and citizenship (political activism or volunteering). Mental health consumers living in supported independent housing had significantly lower scores on indicators of objective community integration than other community members. However, differences were relatively small. Among mental health consumers, African-American race, education, and length of time in current residence were associated with better community integration. Findings suggest that mental health consumers living in supported housing may not achieve levels of objective community integration that are comparable with other community members; however, psychiatric factors did not account for this difference. Length of time in neighborhoods appears to be an important factor in facilitating social integration.

Community-level cohesion without cooperation.

PubMed

Tikhonov, Mikhail

2016-06-16

Recent work draws attention to community-community encounters ('coalescence') as likely an important factor shaping natural ecosystems. This work builds on MacArthur's classic model of competitive coexistence to investigate such community-level competition in a minimal theoretical setting. It is shown that the ability of a species to survive a coalescence event is best predicted by a community-level 'fitness' of its native community rather than the intrinsic performance of the species itself. The model presented here allows formalizing a macroscopic perspective whereby a community harboring organisms at varying abundances becomes equivalent to a single organism expressing genes at different levels. While most natural communities do not satisfy the strict criteria of multicellularity developed by multi-level selection theory, the effective cohesion described here is a generic consequence of resource partitioning, requires no cooperative interactions, and can be expected to be widespread in microbial ecosystems.

Science and Community Engagement: Connecting Science Students with the Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lancor, Rachael; Schiebel, Amy

2018-01-01

In this article we describe a course on science outreach that was developed as part of our college's goal that all students participate in a meaningful community engagement experience. The Science & Community Engagement course provides a way for students with science or science-related majors to learn how to effectively communicate scientific…

Community structure in networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Newman, Mark

2004-03-01

Many networked systems, including physical, biological, social, and technological networks, appear to contain ``communities'' -- groups of nodes within which connections are dense, but between which they are sparser. The ability to find such communities in an automated fashion could be of considerable use. Communities in a web graph for instance might correspond to sets of web sites dealing with related topics, while communities in a biochemical network or an electronic circuit might correspond to functional units of some kind. We present a number of new methods for community discovery, including methods based on ``betweenness'' measures and methods based on modularity optimization. We also give examples of applications of these methods to both computer-generated and real-world network data, and show how our techniques can be used to shed light on the sometimes dauntingly complex structure of networked systems.

Predictability in community dynamics.

PubMed

Blonder, Benjamin; Moulton, Derek E; Blois, Jessica; Enquist, Brian J; Graae, Bente J; Macias-Fauria, Marc; McGill, Brian; Nogué, Sandra; Ordonez, Alejandro; Sandel, Brody; Svenning, Jens-Christian

2017-03-01

The coupling between community composition and climate change spans a gradient from no lags to strong lags. The no-lag hypothesis is the foundation of many ecophysiological models, correlative species distribution modelling and climate reconstruction approaches. Simple lag hypotheses have become prominent in disequilibrium ecology, proposing that communities track climate change following a fixed function or with a time delay. However, more complex dynamics are possible and may lead to memory effects and alternate unstable states. We develop graphical and analytic methods for assessing these scenarios and show that these dynamics can appear in even simple models. The overall implications are that (1) complex community dynamics may be common and (2) detailed knowledge of past climate change and community states will often be necessary yet sometimes insufficient to make predictions of a community's future state. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/CNRS.

Narratives of Community Educators Fostering Adult Education and Community Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Delgado, Perla Guadalupe

2017-01-01

This qualitative research reports on the narratives of six community educators and utilizes anatomy of story as a framework. The research question directing this study was: What can we learn from the journeys and trajectories of community educators? Supporting sub-questions included: (1) what are their efforts fostering adult education? and (2)…

An Australian Indigenous community-led suicide intervention skills training program: community consultation findings.

PubMed

Nasir, Bushra; Kisely, Steve; Hides, Leanne; Ranmuthugala, Geetha; Brennan-Olsen, Sharon; Nicholson, Geoffrey C; Gill, Neeraj S; Hayman, Noel; Kondalsamy-Chennakesavan, Srinivas; Toombs, Maree

2017-06-13

Little is known of the appropriateness of existing gatekeeper suicide prevention programs for Indigenous communities. Despite the high rates of Indigenous suicide in Australia, especially among Indigenous youth, it is unclear how effective existing suicide prevention programs are in providing appropriate management of Indigenous people at risk of suicide. In-depth, semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with Indigenous communities in rural and regional areas of Southern Queensland. Thematic analysis was performed on the gathered information. Existing programs were time-intensive and included content irrelevant to Indigenous people. There was inconsistency in the content and delivery of gatekeeper training. Programs were also not sustainable for rural and regional Indigenous communities. Appropriate programs should be practical, relevant, and sustainable across all Indigenous communities, with a focus on the social, emotional, cultural and spiritual underpinnings of community wellbeing. Programs need to be developed in thorough consultation with Indigenous communities. Indigenous-led suicide intervention training programs are needed to mitigate the increasing rates of suicide experienced by Indigenous peoples living in rural and remote locations.

Communities respond to predatory lending.

PubMed

Caplan, Mary Ager

2014-04-01

Low-income communities in the United States have faced a history of financial marginalization and exploitation, most evident today in the proliferation of predatory financial services, such as payday lending and check-cashing services. Ameliorating the negative effects of predatory lending has become increasingly important on the agenda of community development efforts and the field of social work. Through the use of case studies, this article describes three specific strategies that communities use to increase financial inclusion and buffer against the deleterious effects of predatory lending: inclusion, community-based alternatives, and community advocacy.

Sharing of grant funds between academic institutions and community partners in community-based participatory research.

PubMed

Cain, Katrice D; Theurer, Jacqueline R; Sehgal, Ashwini R

2014-04-01

To determine how grant funds are shared between academic institutions and community partners in community-based participatory research (CBPR). Review of all 62 investigator-initiated R01 CBPR grants funded by the National Institutes of Health from January 2005 to August 2012. Using prespecified criteria, two reviewers independently categorized each budget item as being for an academic institution or a community partner. A third reviewer helped resolve any discrepancies. Among 49 evaluable grants, 68% of all grant funds were for academic institutions and 30% were for community partners. For 2% of funds, it was unclear whether they were for academic institutions or for community partners. Community partners' share of funds was highest in the categories of other direct costs (62%) and other personnel (48%) and lowest in the categories of equipment (1%) and indirect costs (7%). A majority of CBPR grant funds are allocated to academic institutions. In order to enhance the share that community partners receive, funders may wish to specify a minimum proportion of grant funds that should be allocated to community partners in CBPR projects. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Building research infrastructure in community health centers: a Community Health Applied Research Network (CHARN) report.

PubMed

Likumahuwa, Sonja; Song, Hui; Singal, Robbie; Weir, Rosy Chang; Crane, Heidi; Muench, John; Sim, Shao-Chee; DeVoe, Jennifer E

2013-01-01

This article introduces the Community Health Applied Research Network (CHARN), a practice-based research network of community health centers (CHCs). Established by the Health Resources and Services Administration in 2010, CHARN is a network of 4 community research nodes, each with multiple affiliated CHCs and an academic center. The four nodes (18 individual CHCs and 4 academic partners in 9 states) are supported by a data coordinating center. Here we provide case studies detailing how CHARN is building research infrastructure and capacity in CHCs, with a particular focus on how community practice-academic partnerships were facilitated by the CHARN structure. The examples provided by the CHARN nodes include many of the building blocks of research capacity: communication capacity and "matchmaking" between providers and researchers; technology transfer; research methods tailored to community practice settings; and community institutional review board infrastructure to enable community oversight. We draw lessons learned from these case studies that we hope will serve as examples for other networks, with special relevance for community-based networks seeking to build research infrastructure in primary care settings.

Building Research Infrastructure in Community Health Centers: A Community Health Applied Research Network (CHARN) Report

PubMed Central

Likumahuwa, Sonja; Song, Hui; Singal, Robbie; Weir, Rosy Chang; Crane, Heidi; Muench, John; Sim, Shao-Chee; DeVoe, Jennifer E.

2015-01-01

This article introduces the Community Health Applied Research Network (CHARN), a practice-based research network of community health centers (CHCs). Established by the Health Resources and Services Administration in 2010, CHARN is a network of 4 community research nodes, each with multiple affiliated CHCs and an academic center. The four nodes (18 individual CHCs and 4 academic partners in 9 states) are supported by a data coordinating center. Here we provide case studies detailing how CHARN is building research infrastructure and capacity in CHCs, with a particular focus on how community practice-academic partnerships were facilitated by the CHARN structure. The examples provided by the CHARN nodes include many of the building blocks of research capacity: communication capacity and “matchmaking” between providers and researchers; technology transfer; research methods tailored to community practice settings; and community institutional review board infrastructure to enable community oversight. We draw lessons learned from these case studies that we hope will serve as examples for other networks, with special relevance for community-based networks seeking to build research infrastructure in primary care settings. PMID:24004710

Engaging Institutional Review Boards in Developing a Brief, Community-Responsive Human Subjects Training for Community Partners

PubMed Central

Calzo, Jerel P.; Bogart, Laura M.; Francis, Evelyn; Kornetsky, Susan Z.; Winkler, Sabune J.; Kaberry, Julie M.

2017-01-01

BACKGROUND Engaging community partners as co-investigators in community-based participatory research (CBPR) requires certification in the rules, ethics, and principles governing research. Despite developments in making human research protection trainings more convenient and standardized (e.g., self-paced Internet modules), time constraints and the structure of the content (which may favor academic audiences) may hinder the training of community partners. OBJECTIVES This paper is motivated by a case example in which academic and community partners, and stakeholders of a community-based organization actively engaged the leadership of a pediatric hospital-based Institutional Review Board (IRB) in implementing a brief, community-responsive human subjects training session. METHODS A two hour, discussion-based human subjects training was developed via collaborations between the IRB and the community and academic partners. Interviews with trainees and facilitators after the training were used to evaluate its acceptability and possible future applications. CONCLUSIONS Local Institutional Review Boards have the potential to assist community partners in building sufficient knowledge of human subjects research protections to engage in specific projects, thereby expediting the progress of vital research to address community needs. We propose the need for developing truncated human subjects education materials to train and certify community partners, and creating formally organized entities within academic and medical institutions that specialize in community-based research to guide the development and implementation of alternative human subjects training certification opportunities for community partners. PMID:28230554

Community College Partnership.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Black, Marjorie

Community colleges must assume a proactive leadership role to develop strategies that establish and maintain partnerships with business and other community organizations. San Juan College (SJC) has forged partnerships with a variety of local organizations, including governmental, civic, business, educational, medical, and cultural groups.…

Community trees: Identifying codiversification in the Páramo dipteran community.

PubMed

Carstens, Bryan C; Gruenstaeudl, Michael; Reid, Noah M

2016-05-01

Groups of codistributed species that responded in a concerted manner to environmental events are expected to share patterns of evolutionary diversification. However, the identification of such groups has largely been based on qualitative, post hoc analyses. We develop here two methods (posterior predictive simulation [PPS], Kuhner-Felsenstein [K-F] analysis of variance [ANOVA]) for the analysis of codistributed species that, given a group of species with a shared pattern of diversification, allow empiricists to identify those taxa that do not codiversify (i.e., "outlier" species). The identification of outlier species makes it possible to jointly estimate the evolutionary history of co-diversifying taxa. To evaluate the approaches presented here, we collected data from Páramo dipterans, identified outlier species, and estimated a "community tree" from species that are identified as having codiversified. Our results demonstrate that dipteran communities from different Páramo habitats in the same mountain range are more closely related than communities in other ranges. We also conduct simulation testing to evaluate this approach. Results suggest that our approach provides a useful addition to comparative phylogeographic methods, while identifying aspects of the analysis that require careful interpretation. In particular, both the PPS and K-F ANOVA perform acceptably when there are one or two outlier species, but less so as the number of outliers increases. This is likely a function of the corresponding degradation of the signal of community divergence; without a strong signal from a codiversifying community, there is no dominant pattern from which to detect an outlier species. For this reason, both the magnitude of K-F distance distribution and outside knowledge about the phylogeographic history of each putative member of the community should be considered when interpreting the results. © 2016 The Author(s). Evolution © 2016 The Society for the Study of Evolution.

Do Community Recommendations Improve Metadata?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gordon, S.; Habermann, T.; Jones, M. B.; Leinfelder, B.; Mecum, B.; Powers, L. A.; Slaughter, P.

2016-12-01

Complete documentation of scientific data is the surest way to facilitate discovery and reuse. What is complete metadata? There are many metadata recommendations from communities like the OGC, FGDC, NASA, and LTER, that can provide data documentation guidance for discovery, access, use and understanding. Often, the recommendations that communities develop are for a particular metadata dialect. Two examples of this are the LTER Completeness recommendation for EML and the FGDC Data Discovery recommendation for CSDGM. Can community adoption of a recommendation ensure that what is included in the metadata is understandable to the scientific community and beyond? By applying quantitative analysis to different LTER and USGS metadata collections in DataOne and ScienceBase, we show that community recommendations can improve the completeness of collections over time. Additionally, by comparing communities in DataOne that use the EML and CSDGM dialects, but have not adopted the recommendations to the communities that have, the positive effects of recommendation adoption on documentation completeness can be measured.

Objective Community Integration of Mental Health Consumers Living in Supported Housing and of Others in the Community

PubMed Central

Yanos, Philip T.; Stefancic, Ana; Tsemberis, Sam

2015-01-01

Objective Housing programs for people with severe mental illnesses aim to maximize community integration. However, little is known about how the community integration of mental health consumers living in supported housing compares with that of other community residents in the socially disadvantaged communities where supported housing is often located. The purpose of this study was to examine predictors of objective community integration of mental health consumers living in supported housing and of other persons living in the same communities. Methods Participants were 124 adults (60 mental health consumers and 64 other community residents) residing in designated zip codes in the Bronx, New York. Participants were administered measures of psychiatric symptoms, substance use, physical community integration (participation in local activities), social integration (interactions with community members), and citizenship (political activism or volunteering). Results Mental health consumers living in supported independent housing had significantly lower scores on indicators of objective community integration than other community members. However, differences were relatively small. Among mental health consumers, African-American race, education, and length of time in current residence were associated with better community integration. Conclusions Findings suggest that mental health consumers living in supported housing may not achieve levels of objective community integration that are comparable with other community members; however, psychiatric factors did not account for this difference. Length of time in neighborhoods appears to be an important factor in facilitating social integration. PMID:22549530

Community-Based Disaster Management: A Lesson Learned From Community Emergency Response Management in Banyumas, Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pratama, A. Y.; Sariffuddin, S.

2018-02-01

This article aimed to review community-based disaster management in terms of its independent coordination and disaster management. Community resilience was tested during disaster emergency. While panic, the community is required to be viable and able to evacuate, manage logistic, collect data on damage and the victim, and coordinate with outsiders independently. The community in Gununglurah Village, Banyumas Regency which was hit by a landslide in 2015 provides a lesson learned about community based disaster management. This research used qualitative descriptive methodology with in-depth interview with 23 informants from the community, donor institution, village officers, and government officers. Through traditional and informal methods, the community implemented disaster management that was categorized into 3 mechanisms that were social, functional, and sequential mechanism. These mechanisms controlled different portion in which social mechanism holds the most important role in disaster management, then functional mechanism and sequential mechanism. Various community activities in the village equipped the community with organizational experience to manage logistic, human resource and other coordination. In 2007, in fact, there was vulnerability risk assessment done by the local government, which recommended efforts to be done by the community to reduce the disaster risk, yet it was not implemented. It was interesting to note that in spite of the independent disaster management there was a scientific assessment neglected. Based on this research, a new discussion on how to synchronize the endogenous knowledge with scientific modern knowledge was opened.

Using Community Mapping in Human Ecology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Chery M.; Vineyard, Michelle L.; Reagor, Jane D.

2004-01-01

Community asset mapping is one approach to community assessment. According to Kretzmann and McKnight (1993), discovering the assets, capacities, and resources embedded in a community leads people to take responsibility for and ownership of rebuilding and renewing their community. Community mapping is a tool for consideration by family and consumer…

Rural Community Viability and Leadership Patterns.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pinkerton, James R.; Brown, Ralph B.

This study uses a comparative analysis of 17 northwest Missouri communities to determine the relationship between viability of rural communities and: (1) leadership patterns; (2) specific aspects of community development organizations; and (3) community organizing strategies. Populations of the communities range from 1,000 to 2,500. Based on such…

Plant community resistance to invasion by Bromus species – the roles of community attributes, Bromus Interactions with plant communities, and Bromus traits

USGS Publications Warehouse

Chambers, Jeanne; Germino, Matthew; Belnap, Jayne; Brown, Cynthia; Schupp, Eugene W.; St. Clair, Samuel B

2016-01-01

The factors that determine plant community resistance to exotic annual Bromus species (Bromushereafter) are diverse and context specific. They are influenced by the environmental characteristics and attributes of the community, the traits of Bromus species, and the direct and indirect interactions of Bromus with the plant community. Environmental factors, in particular ambient and soil temperatures, have significant effects on the ability of Bromus to establish and spread. Seasonality of precipitation relative to temperature influences plant community resistance toBromus through effects on soil water storage, timing of water and nutrient availability, and dominant plant life forms. Differences among plant communities in how well soil resource use by the plant community matches resource supply rates can influence the magnitude of resource fluctuations due to either climate or disturbance and thus the opportunities for invasion. The spatial and temporal patterns of resource availability and acquisition of growth resources by Bromus versus native species strongly influence resistance to invasion. Traits of Bromus that confer a “priority advantage” for resource use in many communities include early-season germination and high growth and reproductive rates. Resistance to Bromus can be overwhelmed by high propagule supply, low innate seed dormancy, and large, if short-lived, seed banks. Biological crusts can inhibit germination and establishment of invasive annual plants, including several annual Bromus species, but are effective only in the absence of disturbance. Herbivores can have negative direct effects on Bromus, but positive indirect effects through decreases in competitors. Management strategies can be improved through increased understanding of community resistance to exotic annual Bromus species.

Community-based outbreaks of tuberculosis.

PubMed

Raffalli, J; Sepkowitz, K A; Armstrong, D

1996-05-27

Numerous recent reports have detailed outbreaks of tuberculosis in hospitals and other congregate settings. The characteristics of such settings, including high concentrations of infectious patients and immunocompromised hosts, the potential for sustained daily contact for weeks and often months, and improper precautions taken for protection, make them well suited for tuberculosis transmission. However, community-based outbreaks, which are the source of much public concern, have not been reviewed since 1964, when 109 community outbreaks were examined. Since few of the characteristics of institutional settings are present in the community, the lessons learned may not be applicable to community-based outbreaks. Furthermore, recent studies with analysis by restriction fragment length polymorphisms have documented unexpectedly high rates of primary disease in certain urban communities, suggesting that our understanding of community-based transmission may be incomplete. We reviewed all reported community-based outbreaks of tuberculosis occurring in the last 30 years to assess the basis of our current understanding of community-based transmission. More than 70 outbreaks were identified, with schools being the most common site. In most, a delay in diagnosis, sustained contact with the index case, inadequate ventilation, or overcrowding was contributory. We conclude that community-based outbreaks of tuberculosis continue to occur and that well-established risks contribute to most outbreaks. Many outbreaks can be prevented or limited by attention to basic infection control principles.

Community health centers and community development financial institutions: joining forces to address determinants of health.

PubMed

Kotelchuck, Ronda; Lowenstein, Daniel; Tobin, Jonathan N

2011-11-01

Community health centers and community development financial institutions share similar origins and missions and are increasingly working together to meet community needs. Addressing the social and economic determinants of health is a common focus. The availability of new federal grants and tax credits has led these financial institutions to invest in the creation and expansion of community health centers. This article reviews the most recent trends in these two sectors and explores opportunities for further collaboration to transform the health and well-being of the nation's low-income communities.

Exploring community resilience in workforce communities of first responders serving Katrina survivors.

PubMed

Wyche, Karen Fraser; Pfefferbaum, Rose L; Pfefferbaum, Betty; Norris, Fran H; Wisnieski, Deborah; Younger, Hayden

2011-01-01

Community resilience activities were assessed in workplace teams that became first responders for Hurricane Katrina survivors. Community resilience was assessed by a survey, focus groups, and key informant interviews. On the survey, 90 first responders ranked their team's disaster response performance as high on community resilience activities. The same participants, interviewed in 11 focus groups and 3 key informant interviews, discussed how their teams engaged in community resilience activities to strengthen their ability to deliver services. Specifically, their resilient behaviors were characterized by: shared organizational identity, purpose, and values; mutual support and trust; role flexibility; active problem solving; self-reflection; shared leadership; and skill building. The implications for research, policy, practice, and education of professionals are discussed. © 2011 American Orthopsychiatric Association.

Strong Hearts, healthy communities: a rural community-based cardiovascular disease prevention program.

PubMed

Seguin, Rebecca A; Eldridge, Galen; Graham, Meredith L; Folta, Sara C; Nelson, Miriam E; Strogatz, David

2016-01-28

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States and places substantial burden on the health care system. Rural populations, especially women, have considerably higher rates of cardiovascular disease, influenced by poverty, environmental factors, access to health care, and social and cultural attitudes and norms. This community-based study will be a two-arm randomized controlled efficacy trial comparing a multi-level, community program (Strong Hearts, Healthy Communities) with a minimal intervention control program (Strong Hearts, Healthy Women). Strong Hearts, Healthy Communities was developed by integrating content from three evidence-based programs and was informed by extensive formative research (e.g. community assessments, focus groups, and key informant interviews). Classes will meet twice weekly for one hour for 24 weeks and focus on individual-level skill building and behavior change; social and civic engagement are also core programmatic elements. Strong Hearts, Healthy Women will meet monthly for hour-long sessions over the 24 weeks covering similar content in a general, condensed format. Overweight, sedentary women 40 years of age and older from rural, medically underserved communities (12 in Montana and 4 in New York) will be recruited; sites, pair-matched based on rurality, will be randomized to full or minimal intervention. Data will be collected at baseline, midpoint, intervention completion, and six-month, one-year, and eighteen months post-intervention. The primary outcome is change in body weight; secondary outcomes include physiologic, anthropometric, behavioral, and psychosocial variables. In the full intervention, engagement of participants' friends and family members in partnered activities and community events is an intervention target, hypothesizing that there will be a reciprocal influence of physical activity and diet behavior between participants and their social network. Family members and/or friends will be

Creating an instrument to measure people's perception of community capacity in American Indian communities.

PubMed

Oetzel, John; Wallerstein, Nina; Solimon, Audrey; Garcia, Bruce; Siemon, Mark; Adeky, Sarah; Apachito, Gracie; Caston, Elissa; Finster, Carolyn; Belone, Lorenda; Tafoya, Greg

2011-06-01

The purpose of this study was to develop a measure of community capacity for American Indian communities. The study included development and testing phases to ensure face, content, construct, and predictive validity. There were 500 participants in two southwest tribes who completed a detailed community profile, which contained 21 common items in five dimensions (communication, sense of community, youth, elders, and language/culture). In addition, subscales of women and leadership were included in one tribe each. Confirmatory factor analysis primarily supported the factorial structure of the instruments, and the seven dimensions were found to correlate with previously validated measures of social capital, historical trauma, community influence, and physical health in expected directions.

Community Report Card.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rural Development Service (USDA), Washington, DC.

Designed to facilitate rural development efforts, this pamphlet presents a grading key for ranking community factors in each of four key areas of progress as follows: (1) People Building (education, health services, cultural satisfaction, outreach to the disadvantaged, and leadership); (2) Community Facilities (housing, transportation, utilities,…

Reframing Community Partnerships

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thornton, Jerry Sue

2013-01-01

This chapter explores the evolving landscape of the urban college from the perspective of Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland. It frames innovative and creative ways to develop unique partnerships with local high schools and employers, exemplified by the best collaborative practices of Cuyahoga and other community colleges.

Communities, Teacher's Guide.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

California Univ., Berkeley. Science Curriculum Improvement Study.

The Science Curriculum Improvement Study has developed this teacher's guide to "Communities," the fifth part of a six unit life science curriculum sequence. The six basic units, emphasizing organism-environment interactions, are organisms, life cycles, populations, environments, communities, and ecosystems, and make use of scientific and…

Toward a Healthy Community (Organizing Events for Community Health Promotion).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Public Health Service (DHHS), Rockville, MD. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

This booklet suggests the first steps communities can take in assessing their needs and resources and mobilizing public interest and support for health promotion. It is based on an approach to health education and community organization that recognizes the value of a highly visible, time-limited event, such as a health fair, a marathon, or an…

New marine community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

While exploring the West Florida Escarpment, a steep slope in the Gulf of Mexico several hundred kilometers off the Florida coast, the deep submergence research vessel Alvin chanced upon a well-developed community of marine life akin to that found 7 years ago in the eastern Pacific Ocean.According to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, which operates the submersible and its new tender, the Atlantis II (Eos, November 1, 1983, p. 619), the marine community contains large clams, mussels, crabs, fish, and tube worms like those found at hydrothermal vents in the eastern Pacific. While the east Pacific communities exist at spreading centers, the newly discovered group, which may stretch for almost 2 km at a depth of roughly 3200 km, lies in a passive continental margin. Also, whereas the water around the Pacific hydrothermal vents is much warmer than the surrounding seawater, the water around the new found community is apparently the same temperature as the ambient waters.

Trust Building in Virtual Communities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mezgár, István

By using different types of communication networks various groups of people can come together according to their private or business interest forming a Virtual Community. In these communities cooperation and collaboration plays an important role. As trust is the base of all human interactions this fact is even more valid in case of virtual communities. According to different experiments the level of trust in virtual communities is highly influenced by the way/mode of communication and by the duration of contact. The paper discusses the ways of trust building focusing on communication technologies and security aspects in virtual communities.

Learning Communities in Undergraduate STEM Education: A Quantitative Analysis of how Sense of Community Influences Retention of Students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Archie, T.; Newman, P.

2012-12-01

Countless programs are aimed at retaining first year college students in their majors and at their institutions. Additionally, first year students in STEM majors are retained at lower rates, than non-STEM majors. Previous research has shown that students who leave the institution are not as academically and socially integrated into the campus community than students who persist at an institution. Residential learning communities can be thought of as a retention tool by enhancing the academic and social integration of their participants. Academic integration has historically been measured by academic success as indicated by GPA, while social integration has been more difficult to measure. We adapted the Sense of Community Index (SCI) as a measure of social integration. Sense of community (SOC) has been defined as ''a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members' needs will be met through their commitment to be together''. This quantitative study examines sense of community as a means of social integration and explores the relationship between learning communities, students' sense of community, and their intent to persist at a large public university and within their current major. An online survey of 60 first-year college students in a Natural Resources College, examined the relationships between learning community participation, sense of community, and student retention. A logistic regression of sense of community was very effective in predicting students' intent to stay or leave the institution. Structural equation models showed that sense of community was strongly positively related to a students' intent to stay or leave the institution for non-learning community participants, but not for learning community participants. We hypothesized that learning community participants sense of community needs would be more fully met than non-learning community participants. Learning

Community-Based Review of Research Across Diverse Community Contexts: Key Characteristics, Critical Issues, and Future Directions

PubMed Central

Ford, Angela; Wat, Eric; Brayboy, Missy; Isaacs, Mei-Ling; Park, Alice; Strelnick, Hal; Seifer, Sarena D.

2015-01-01

A growing number of community-based organizations and community–academic partnerships are implementing processes to determine whether and how health research is conducted in their communities. These community-based research review processes (CRPs) can provide individual and community-level ethics protections, enhance the cultural relevance of study designs and competence of researchers, build community and academic research capacity, and shape research agendas that benefit diverse communities. To better understand how they are organized and function, representatives of 9 CRPs from across the United States convened in 2012 for a working meeting. In this article, we articulated and analyzed the models presented, offered guidance to communities that seek to establish a CRP, and made recommendations for future research, practice, and policy. PMID:25973834

Community health development: a strategy for reinventing America's health care system one community at a time.

PubMed

Felix, Michael R J; Burdine, James N; Wendel, Monica L; Alaniz, Angie

2010-04-01

The purpose of this article is to propose a set of ideas for reinventing America's health care system, one community at a time. Community health development is proposed as a strategy and approach to population health improvement, the ultimate goal of health care reform. The practice of community health development, particularly the partnership approach, provides guidance about how this approach might be employed as a national health care reform strategy. Examples of two communities successfully using the partnership approach illustrate the methods described. Six specific recommendations for policy makers and public administrators in the new administration resulting from our experience with community health development are presented. First, adopt and apply community health development (CHD) as the American approach for facilitating population health improvement and building community capacity. Second, the partnership approach should be promoted as a model for communities to use in implementing CHD. Third, make the community-level the focus for planning, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining a full continuum of health and human services. Fourth, formally recognize the social determinants of health as a key component of a new population/community health status model and as a public policy driver for health care reform, marketplace issues, and population health status improvement at all levels of society. Fifth is a call for a national strategy for the recruitment, training, education, and support of individuals to facilitate this community movement. Sixth, Congress and the Obama Administration adopt and apply CHD as a national strategy and utilize American community-based experiences to bring about a national plan.

Civic communities and urban violence.

PubMed

Doucet, Jessica M; Lee, Matthew R

2015-07-01

Civic communities have a spirit of entrepreneurialism, a locally invested population and an institutional structure fostering civic engagement. Prior research, mainly confined to studying rural communities and fairly large geographic areas, has demonstrated that civic communities have lower rates of violence. The current study analyzes the associations between the components of civic communities and homicide rates for New Orleans neighborhoods (census tracts) in the years following Hurricane Katrina. Results from negative binomial regression models adjusting for spatial autocorrelation reveal that community homicide rates are lower where an entrepreneurial business climate is more pronounced and where there is more local investment. Additionally, an interaction between the availability of civic institutions and resource disadvantage reveals that the protective effects of civic institutions are only evident in disadvantaged communities. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

"Community Psychology Is for Poor, Black People": Pedagogy and Teaching of Community Psychology in South Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carolissen, Ronelle; Rohleder, Poul; Bozalek, Vivienne; Swartz, Leslie; Leibowitz, Brenda

2010-01-01

The term "community" holds historical connotations of political, economic, and social disadvantage in South Africa. Many South African students tend to interpret the term "community" in ways that suggest that community and community psychology describe the experiences of exclusively poor, black people. Critical pedagogies that…

Career-Community Development: A Framework for Career Counseling and Capacity Building in Rural Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cox, Robin S.; Espinoza, Adriana

2005-01-01

The authors propose a framework for career counseling in rural communities that addresses the psychosocial and economic challenges of natural disasters and other catastrophic transitions. The career-community development framework expands the notion of "client" to include a community-as-client approach within a capacity building…

Community Update, 1999.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Julie, Ed.

1999-01-01

This document consists of nine issues (covering January through December 1999) of the newsletter "Community Update," containing articles on community and family involvement in education. Article topics include: new programs to help students prepare for college early; Vice President Al Gore announced the first-ever national Hispanic Education…

Community Information Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Freeman, Andrew

Information is provided on technological and social trends as background for a workshop designed to heighten the consciousness of workers in community information systems. Initially, the basic terminology is considered in its implications for an integrated perspective of community information systems, with particular attention given to the meaning…

Community Update, 2001.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ashby, Nicole, Ed.

2001-01-01

This document consists of 10 issues (covering January through December 2000) of the newsletter, "Community Update," which features articles on community and family involvement in education. In addition to the articles, each issue (except the Special Issue) includes a preview of the month's Satellite Town Meeting; events and information…

Creating Livable Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oberlink, Mia R.

2006-01-01

This report identifies barriers to developing livable communities and sheds light on potential methods for overcoming these barriers. It identifies and highlights multiple strategies that may be applied to the design and support of livable community principles. The identified strategies have been initiated by federal and state government agencies…

Plant community resistance to invasion by Bromus species: The roles of community attributes, Bromus interactions with plant communities, and Bromus traits [Chapter 10

Treesearch

Jeanne C. Chambers; Matthew J. Germino; Jayne Belnap; Cynthia S. Brown; Eugene W. Schupp; Samuel B. St. Clair

2016-01-01

The factors that determine plant community resistance to exotic annual Bromus species (Bromus hereafter) are diverse and context specific. They are influenced by the environmental characteristics and attributes of the community, the traits of Bromus species, and the direct and indirect interactions of Bromus with the plant community. Environmental factors, in...

Using community archetypes to better understand differential community adaptation to wildfire risk.

PubMed

Carroll, Matthew; Paveglio, Travis

2016-06-05

One of the immediate challenges of wildfire management concerns threats to human safety and property in residential areas adjacent to non-cultivated vegetation. One approach for relieving this problem is to increase human community 'adaptiveness' to deal with the risk and reality of fire in a variety of landscapes. The challenge in creating 'fire-adapted communities' (FACs) is the great diversity in character and make-up of populations at risk from wildfire. This paper outlines a recently developed categorization scheme for Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) communities based on a larger conceptual approach for understanding how social diversity is likely to influence the creation of FACs. The WUI categorization scheme situates four community archetypes on a continuum that recognizes dynamic change in human community functioning. We use results from the WUI classification scheme to outline key characteristics associated with each archetype and results from recent case studies to demonstrate the diversity across WUI communities. Differences among key characteristics of local social context will likely result in the need for different adaptation strategies to wildfire. While the WUI archetypes described here may not be broadly applicable to other parts of the world, we argue that the conceptual approach and strategies for systematically documenting local influences on wildfire adaptation have potential for broad application.This article is part of the themed issue 'The interaction of fire and mankind'. © 2016 The Author(s).

Significant elements of community involvement in participatory action research: evidence from a community project.

PubMed

Lindsey, E; McGuinness, L

1998-11-01

Participatory action research (PAR) has been heralded as an important research methodology to address issues of research relevance, community involvement, democracy, emancipation and liberation. Increasingly, nurse researchers are turning to PAR as a method of choice. Although nursing interest in PAR is expanding little is known about how to successfully involve the community in research. This article attends to this dearth of information by presenting the results of a study investigating the significant elements of community involvement in PAR. Through the use of qualitative research methods, five themes emerged that describe the community participation process: (a) planning for participation, (b) the structural components of community participation, (c) living the philosophy, (d) enhancing the credibility, and (e) the type of leadership required to facilitate community participation. It is hoped that by sharing these results others may consider the knowledge gleaned from this project as they plan and proceed with the challenges and rewards inherent in PAR.

Networked Community Change: Understanding Community Systems Change through the Lens of Social Network Analysis.

PubMed

Lawlor, Jennifer A; Neal, Zachary P

2016-06-01

Addressing complex problems in communities has become a key area of focus in recent years (Kania & Kramer, 2013, Stanford Social Innovation Review). Building on existing approaches to understanding and addressing problems, such as action research, several new approaches have emerged that shift the way communities solve problems (e.g., Burns, 2007, Systemic Action Research; Foth, 2006, Action Research, 4, 205; Kania & Kramer, 2011, Stanford Social Innovation Review, 1, 36). Seeking to bring clarity to the emerging literature on community change strategies, this article identifies the common features of the most widespread community change strategies and explores the conditions under which such strategies have the potential to be effective. We identify and describe five common features among the approaches to change. Then, using an agent-based model, we simulate network-building behavior among stakeholders participating in community change efforts using these approaches. We find that the emergent stakeholder networks are efficient when the processes are implemented under ideal conditions. © Society for Community Research and Action 2016.

Characterization of coastal urban watershed bacterial communities leads to alternative community-based indicators

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wu, C.H.; Sercu, B.; Van De Werhorst, L.C.

2010-03-01

Microbial communities in aquatic environments are spatially and temporally dynamic due to environmental fluctuations and varied external input sources. A large percentage of the urban watersheds in the United States are affected by fecal pollution, including human pathogens, thus warranting comprehensive monitoring. Using a high-density microarray (PhyloChip), we examined water column bacterial community DNA extracted from two connecting urban watersheds, elucidating variable and stable bacterial subpopulations over a 3-day period and community composition profiles that were distinct to fecal and non-fecal sources. Two approaches were used for indication of fecal influence. The first approach utilized similarity of 503 operational taxonomicmore » units (OTUs) common to all fecal samples analyzed in this study with the watershed samples as an index of fecal pollution. A majority of the 503 OTUs were found in the phyla Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria. The second approach incorporated relative richness of 4 bacterial classes (Bacilli, Bacteroidetes, Clostridia and a-proteobacteria) found to have the highest variance in fecal and non-fecal samples. The ratio of these 4 classes (BBC:A) from the watershed samples demonstrated a trend where bacterial communities from gut and sewage sources had higher ratios than from sources not impacted by fecal material. This trend was also observed in the 124 bacterial communities from previously published and unpublished sequencing or PhyloChip- analyzed studies. This study provided a detailed characterization of bacterial community variability during dry weather across a 3-day period in two urban watersheds. The comparative analysis of watershed community composition resulted in alternative community-based indicators that could be useful for assessing ecosystem health.« less

Characterization of Coastal Urban Watershed Bacterial Communities Leads to Alternative Community-Based Indicators

PubMed Central

Wu, Cindy H.; Sercu, Bram; Van De Werfhorst, Laurie C.; Wong, Jakk; DeSantis, Todd Z.; Brodie, Eoin L.; Hazen, Terry C.; Holden, Patricia A.; Andersen, Gary L.

2010-01-01

Background Microbial communities in aquatic environments are spatially and temporally dynamic due to environmental fluctuations and varied external input sources. A large percentage of the urban watersheds in the United States are affected by fecal pollution, including human pathogens, thus warranting comprehensive monitoring. Methodology/Principal Findings Using a high-density microarray (PhyloChip), we examined water column bacterial community DNA extracted from two connecting urban watersheds, elucidating variable and stable bacterial subpopulations over a 3-day period and community composition profiles that were distinct to fecal and non-fecal sources. Two approaches were used for indication of fecal influence. The first approach utilized similarity of 503 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) common to all fecal samples analyzed in this study with the watershed samples as an index of fecal pollution. A majority of the 503 OTUs were found in the phyla Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria. The second approach incorporated relative richness of 4 bacterial classes (Bacilli, Bacteroidetes, Clostridia and α-proteobacteria) found to have the highest variance in fecal and non-fecal samples. The ratio of these 4 classes (BBC∶A) from the watershed samples demonstrated a trend where bacterial communities from gut and sewage sources had higher ratios than from sources not impacted by fecal material. This trend was also observed in the 124 bacterial communities from previously published and unpublished sequencing or PhyloChip- analyzed studies. Conclusions/Significance This study provided a detailed characterization of bacterial community variability during dry weather across a 3-day period in two urban watersheds. The comparative analysis of watershed community composition resulted in alternative community-based indicators that could be useful for assessing ecosystem health. PMID:20585654

Athena Community Office

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martínez-Núnez, S.; Barcons, X.; Barret, D.; Bozzo, E.; Carrera, F. J.; Ceballos, M. T.; Gómez, S.; Monterde, M. P.; Rau, A.

2017-03-01

The Athena Community Office (ACO) has been established by ESA's Athena Science Study Team (ASST) in order to obtain support in performing its tasks assigned by ESA, and most specially in the ASST role as "focal point for the interests of the broad scientific community". The ACO is led by the Instituto de Física de Cantabria (CSIC-UC), and its activities are funded by CSIC and UC. Further ACO contributors are the University of Geneva, MPE and IRAP. In this poster, we present ACO to the Spanish Astronomical Community, informing about its main responsibilities, which are: assist the ASST in organising and collecting support from the Athena Working Groups and Topical Panels; organise and maintain the documentation generated by the Athena Working Groups and Topical Panels; manage the Working Group and Topical Panel membership lists; assist the ASST in promoting Athena science capabilities in the research world, through conferences and workshops; keep a record of all papers and presentations related to Athena; support the production of ASST documents; produce and distribute regularly an Athena Newsletter, informing the community about all mission and science developments; create and maintain the Athena Community web portal; maintain an active communication activity; promote, organise and support Athena science-related public outreach, in coordination with ESA and other agencies involved when appropriate; and, design, produce materials and provide pointers to available materials produced by other parties. In summary, ACO is meant to become a focal point to facilitate the scientific exchange between the Athena activities and the scientific community at large, and to disseminate the Athena science objectives to the general public.

Comparing Lay Community and Academic Survey Center Interviewers in Conducting Household Interviews in Latino Communities.

PubMed

Chan-Golston, Alec M; Friedlander, Scott; Glik, Deborah C; Prelip, Michael L; Belin, Thomas R; Brookmeyer, Ron; Santos, Robert; Chen, Jie; Ortega, Alexander N

2016-01-01

The employment of professional interviewers from academic survey centers to conduct surveys has been standard practice. Because one goal of community-engaged research is to provide professional skills to community residents, this paper considers whether employing locally trained lay interviewers from within the community may be as effective as employing interviewers from an academic survey center with regard to unit and item nonresponse rates and cost. To study a nutrition-focused intervention, 1035 in-person household interviews were conducted in East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights, 503 of which were completed by lay community interviewers. A chi-square test was used to assess differences in unit nonresponse rates between professional and community interviewers and Welch's t tests were used to assess differences in item nonresponse rates. A cost comparison analysis between the two interviewer groups was also conducted. Interviewers from the academic survey center had lower unit nonresponse rates than the lay community interviewers (16.2% vs. 23.3%; p < 0.01). However, the item nonresponse rates were lower for the community interviewers than the professional interviewers (1.4% vs. 3.3%; p < 0.01). Community interviewers cost approximately $415.38 per survey whereas professional interviewers cost approximately $537.29 per survey. With a lower cost per completed survey and lower item nonresponse rates, lay community interviewers are a viable alternative to professional interviewers for fieldwork in community-based research. Additional research is needed to assess other important aspects of data quality interviewer such as interviewer effects and response error.

"Who's gonna plant the trees?!?": Creating effective synergies between community and research goals in scientist-community partnerships

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Declet-Barreto, J.; Johnson, C.

2017-12-01

Harnessing science into effective, community-focused action requires ongoing partnerships that increase both understanding and trust between communities and scientists. One hurdle to overcome is that often, research questions and goals do not line up with the most pressing perceived or objective issues that a partner community faces. Another barrier is that community members often do not have a clear idea of how communities could benefit from the research, an issue that can create confusion and undermine community support for a partnership. In this session, we will discuss some of our successes and misses in developing research partnerships and actionable science for the benefit of communities. We will share stories on how we crafted effective actionable research products in partnership with Environmental Justice and other vulnerable communities.

Community perceptions and attitudes on malaria case management and the role of community health workers.

PubMed

Owek, Collins J; Oluoch, Elizabeth; Wachira, Juddy; Estambale, Benson; Afrane, Yaw A

2017-07-04

Community Case Management of malaria (CCMm) is one of the new approaches adopted by the World Health Organization for malaria endemic countries to reduce the burden of malaria for vulnerable populations. It is based on the evidence that well-trained and supervised community health workers (CHWs) can provide prompt and adequate treatment to fever cases within 24 h to help reduce morbidity and mortality associated with malaria among under-five children. The perception and attitudes of the community members on the CHWs' role is of greater importance for acceptance of their services. The aim of the study was to assess community's perception and attitude towards CCMm and on CHWs who undertake it. This study was conducted in five districts in western Kenya where Community Case Management was being undertaken. This was a qualitative cross-sectional study in which in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted with mothers of under-five children and key stakeholders. Overall, there were more positive expressions of perceptions and attitudes of the community members towards the CCMm programme and the role of CHWs. The positive perceptions included among others; recognition and appreciation of services of CHWs, bringing health services to close proximity to the community, avoiding long queues in the health facilities, provision of health education that encourages good health practices, and promotion of positive health-seeking behaviour from within the communities. This programme is not without challenges as some of the negative perceptions expressed by the community members included the fact that some clinicians doubt the capacity of CHWs on dispensing drugs in the community, some CHWs do not keep client's secrets and mistrust of CHWs due to conflicting information by government. It was evident that the community had more positive perceptions and attitudes towards the role of CHWs in CCMm than negative ones. There should however, be deliberate efforts

Community Vision and Interagency Alignment: A Community Planning Process to Promote Active Transportation

PubMed Central

Chaudhury, Nupur; Kennedy, Patrick; Noyes, Philip; Maybank, Aletha

2016-01-01

In 2010, the Brooklyn Active Transportation Community Planning Initiative launched in 2 New York City neighborhoods. Over a 2-year planning period, residents participated in surveys, school and community forums, neighborhood street assessments, and activation events—activities that highlighted the need for safer streets locally. Consensus among residents and key multisectoral stakeholders, including city agencies and community-based organizations, was garnered in support of a planned expansion of bicycling infrastructure. The process of building on community assets and applying a collective impact approach yielded changes in the built environment, attracted new partners and resources, and helped to restore a sense of power among residents. PMID:26959270

Community Vision and Interagency Alignment: A Community Planning Process to Promote Active Transportation.

PubMed

DeGregory, Sarah Timmins; Chaudhury, Nupur; Kennedy, Patrick; Noyes, Philip; Maybank, Aletha

2016-04-01

In 2010, the Brooklyn Active Transportation Community Planning Initiative launched in 2 New York City neighborhoods. Over a 2-year planning period, residents participated in surveys, school and community forums, neighborhood street assessments, and activation events-activities that highlighted the need for safer streets locally. Consensus among residents and key multisectoral stakeholders, including city agencies and community-based organizations, was garnered in support of a planned expansion of bicycling infrastructure. The process of building on community assets and applying a collective impact approach yielded changes in the built environment, attracted new partners and resources, and helped to restore a sense of power among residents.

Deconstructing an Online Community of Practice: Teachers' Actions in the Edmodo Math Subject Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trust, Torrey

2015-01-01

New technologies seem to have expanded traditional face-to-face communities of practice across spatial and temporal boundaries into "online communities of practice." However, these virtual landscapes are significantly different from the context of face-to-face communities of practice that Lave and Wenger (1991) observed. This study…

Community Learning Projects: Transforming Post-Compulsory Education Provision in Rural Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLachlan, Kathryn; Arden, Catherine H.

2009-01-01

Rural communities such as Stanthorpe on Queensland's Southern Downs, in Australia, are familiar with turbulent environmental, social, technological and economic change and the adversity that frequently accompanies such changes. The capacity of individuals and communities to bounce back from adversity is referred to as resilience. Participation in…

Community-Based Dialogue: Engaging Communities of Color in the United States’ Genetics Policy Conversation

PubMed Central

Bonham, Vence L.; Citrin, Toby; Modell, Stephen M.; Franklin, Tené Hamilton; Bleicher, Esther W. B.; Fleck, Leonard M.

2009-01-01

Engaging communities of color in the genetics public policy conversation is important for the translation of genetics research into strategies aimed at improving the health of all. Implementing model public participation and consultation processes can be informed by the Communities of Color Genetics Policy Project, which engaged individuals from African American and Latino communities of diverse socioeconomic levels in the process of “rational democratic deliberation” on ethical and policy issues stretching from genome research to privacy and discrimination concerns to public education. The results of the study included the development of a participatory framework based on a combination of the theory of democratic deliberation and the community-based public health model which we describe as “community-based dialogue.” PMID:19451407

Development and successful application of a "Community-First" communication model for community-based environmental health research.

PubMed

Emmett, Edward Anthony; Zhang, Hong; Shofer, Frances Susan; Rodway, Nancy; Desai, Chintan; Freeman, David; Hufford, Mary

2009-02-01

Effectively communicate results from a community exposure study to meet predetermined community priorities, maintaining ethical principles of autonomy, empowerment and justice. The community established principles for the communications and a plan to inform study participants, community and other stakeholders of results and recommendations in a novel sequence: the "Community-First" communication model. The communications resulted in positive actions including company sponsored free bottled water, accepted by 77.6% of eligible households. Over 95% of participants in a follow-up survey had made some change to residential water supplies. Serum perfluorooctanoate levels were reduced. Government agencies acted on the results. The unique communication approach generated workable solutions to the problem investigated, raised community awareness and modified behaviors. Information generated a "free market" of community-level solutions. Each major stakeholder voluntarily adopted a "precautionary principle."

Learning Communities for Students in Developmental Reading: An Impact Study at Hillsborough Community College. NCPR Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weiss, Michael J.; Visher, Mary G.; Wathington, Heather

2010-01-01

This Brief, based on a report of the same title, presents results from a rigorous study of a basic learning communities program operated at Hillsborough Community College. Hillsborough, one of six community colleges participating in the National Center for Postsecondary Research's (NCPR) Learning Communities Demonstration, is a large, urban…

What are true community benefits?

PubMed

Trocchio, J

1996-01-01

Not-for-profit healthcare organizations have increasingly recognized the need to document their community benefit services, but not all healthcare services should be included in a community benefits report. Some services are reasonably expected of any high-quality healthcare organization, regardless of its tax status. Others are provided as part of a commitment to the community, but they cannot or should not be quantified. A third group of services, however, can be counted and reported in an inventory of benefits. To qualify as a true community benefit, an activity must respond to a particular health problem in the community, especially one involving special populations. In addition, it must be financed through philanthropic contributions, volunteer efforts, or an endowment; generate a low or negative margin; or be a service that would be discontinued if the decision were made on a purely financial basis. Once an organization has determined that an activity is a community benefit and not a basic service or promotional program, organizational leaders must decide whether to include the service in a quantitative inventory or in a more general narrative without assignment of specific financial benefit. The community benefit services might be further broken down according to the intended recipient, whether it is the poor or the broader community.

The impact of online brand community type on consumer's community engagement behaviors: consumer-created vs. marketer-created online brand community in online social-networking web sites.

PubMed

Lee, Doohwang; Kim, Hyuk Soo; Kim, Jung Kyu

2011-01-01

The current study proposed and tested a theoretical model of consumers' online brand community engagement behaviors, with particular attention given to online brand community type (consumer vs. marketer-created). By integrating attribution and social identity theories, this study investigated the causal linkages between intrinsic motives of altruism, social identification motivations, and online brand community engagement behaviors. The results showed that consumers' online brand community engagement intentions were indirectly influenced by the different types of communities through different levels of consumers' attributions to intrinsic motives of altruism. This study also found that, in the attribution processes, consumers' intrinsic motives of altruism motivated them to identify themselves socially with the online communities they join. Finally, this study demonstrated that the intrinsic motives of altruism and social identification motivations provided strong social incentives to motivate consumers to engage in subsequent online brand community behaviors.

Community as a source of health in three racial/ethnic communities in Oregon: a qualitative study.

PubMed

Mendez-Luck, Carolyn A; Bethel, Jeffrey W; Goins, R Turner; Schure, Marc B; McDermott, Elizabeth

2015-02-12

A 2011 report by the Oregon Health Authority and the Department of Human Services documented disparities in its Latino and American Indian populations on multiple individual-level health indicators. However, research is lacking on the social contexts in which Latinos and American Indians in Oregon live and how these environments influence the health of communities as a whole. To help fill this gap, this study sought to contextualize the social environments that influence the health of Latinos and American Indian residents in three Oregon communities. Guided by an ecological framework, we conducted one-time semi-structured qualitative interviews with 26 study participants to identify the prominent health-related issues in the communities and to examine the factors that study participants perceived as enabling or inhibiting healthy lifestyles of community residents. We used a grounded theory approach to perform content and thematic analyses of the data. Study participants identified preventable chronic conditions, such as diabetes, obesity, and hypertension, as the most pressing health concerns in their communities. Results showed that traditional and cultural activities and strong family and community cohesion were viewed as facilitators of good community health. Poverty, safety concerns, insufficient community resources, and discrimination were perceived as barriers to community health. Three themes emerged from the thematic analyses: social connectedness is integral to health; trauma has an ongoing negative impact on health; and invisibility of residents in the community underlies poor health. This study's findings provide insight to the social contexts which operate in the lives of some Latinos and American Indians in Oregon. While participants identified community-level factors as important to health, they focused more on the social connections of individuals to each other and the relationships that residents have with their communities at-large. Our findings

An Enriching Community.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holland, Nancy A.; Burroughs, Jean

2001-01-01

Successful school-community partnerships in Volusia (Florida) Public Schools are the results of marketing creatively, meeting community members' needs, and bringing the right people together. The 3-year old program now offers students of all ages an expanding list of enrichment classes on many subjects for a nominal fee. (MLH)

Community Relations Service.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lawson, Miriam

1990-01-01

Describes initiatives of the Community Relations Service, a Justice Department agency, to mediate disputes involving the following areas: (1) minority community reaction to authorities' handling of drug and street gang activity; (2) racial conflict in higher education; (3) acts of racial hate or violence; (4) voting districts and redistricting;…

School-Community Relations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fiore, Douglas J.

This book presents and discusses the essential elements of a successful school-community-relations plan for all schools. The study of school-community relations, though an integral part of the graduate curriculum of most programs in educational administration, is sadly viewed by some as nonessential. School administrators must understand and deal…

Community Research Mythology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waldern, Barbara

2006-01-01

This article is dedicated to an in-depth discussion of the theme community and the implications the multiple meanings of community hold for the field of qualitative research. This theme surfaced from Walderns 2003 study entitled Resistance to Research in Vancouvers Downtown Eastside, which dealt with participant resistance to joining research…

Community Needs Assessment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chrismer, John M.

This document reports a needs assessment study designed and conducted to provide South Seattle Community College (SSCC) with information about the present and future educational, occupational training, and cultural needs of the total community served. Results of the survey are divided into chapters covering a specific population of the community…

Community Wireless Networks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feld, Harold

2005-01-01

With increasing frequency, communities are seeing the arrival of a new class of noncommercial broadband providers: community wireless networks (CWNs). Utilizing the same wireless technologies that many colleges and universities have used to create wireless networks on campus, CWNs are creating broadband access for free or at costs well below…

Development of a measure of sense of community for individuals with serious mental illness residing in community settings.

PubMed

Townley, Greg; Kloos, Bret

2009-03-03

The psychological sense of community is one of the most commonly investigated constructs in community psychology. Sense of community may be particularly important for individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) because they often face societal barriers to participation in community living, including stigma and discrimination. To date, no published studies have investigated the psychometric qualities of sense of community measures among individuals with SMI. The current study tested a series of confirmatory factor analyses using the Brief Sense of Community Index (BSCI, Long & Perkins, 2003) in a sample of 416 persons with SMI living in community settings to suggest a model of sense of community for individuals with SMI and other disabilities. The resulting scale, the Brief Sense of Community Index- Disability (BSCI-D), demonstrated good model fit and construct validity. Implications are discussed for how this scale may be used in research investigating community integration and adaptive functioning in community settings.

Development of a measure of sense of community for individuals with serious mental illness residing in community settings

PubMed Central

Townley, Greg; Kloos, Bret

2008-01-01

The psychological sense of community is one of the most commonly investigated constructs in community psychology. Sense of community may be particularly important for individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) because they often face societal barriers to participation in community living, including stigma and discrimination. To date, no published studies have investigated the psychometric qualities of sense of community measures among individuals with SMI. The current study tested a series of confirmatory factor analyses using the Brief Sense of Community Index (BSCI, Long & Perkins, 2003) in a sample of 416 persons with SMI living in community settings to suggest a model of sense of community for individuals with SMI and other disabilities. The resulting scale, the Brief Sense of Community Index- Disability (BSCI-D), demonstrated good model fit and construct validity. Implications are discussed for how this scale may be used in research investigating community integration and adaptive functioning in community settings. PMID:19305637

GMRI.org | Science. Education. Community.

Science.gov Websites

Coastal Communities Science Education Fisheries Convening Events Calendar Event Series Sustainable Seafood Literacy Supporting Sustainable Seafood Strengthening Coastal Communities Our Work Science Education | Cultivating Science Literacy | Supporting Sustainable Seafood | Strengthening Coastal Communities GMRI's

One Size Does Not Fit All: Effective Community-Engaged Outreach Practices with Immigrant Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smalkoski, Kari; Axtell, Sara; Zimmer, Jeanne; Noor, Ibrahim

2016-01-01

Generic outreach approaches are commonly used to target as many individuals as possible in a cultural community to achieve a greater response rate. However, this one-size-fits-all tactic is rarely effective. Community-engaged outreach practices have been successful with immigrant communities in Minnesota's Twin Cities. When practitioners,…

Part-Time Community College Instructors Teaching in Learning Communities: An Exploratory Multiple Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paterson, John W.

2017-01-01

Community colleges have a greater portion of students at-risk for college completion than four-year schools and faculty at these institutions are overwhelmingly and increasingly part-time. Learning communities have been identified as a high-impact practice with numerous benefits documented for community college instructors and students: a primary…

Tailoring community-based wellness initiatives with latent class analysis--Massachusetts Community Transformation Grant projects.

PubMed

Arcaya, Mariana; Reardon, Timothy; Vogel, Joshua; Andrews, Bonnie K; Li, Wenjun; Land, Thomas

2014-02-13

Community-based approaches to preventing chronic diseases are attractive because of their broad reach and low costs, and as such, are integral components of health care reform efforts. Implementing community-based initiatives across Massachusetts' municipalities presents both programmatic and evaluation challenges. For effective delivery and evaluation of the interventions, establishing a community typology that groups similar municipalities provides a balanced and cost-effective approach. Through a series of key informant interviews and exploratory data analysis, we identified 55 municipal-level indicators of 6 domains for the typology analysis. The domains were health behaviors and health outcomes, housing and land use, transportation, retail environment, socioeconomics, and demographic composition. A latent class analysis was used to identify 10 groups of municipalities based on similar patterns of municipal-level indicators across the domains. Our model with 10 latent classes yielded excellent classification certainty (relative entropy = .995, minimum class probability for any class = .871), and differentiated distinct groups of municipalities based on health-relevant needs and resources. The classes differentiated healthy and racially and ethnically diverse urban areas from cities with similar population densities and diversity but worse health outcomes, affluent communities from lower-income rural communities, and mature suburban areas from rapidly suburbanizing communities with different healthy-living challenges. Latent class analysis is a tool that may aid in the planning, communication, and evaluation of community-based wellness initiatives such as Community Transformation Grants projects administrated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Assessing community perspectives of the community based education and service model at Makerere University, Uganda: a qualitative evaluation.

PubMed

Mbalinda, Scovia N; Plover, Colin M; Burnham, Gilbert; Kaye, Dan; Mwanika, Andrew; Oria, Hussein; Okullo, Isaac; Muhwezi, Wilson; Groves, Sara

2011-03-09

Community partnerships are defined as groups working together with shared goals, responsibilities, and power to improve the community. There is growing evidence that these partnerships contribute to the success and sustainability of community-based education and service programs (COBES), facilitating change in community actions and attitudes. Makerere University College of Health Sciences (MakCHS) is forging itself as a transformational institution in Uganda and the region. The College is motivated to improve the health of Ugandans through innovative responsive teaching, provision of service, and community partnerships. Evaluating the COBES program from the community perspective can assist the College in refining an innovative and useful model that has potential to improve the health of Ugandans. A stratified random sample of 11 COBES sites was selected to examine the community's perception of the program. Key Informant Interviews of 11 site tutors and 33 community members were completed. The data was manually analyzed and themes developed. Communities stated the students consistently engaged with them with culturally appropriate behaviour. They rated the student's communication as very good even though translators were frequently needed. Half the community stated they received some feedback from the students, but some communities interpreted any contact after the initial visit as feedback. Communities confirmed and appreciated that the students provided a number of interventions and saw positive changes in health and health seeking behaviours. The community reflected that some programs were more sustainable than others; the projects that needed money to implement were least sustainable. The major challenges from the community included community fatigue, and poor motivation of community leaders to continue to take students without compensation. Communities hosting Makerere students valued the students' interventions and the COBES model. They reported witnessing

Community Partners' Perspectives of Community-University Partnerships that Support Service-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Witchger Hansen, Anne Marie

2010-01-01

Community partner voices are important to understand because they provide the contexts in which occupational therapy students meet course objectives by applying clinical reasoning theory and developing clinical reasoning skills in a natural context (Witchger-Hansen et al., 2007; Provident, et al., 2011). To sustain these community-university…

Integrating succession and community assembly perspectives

PubMed Central

Chang, Cynthia; HilleRisLambers, Janneke

2016-01-01

Succession and community assembly research overlap in many respects, such as through their focus on how ecological processes like dispersal, environmental filters, and biotic interactions influence community structure. Indeed, many recent advances have been made by successional studies that draw on modern analytical techniques introduced by contemporary community assembly studies. However, community assembly studies generally lack a temporal perspective, both on how the forces structuring communities might change over time and on how historical contingency (e.g. priority effects and legacy effects) and complex transitions (e.g. threshold effects) might alter community trajectories. We believe a full understanding of the complex interacting processes that shape community dynamics across large temporal scales can best be achieved by combining concepts, tools, and study systems into an integrated conceptual framework that draws upon both succession and community assembly theory. PMID:27785355

Case study in designing a research fundamentals curriculum for community health workers: a university-community clinic collaboration.

PubMed

Dumbauld, Jill; Kalichman, Michael; Bell, Yvonne; Dagnino, Cynthia; Taras, Howard L

2014-01-01

Community health workers (CHWs) are increasingly incorporated into research teams. Training them in research methodology and ethics, while relating these themes to a community's characteristics, may help to better integrate these health promotion personnel into research teams. An interactive training course on research fundamentals for CHWs was designed and implemented jointly by a community agency serving a primarily Latino, rural population and an academic health center. A focus group of community members and input from community leaders comprised a community-based participatory research model to create three 3-hour interactive training sessions. The resulting curriculum was interactive and successfully stimulated dialogue between trainees and academic researchers. By choosing course activities that elicited community-specific responses into each session's discussion, researchers learned about the community as much as the training course educated CHWs about research. The approach is readily adaptable, making it useful to other communities where CHWs are part of the health system.

The community network: an Aboriginal community football club bringing people together.

PubMed

Thorpe, Alister; Anders, Wendy; Rowley, Kevin

2014-01-01

There are few empirical studies about the role of Aboriginal sporting organisations in promoting wellbeing. The aim of the present study was to understand the impact of an Aboriginal community sporting team and its environment on the social, emotional and physical wellbeing of young Aboriginal men, and to identify barriers and motivators for participation. A literature review of the impact of sport on the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal participants was conducted. This informed a qualitative study design with a grounded theory approach. Four semistructured interviews and three focus groups were completed with nine current players and five past players of the Fitzroy Stars Football Club to collect data about the social, emotional and physical wellbeing impact of an Aboriginal football team on its Aboriginal players. Results of the interviews were consistent with the literature, with common concepts emerging around community connection, cultural values and identity, health, values, racism and discrimination. However, the interviews provided further detail around the significance of cultural values and community connection for Aboriginal people. The complex nature of social connections and the strength of Aboriginal community networks in sports settings were also evident. Social reasons were just as important as individual health reasons for participation. Social and community connection is an important mechanism for maintaining and strengthening cultural values and identity. Barriers and motivators for participation in Aboriginal sports teams can be complex and interrelated. Aboriginal sports teams have the potential to have a profound impact on the health of Aboriginal people, especially its players, by fostering a safe and culturally strengthening environment and encompassing a significant positive social hub for the Aboriginal community.

Community College Online

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fishman, Rachel

2015-01-01

This report explores the demographics of community college students and how they compare to those in other sectors of higher education. Next, it reviews the common reasons undergraduate students stop their studies or drop out. The report then examines technology-enhanced education in community colleges and presents several case studies showing how…

Using community-based participatory research and organizational diagnosis to characterize relationships between community leaders and academic researchers.

PubMed

Wang, Karen H; Ray, Natasha J; Berg, David N; Greene, Ann T; Lucas, Georgina; Harris, Kenn; Carroll-Scott, Amy; Tinney, Barbara; Rosenthal, Marjorie S

2017-09-01

Sustaining collaborations between community-based organization leaders and academic researchers in community-engaged research (CEnR) in the service of decreasing health inequities necessitates understanding the collaborations from an inter-organizational perspective. We assessed the perspectives of community leaders and university-based researchers conducting community-engaged research in a medium-sized city with a history of community-university tension. Our research team, included experts in CEnR and organizational theory, used qualitative methods and purposeful, snowball sampling to recruit local participants and performed key informant interviews from July 2011-May 2012. A community-based researcher interviewed 11 community leaders, a university-based researcher interviewed 12 university-based researchers. We interviewed participants until we reached thematic saturation and performed analyses using the constant comparative method. Unifying themes characterizing community leaders and university-based researchers' relationships on the inter-organizational level include: 1) Both groups described that community-engaged university-based researchers are exceptions to typical university culture; 2) Both groups described that the interpersonal skills university-based researchers need for CEnR require a change in organizational culture and training; 3) Both groups described skepticism about the sustainability of a meaningful institutional commitment to community-engaged research 4) Both groups described the historical impact on research relationships of race, power, and privilege, but only community leaders described its persistent role and relevance in research relationships. Challenges to community-academic research partnerships include researcher interpersonal skills and different perceptions of the importance of organizational history. Solutions to improve research partnerships may include transforming university culture and community-university discussions on race

Network-Based Community Brings forth Sustainable Society

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kikuchi, Toshiko

It has already been shown that an artificial society based on the three relations of social configuration (market, communal, and obligatory relations) functioning in balance with each other formed a sustainable society which the social reproduction is possible. In this artificial society model, communal relations exist in a network-based community with alternating members rather than a conventional community with cooperative mutual assistance practiced in some agricultural communities. In this paper, using the comparison between network-based communities with alternating members and conventional communities with fixed members, the significance of a network-based community is considered. In concrete terms, the difference in appearance rate for sustainable society, economic activity and asset inequality between network-based communities and conventional communities is analyzed. The appearance rate for a sustainable society of network-based community is higher than that of conventional community. Moreover, most of network-based communities had a larger total number of trade volume than conventional communities. But, the value of Gini coefficient in conventional community is smaller than that of network-based community. These results show that communal relations based on a network-based community is significant for the social reproduction and economic efficiency. However, in such an artificial society, the inequality is sacrificed.

Creating an Instrument to Measure People's Perception of Community Capacity in American Indian Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oetzel, John; Wallerstein, Nina; Solimon, Audrey; Garcia, Bruce; Siemon, Mark; Adeky, Sarah; Apachito, Gracie; Caston, Elissa; Finster, Carolyn; Belone, Lorenda; Tafoya, Greg

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop a measure of community capacity for American Indian communities. The study included development and testing phases to ensure face, content, construct, and predictive validity. There were 500 participants in two southwest tribes who completed a detailed community profile, which contained 21 common items in…

On measuring community participation in research.

PubMed

Khodyakov, Dmitry; Stockdale, Susan; Jones, Andrea; Mango, Joseph; Jones, Felica; Lizaola, Elizabeth

2013-06-01

Active participation of community partners in research aspects of community-academic partnered projects is often assumed to have a positive impact on the outcomes of such projects. The value of community engagement in research, however, cannot be empirically determined without good measures of the level of community participation in research activities. Based on our recent evaluation of community-academic partnered projects centered around behavioral health issues, this article uses semistructured interview and survey data to outline two complementary approaches to measuring the level of community participation in research-a "three-model" approach that differentiates between the levels of community participation and a Community Engagement in Research Index (CERI) that offers a multidimensional view of community engagement in the research process. The primary goal of this article is to present and compare these approaches, discuss their strengths and limitations, summarize the lessons learned, and offer directions for future research. We find that whereas the three-model approach is a simple measure of the perception of community participation in research activities, CERI allows for a more nuanced understanding by capturing multiple aspects of such participation. Although additional research is needed to validate these measures, our study makes a significant contribution by illustrating the complexity of measuring community participation in research and the lack of reliability in simple scores offered by the three-model approach.

Social networks and community prevention coalitions.

PubMed

Feinberg, Mark E; Riggs, Nathaniel R; Greenberg, Mark T

2005-07-01

This study investigates the links between community readiness and the social networks among participants in Communities That Care (CTC), community-based prevention coalitions. The coalitions targeted adolescent behavior problems through community risk factor assessments, prioritization of risk factors, and selection/implementation of corresponding evidence-based family, school, and community programs. Key leaders (n = 219) in 23 new CTC sites completed questionnaires focusing on community readiness to implement CTC and the respondents' personal, work, and social organization links to other key leaders in the community. Outside technical assistants also completed ratings of each community's readiness and early CTC functioning. Measures of network cohesion/integration were positively associated with readiness, while centralization was negatively associated. These results suggest that non-centralized networks in which ties between members are close and direct may be an indicator of community readiness. In addition, we found different associations between readiness and different domains of social relations. EDITORS' STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS: The authors present the promising practice of using social network analysis to characterize the functioning of local prevention coalitions and their readiness to implement a community-based prevention initiative. Researchers and community planners will benefit from the lessons in this article, which capitalizes on a large sample and multiple informants. This work raises interesting questions about how to combine the promotion of coalition functioning while simultaneously encouraging diversity of coalition membership.

Technology for community health alliances.

PubMed

Luce, Peggy; Phillips, Jill; Benjamin, Regina; Wasson, John H

2004-01-01

A community health alliance brings together divergent interests within a community for the betterment of personal and population health. In this report we describe how a community responsive strategy in Chicago is facilitating the improvement of healthcare by providing local information of what needs to be done, supporting change at the practice level to meet these needs, and initiating community-wide approaches to manage prevalent and important needs without waiting for direct involvement of health professionals.

Recreating America's Community Colleges: Critical Policy Issues Facing America's Community Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Honeyman, David S.; Sullivan, Michael D.

2006-01-01

During the conduct of the 2004 Community Colleges Futures Assembly, sponsored by the University of Florida, delegates to the meeting identified three critical policy issues facing America's community colleges and challenged the delegates attending the 2005 Assembly to debate these issues and make recommendations. A total of 252 higher-education…

Carnegie's New Community Engagement Classification: Affirming Higher Education's Role in Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Driscoll, Amy

2009-01-01

In 2005, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT) stirred the higher education world with the announcement of a new classification for institutions that engage with community. The classification, community engagement, is the first in a set of planned classification schemes resulting from the foundation's reexamination of the…

Building community and public health nursing capacity: a synthesis report of the National Community Health Nursing Study.

PubMed

Underwood, Jane M; Mowat, David L; Meagher-Stewart, Donna M; Deber, Raisa B; Baumann, Andrea O; MacDonald, Mary B; Akhtar-Danesh, Noori; Schoenfeld, Bonnie M; Ciliska, Donna K; Blythe, Jennifer M; Lavoie-Tremblay, Mélanie; Ehrlich, Anne S; Knibbs, Kristin M; Munroe, Valerie J

2009-01-01

1) To describe the community health nursing workforce in Canada; 2) To compare, across political jurisdictions and community health sectors, what helps and hinders community nurses to work effectively; 3) To identify organizational attributes that support one community subsector--public health nurses--to practise the full scope of their competencies. Our study included an analysis of the Canadian Institute for Health Information nursing databases (1996-2007), a survey of over 13,000 community health nurses across Canada and 23 focus groups of public health policy-makers and front-line public health nurses. Over 53,000 registered and licensed practical nurses worked in community health in Canada in 2007, about 16% of the nursing workforce. Community nurses were older on average than the rest of their profession. Typical practice settings for community nurses included community health centres, home care and public health units/departments. To practise effectively, community nurses need professional confidence, good team relationships, supportive workplaces and community support. Most community nurses felt confident in their practice and relationships with other nurses and professionals, though less often with physicians. Their feelings about salary and job security were mixed, and most community nurses would like more learning opportunities, policy and practice information and chances to debrief about work. They needed their communities to do more to address social determinants of health and provide good quality resources. Public health nursing needs a combination of factors to succeed: sound government policy, supportive organizational culture and good management practices. Organizational attributes identified as supports for optimal practice include: flexibility in funding, program design and job descriptions; clear organizational vision driven by shared values and community needs; coordinated public health planning across jurisdictions; and strong leadership that

Place, health, and community attachment: Is community capacity associated with self-rated health at the individual level?

PubMed

Lovell, Sarah A; Gray, Andrew R; Boucher, Sara E

2017-12-01

Community-level interventions dominate contemporary public health responses to health inequalities as a lack of political will has discouraged action at a structural level. Health promoters commonly leverage community capacity to achieve programme goals, yet the health implications of low community capacity are unknown. In this study, we analyse perceptions of community capacity at the individual-level to explore how place-based understandings of identity and connectedness are associated with self-rated health. We examine associations between individual community capacity, self-rated health and income using a cross-sectional survey that was disseminated to 303 residents of four small (populations 1500-2000) New Zealand towns. Evidence indicating a relationship between individual community capacity and self-reported health was unconvincing once the effects of income were incorporated. That is, people who rated their community's capacity higher did not have better self-rated health. Much stronger evidence supported the relationship between income and both higher individual community capacity and higher self-rated health. We conclude that individual community capacity may mediate the positive association between income and health, however, overall we find no evidence suggesting that intervening to enhance individual community capacity is likely to improve health outcomes.

Arizona Community Colleges: Report of the Task Force on Community College Enrollment Growth Planning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arizona State Board of Directors for Community Colleges, Phoenix.

The Task Force on Enrollment Growth Planning (TFEGP), authorized in 1992 by the State Board of Directors for Community Colleges (SBDCC) of Arizona, includes representatives from each community college as well as staff from SBDCC office. The Task Force was created to prepare enrollment growth estimates for community colleges through the year 2010;…

School and Community, Community and School: A Case Study of a Rural Missouri Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Franklin, Melia K.

2011-01-01

How do a school and a community interact? This question guided this dissertation examining one rural school and community. The purpose of this case study was to investigate the relationship between the rural Marceline R-V School District (a K-12 school system) and its community, Marceline, Missouri. The framework for this study included the…

Breeding bird communities

Treesearch

Vanessa L. Artman; Randy Dettmers

2003-01-01

Prescribed burning is being applied on an experimental basis to restore and maintain mixed-oak communities in southern Ohio. This chapter describes baseline conditions for the breeding bird community prior to prescribed burning. We surveyed breeding bird populations at four study areas using the territory-mapping method. We observed 35 bird species during the surveys....

Community-Built Playscapes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keeler, Rusty

2008-01-01

In today's spirit of community participation there is a way of planning and building a playscape project that not only creates amazing spaces for children, but saves money, strengthens ties to the community, builds lasting friendships, fosters a sense of pride and ownership in the project, and helps ensure the playscape's long-term care and…

Assessing Community Coalitions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drug Strategies, Washington, DC.

This document presents a report on a 2-year study of community anti-drug coalitions in 11 cities that have community initiatives programs. Through an extensive review of the literature, conversations with prevention experts, and interviews with members of the programs, an examination was made of the lessons learned by the coalitions. Since formal…

Community Colleges Today

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crawford, Corinne; Jervis, Angela

2011-01-01

Dr. Jill Biden, Vice President Joe Biden's wife, has been teaching in community colleges for the past 18 years. Dr. Biden believes that community colleges are "…uniquely American institutions where anyone who walks through the door is one step closer to realizing the American dream." This is an inspiring sentiment. However, of all the…

Visions along the Trail: Community Action and Visitor Employed Photography in Two Native American Communities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jenkins, Dorothy I.; Jenkins, Quentin A. L.

Rural community development is undergoing changing visions, activities, and methodologies. Factors impacting this change include decentralization, budget reduction in the public sector, and globalization and downsizing in the private sector. Community "building" (community-generated change and emphasis on capacities rather than…

Building a community-academic partnership to improve health outcomes in an underserved community.

PubMed

McCann, Eileen

2010-01-01

East Garfield Park, IL, is an impoverished community with 59.7% of residents falling below twice the poverty level and 42.6% of its children in poverty. In 2001, the leading causes of hospitalizations were heart disease (10.3%), diabetes (2%), and asthma (3.9%), all of which occur at frequencies 33% greater than the Chicago average. Finally, a review of the health care facilities in the community suggests that there is a need for accessible primary health care services in the area. The purpose of this project was to improve health outcomes in an impoverished, underserved community with documented health care needs and lack of adequate health care services by creating a community-academic partnership to provide on-site, interdisciplinary, health care services within an established and trusted community-based social service agency, Marillac House. The short-term objectives for this project included creating a community-academic partnership between Marillac House and Colleges of Nursing, Medicine, and Health Sciences; providing comprehensive health care services; and developing an innovative clinical education model for interdisciplinary care across specialties. Long-term objectives included providing preventative services; evidenced-based management of acute and chronic illness; evaluating client's health outcomes; and creating a sustainability plan for the long-term success of the health center.

Connectedness to the criminal community and the community at large predicts 1-year post-release outcomes among felony offenders

PubMed Central

Folk, Johanna B.; Mashek, Debra; Tangney, June; Stuewig, Jeffrey; Moore, Kelly E.

2016-01-01

Connectedness to one's community relates to positive psychological and behavioral outcomes. But what implications do connectedness to distinct communities—the criminal community and the community at large—have for inmates about to be released from jail? This study (N = 383) prospectively examined connectedness to the criminal community and community at large prior to release from jail, and functioning at one-year post-release. Connectedness to the community at large positively predicted community adjustment whereas connectedness to the criminal community positively predicted recidivism. Targeting both types of community connectedness may enhance interventions intended to undermine recidivism and increase positive outcomes for inmates. PMID:27524842

Similarity between community structures of different online social networks and its impact on underlying community detection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, W.; Yeung, K. H.

2015-03-01

As social networking services are popular, many people may register in more than one online social network. In this paper we study a set of users who have accounts of three online social networks: namely Foursquare, Facebook and Twitter. Community structure of this set of users may be reflected in these three online social networks. Therefore, high correlation between these reflections and the underlying community structure may be observed. In this work, community structures are detected in all three online social networks. Also, we investigate the similarity level of community structures across different networks. It is found that they show strong correlation with each other. The similarity between different networks may be helpful to find a community structure close to the underlying one. To verify this, we propose a method to increase the weights of some connections in networks. With this method, new networks are generated to assist community detection. By doing this, value of modularity can be improved and the new community structure match network's natural structure better. In this paper we also show that the detected community structures of online social networks are correlated with users' locations which are identified on Foursquare. This information may also be useful for underlying community detection.

Suicide prevention as a community development process: understanding circumpolar youth suicide prevention through community level outcomes.

PubMed

Allen, James; Mohatt, Gerald; Fok, Carlotta Ching Ting; Henry, David

2009-06-01

Community-based models have become increasingly prominent in prevention, and have special relevance for suicide prevention in circumpolar Indigenous communities. It follows that outcomes from circumpolar suicide prevention programs might be more completely understood at the community level. We present here a methodology for analysis at this level. This paper seeks to understand a cultural prevention program for rural Yup'ik youth in Alaska targeting suicide and co-occurring alcohol abuse as a community development process through changes at the community level. Quasi-experimental design with assessment at pre- and post-intervention or at 4 time points. The community development process for this project began in October 2004. The first program baseline assessment began in November 2006, prior to prevention activities with youth and parents, and the post-intervention assessment concluded in March 2008. Five key informants pre- and post-intervention completed a community readiness assessment, which is a structured procedure assessing a community's awareness of suicide as an issue and its, organizational readiness for prevention programming. Forty-three adult caregivers or sponsors of youth in the prevention program completed an assessment of behaviours that contributed to community protective factors from youth suicide and alcohol abuse at 4 time points before, during and after the intervention. The 54 youth who participated in the prevention program completed an assessment of community protective factors, also at 4 time points before, during and after the intervention. The community protective factors from suicide that were assessed included safety, enforcement of alcohol prohibitions, role models, support and opportunities for youth. Community readiness for the prevention efforts increased to new developmental stages of readiness post-intervention, and a trend in the data suggested community protective factors increased in the amount of protective behaviours

Growing Data User Communities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wiggin, B.

2017-12-01

Preserving data is not only a technical challenge. Perhaps the best way to protect data is to use it. Grassroots efforts to make research-quality copies of federal data continue to energize communities of data users who often did not previously recognize themselves as open earth data users. Beyond "data rescue" events, the Data Refuge project researches how federal climate and environmental data are used downstream in a variety of local communities and municipal governments to address everyday issues: public health, municipal safety, and even the preservation of cultural heritage assets. Documenting the diverse uses made of open earth data beyond the earth sciences research community grows the community who, in making use of data, also helps to preserve it.

MMI: Increasing Community Collaboration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galbraith, N. R.; Stocks, K.; Neiswender, C.; Maffei, A.; Bermudez, L.

2007-12-01

Building community requires a collaborative environment and guidance to help move members towards a common goal. An effective environment for community collaboration is a workspace that fosters participation and cooperation; effective guidance furthers common understanding and promotes best practices. The Marine Metadata Interoperability (MMI) project has developed a community web site to provide a collaborative environment for scientists, technologists, and data managers from around the world to learn about metadata and exchange ideas. Workshops, demonstration projects, and presentations also provide community-building opportunities for MMI. MMI has developed comprehensive online guides to help users understand and work with metadata standards, ontologies, and other controlled vocabularies. Documents such as "The Importance of Metadata Standards", "Usage vs. Discovery Vocabularies" and "Developing Controlled Vocabularies" guide scientists and data managers through a variety of metadata-related concepts. Members from eight organizations involved in marine science and informatics collaborated on this effort. The MMI web site has moved from Plone to Drupal, two content management systems which provide different opportunities for community-based work. Drupal's "organic groups" feature will be used to provide workspace for future teams tasked with content development, outreach, and other MMI mission-critical work. The new site is designed to enable members to easily create working areas, to build communities dedicated to developing consensus on metadata and other interoperability issues. Controlled-vocabulary-driven menus, integrated mailing-lists, member-based content creation and review tools are facets of the new web site architecture. This move provided the challenge of developing a hierarchical vocabulary to describe the resources presented on the site; consistent and logical tagging of web pages is the basis of Drupal site navigation. The new MMI web site

Diverse Perspectives on Inclusive School Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsokova, Diana; Tarr, Jane

2012-01-01

What is an inclusive school community? How do stakeholders perceive their roles and responsibilities towards inclusive school communities? How can school communities become more inclusive through engagement with individual perspectives? "Diverse Perspectives on Inclusive School Communities" captures and presents the voices of a wide…

7 CFR 1942.17 - Community facilities.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 13 2010-01-01 2009-01-01 true Community facilities. 1942.17 Section 1942.17...) PROGRAM REGULATIONS (CONTINUED) ASSOCIATIONS Community Facility Loans § 1942.17 Community facilities. (a... successor agency under Public Law 103-354 policies and requirements pertaining to loans for community...

Pragmatism and Community Inquiry: A Case Study of Community-Based Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bruce, Bertram C.; Bloch, Naomi

2013-01-01

This paper develops a philosophical basis for the concept of community inquiry. Community inquiry derives from pragmatist theory as articulated by Dewey, Peirce, Addams, and others. Following Brendel, we discuss pragmatism in terms of its emphasis on the practical dimensions of inquiry, the pluralistic nature of the tools that are used to study…

Oakton Community College Annual Report to the Community, Fiscal Year 1996.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oakton Community Coll., Des Plaines, IL.

This 1996 annual report from Oakton Community College in Illinois was prepared to inform the community about the college's operations and finances, but in a more condensed, user friendly format than the comprehensive financial report. It includes statements from the board chairman and president, a mission statement, and a description of the board…

Building Community in Online Doctoral Classrooms: Instructor Practices That Support Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berry, Sharla

2017-01-01

Instructors play a role in helping online students develop a sense of community in virtual classrooms, but little is known about instructors' roles in online graduate programs. To explore the ways in which online instructors helped students create a learning community, defined as a space of connection, closeness and interactivity, the researcher…

An Investigation of Community Attitudes Toward Blast Noise. General Community Survey, Study Site 1

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-04-01

1 1.1.1 Blast noise and community impact ...P. Holland. ERDC/CERL TR-12-9 1 1 Introduction 1.1 Background 1.1.1 Blast noise and community impact In the United States, the number of...decade, has heightened the potential for noise generated by US military installations to negatively impact surrounding communities. For many years

Community Interactive Research Workshop Series: Community Members Engaged as Team Teachers to Conduct Research.

PubMed

Nguyen-Truong, Connie Kim; Tang, Joannie; Hsiao, Chiao-Yun

2017-01-01

Vietnamese women are diagnosed with cervical cancer at twice the rate of non-Hispanic White women and the highest compared to Chinese, Filipino, Korean, and Japanese women. ἀ e Vietnamese Women's Health Project, a community-based participatory research partnership, was developed to address this concern. In earlier studies, community members received research training. To describe how we developed an innovative curricular research training framework. Community members developed their own learning goals and activities, taught alongside a nurse scientist, and participated in a community interactive research workshop series. Popular education principles were used to guide team teaching. Topics, learning goals, lesson plans, and an evaluation w ere de veloped t ogether. ἀ ree, 4 -5.5 h our workshops were hosted. Topics included qualitative research, art of hearing data, reflexivity, analysis, validity, and dissemination. Community members and a nurse scientist co-constructed knowledge through participatory methods. ἀe workshops ran concurrent to the study timeline to inform community members' research activities and vice versa. A range from 8 to 20 participants attended the workshops, of which six community members were team teachers and three facilitated at each workshop. In an evaluation, team teachers reported workshop strengths: an empathetic and trusting learn ing environment, a sense of ownership in learning, a greater under standing of roles in research partnerships, and a feel ing of safety to conduct research with academic investigators. Academic investigators need to be aware that co-constructing knowledge is foundational to long-term sustainability of community-based participatory research partnership (CBPR) partnerships, but requires building team capacity to conduct research collaboratively.

Strategies for Sustainable Communities

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The guidebook offers potential strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions using smart growth strategies, indicators to track progress, and resources for 10 community types ranging from major cities to rural communities.

Leveraging community-academic partnerships to improve healthy food access in an urban, Kansas City, Kansas, community.

PubMed

Mabachi, Natabhona M; Kimminau, Kim S

2012-01-01

Americans can combat overweight (OW) and obesity by eating unprocessed, fresh foods. However, all Americans do not have equal access to these recommended foods. Low-income, minority, urban neighborhoods in particular often have limited access to healthy resources, although they are vulnerable to higher levels of OW and obesity. This project used community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles to investigate the food needs of residents and develop a business plan to improve access to healthy food options in an urban, Kansas City, Kansas, neighborhood. Partner community organizations were mobilized to conduct a Community Food Assessment survey. The surveys were accompanied by flyers that were part of the communication engagement strategy. Statistical analysis of the surveys was conducted. We engaged low-income, minority population (40% Latino, 30% African American) urban communities at the household level. Survey results provided in-depth information about residents' food needs and thoughts on how to improve food access. Results were reported to community members at a town hall style meeting. Developing a strategic plan to engage a community and develop trust is crucial to sustaining a partnership particularly when working with underserved communities. This project demonstrates that, if well managed, the benefits of academic and community partnerships outweigh the challenges thus such relationships should be encouraged and supported by communities, academic institutions, local and national government, and funders. A CBPR approach to understanding an urban community's food needs and opinions is important for comprehensive food access planning.

Supporting the role of community members employed as research staff: Perspectives of community researchers working in addiction research.

PubMed

True, Gala; Alexander, Leslie B; Fisher, Celia B

2017-08-01

Community researchers are laypersons who conduct research activities in their own communities. In addiction and HIV research, community researchers are valued for their insider status and knowledge. At the same time, their presence on the research team raises concerns about coercion and confidentiality when community researchers and participants know each other personally, and the work of navigating between the worlds of research and community leads to moral distress and burnout for some community researchers. In this paper, we draw upon the concept of 'moral experience' to explore the local moral worlds of community researchers in the context of addiction research. In February and March 2010, we conducted focus groups with 36 community researchers employed on community-based addiction studies in the United States to elicit perspectives on ethical and moral challenges they face in their work and insights on best practices to support their role in research. Community researchers described how their values were realized or thwarted in the context of research, and their strategies for coping with shifting identities and competing priorities. They delineated how their knowledge could be used to inform development of research protocols and help principal investigators build and maintain trust with the community researchers on their teams. Our findings contribute to current understandings of the moral experiences of community members employed in research, and inform policies and practices for the growing field of community-engaged research. Funders, research organizations, and research ethics boards should develop guidelines and standards to ensure studies have key resources in place to support community researchers and ensure quality and integrity of community-engaged work. Investigators who work with community researchers should ensure channels for frontline staff to provide input on research protocols and to create an atmosphere where challenges and concerns can be

Preparing Rural Community College Professionals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Mitchell R.; Pennington, Kevin L.; Couch, Gene; Dougherty, Michael A.

2007-01-01

A limited number of universities offer graduate programs that focus specifically on preparing rural community college leaders. At the same time, community colleges are facing projections of unprecedented turnover in both administrative and instructional leadership. The rural community college is a unique educational institution which faces…

At the Intersection of College & Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pierce, Dennis

2016-01-01

By purchasing abandoned facilities and transforming them into vibrant hubs for culture and education, community colleges are fulfilling one of their key missions: revitalizing their communities. But these types of projects can be fraught with challenges as well. Here's how Austin Community College (Texas), Manchester Community College…

A New Framework for Addressing Adverse Childhood and Community Experiences: The Building Community Resilience Model.

PubMed

Ellis, Wendy R; Dietz, William H

We propose a transformative approach to foster collaboration across child health, public health, and community-based agencies to address the root causes of toxic stress and childhood adversity and to build community resilience. Physicians, members of social service agencies, and experts in toxic stress and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) were interviewed to inform development of the Building Community Resilience (BCR) model. Through a series of key informant interviews and focus groups, we sought to understand the role of BCR for child health systems and their partners to reduce toxic stress and build community resilience to improve child health outcomes. Key informants indicated the intentional approach to ACEs and toxic stress through continuous quality improvement (data-driven decisions and program development, partners testing and adapting to changes to their needs, and iterative development and testing) which provides a mechanism by which social determinants or a population health approach could be introduced to physicians and community partners as part of a larger effort to build community resilience. Structured interviews also reveal a need for a framework that provides guidance, structure, and support for child health systems and community partners to develop collective goals, shared work plans, and a means for data-sharing to reinforce the components that will contribute to community resilience. Key informant interviews and focus group dialogues revealed a deep understanding of the factors related to toxic stress and ACEs. Respondents endorsed the BCR approach as a means to explore capacity issues, reduce fragmented health care delivery, and facilitate integrated systems across partners in efforts to build community resilience. Current financing models are seen as a potential barrier, because they often do not support restructured roles, partnership development, and the work to sustain upstream efforts to address toxic stress and community resilience

Community Concern on Environmental Conservation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nugraha, Fajar Adie; Maryono

2018-02-01

Research on the relationship between humans and the environment is always very interesting to be studied. This paper is one of the studies of sustainable development in its implementation with the empowerment of society that comes from the community itself. So far, community studies related to development occasionally target the growth of the economic side only. Community study on the environment becomes an alternative choice, compared with human relationships with humans themselves, or humans with human needs themselves. The study of community development by looking at the environment can be a wise choice, where all activities of fulfilling human needs are always inseparable from the element of interaction with the environment. Community development that is based on the environment itself, will give a better impact, just solely. Various methods of learning human relationships. A community-based environmental assessment study can be an alternative choice to support a sustainable development mission, which is development that has a positive impact on the present and the future.

Supporting Sustainable Rural Communities

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Supporting Sustainable Rural Communities summarizes the findings of a work group of EPA, HUD, DOT, and USDA and creates a framework for the Partnership for Sustainable Communities’ future work with rural communities.

Community as Resistance: Reconceptualizing Historical Instances of Community within Latin@ Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rothrock, Racheal M.

2017-01-01

The term "community" is drawn upon within critical educational literature that seeks to address inequity experienced by students of color in schools, yet little explicit discussion of its meaning and history is presented. In this article, I offer one way of thinking about community. I propose that it has existed as resistance within the…

The Organization and Structure of Community Education Offerings in Community Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Michael; Grover, Kenda S.; Kacirek, Kit

2014-01-01

One of the key services community colleges provide is community education, meaning those programs and activities that are often offered for leisure or self-improvement and not for credit. Programs of this nature are increasingly challenged to be self-financing, whether through user fees or externally funded grants. The current study explored 75…

Protecting rural communities from terrorism: a statewide, community-based model.

PubMed

Clawson, Art; Brooks, Robert G

2003-01-01

Given the number of Americans who live in rural areas and the unique challenges they face in the provision of health care services, special attention to planning for and responding to terrorist acts is warranted. After September 11, 2001, Florida developed a statewide, community-based model that applies the public health principles of assessment, policy development, and assurance. This model can serve as a possible framework for other states and communities.

Community Psychology, Evaluation, and Social Critique

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Robin Lin

2015-01-01

Community psychology blends psychological science, a community-level perspective on social issues, and a social justice orientation. Despite important difference between community psychology and program evaluation, program evaluation is a key component of many community psychologists' practice and holds a central place in my own. In this…

Colleges and Communities: Increasing Local Capacity.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baldwin, Fred D.

2001-01-01

Community colleges in Appalachia are helping boost local economies and expand educational opportunities through the national Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI). At the heart of RCCI is a nine-step strategic planning process in which a community group moves from vision to action. Kentucky's Southeast Community College has promoted…

Community Commons Program Development Manual.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Culp, Kieta Osteen

Community Commons (CC) is a collaborative partnership among Brevard Community College (BCC) (Florida) and over 40 social service organizations and agencies in Florida dedicated to providing education, job training, social services, recreation, and a drug free environment to communities of low income families. The project specifically seeks to…

Cultural Diversity in Rural Communities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Castania, Kathy

1992-01-01

As rural communities become more culturally diverse, the institutions and organizations that serve them must assist this cultural transition by providing a framework for change. Such a framework includes a vision of healthy diverse communities that are conscious of changing demographics and willing to reevaluate community self-image. Three…

Cooking up an Online Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valone, Lauren

2011-01-01

As museum professionals conceptualize community building, they must now consider the virtual realm. Websites in and of themselves will not generate a community, as it takes sustained communication and interaction by staff to encourage growth. Online communities are complex forces that bring about systematic dualities that in turn stimulate…

Community health workers as drivers of a successful community-based disease management initiative.

PubMed

Peretz, Patricia J; Matiz, Luz Adriana; Findley, Sally; Lizardo, Maria; Evans, David; McCord, Mary

2012-08-01

In 2005, local leaders in New York City developed the Washington Heights/Inwood Network for Asthma Program to address the burden of asthma in their community. Bilingual community health workers based in community organizations and the local hospital provided culturally appropriate education and support to families who needed help managing asthma. Families participating in the yearlong care coordination program received comprehensive asthma education, home environmental assessments, trigger reduction strategies, and clinical and social referrals. Since 2006, 472 families have enrolled in the yearlong program. After 12 months, hospitalizations and emergency department visits decreased by more than 50%, and caregiver confidence in controlling the child's asthma increased to nearly 100%. Key to the program's success was the commitment and involvement of community partners from program inception to date.

Community Involvement among Behaviourally Bisexual Men in the Midwestern USA: Experiences and Perceptions across Communities

PubMed Central

Dodge, Brian; Schnarrs, Phillip W.; Reece, Michael; Goncalves, Gabriel; Martinez, Omar; Nix, Ryan; Malebranche, David; Van Der Pol, Barbara; Murray, Maresa; Fortenberry, J. Dennis

2012-01-01

Limited research exists regarding community involvement and social support among behaviourally bisexual men. Previous studies suggest that bisexual men experience high levels of social stigma in both heterosexual and homosexual community settings. Research focusing on social support has demonstrated that individuals with limited access to similar individuals experience greater risk for negative health outcomes. Using a community-based research design, participants were recruited using multiple methods in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Researchers conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 75 men who reported having engaged in bisexual behaviour within the past six months. Interviews elucidated the experiences of behaviourally bisexual men in heterosexual and homosexual settings, as well as their perceptions of the existence of a bisexual community or bisexual spaces. All participants perceived a lack of a visible bisexual community and expressed difficulty with being comfortable, or feeling belonging, within a variety of heterosexual and homosexual community spaces. Findings suggest the need for interventions focused on community building among, as well as creating spaces specifically designed for, bisexual men in order to increase perceived social support and decrease isolation and possible negative health outcomes. PMID:22978551

[Community dentistry in practice: four decades of activity among the Ethiopian community].

PubMed

Vered, Y; Sgan-Cohen, H D; Zini, A; Livny, A; Mann, J

2013-04-01

The immigration absorption of the Ethiopian community poses a great Zionist challenge to the State of Israel. The Department of Community Dentistry established a long and ongoing relationship with this unique population on a variety of levels. We revealed an alarming deterioration of their oral health status since their arrival to Israel. Concurrently, we explored the association between oral health and psychosocial variables among these immigrants. Accordingly, we implemented a holistic community oral health care program (prevention, treatment, dental, medical, social, psychological), with the participation of a multidisciplinary team of Ethiopian born professionals. In addition, as part of the integration process in the Israeli society and workplace, our department educated and trained individuals of this community as dental assistants and dental hygienists in courses held at the Hadassah Medical Organization. We strongly believe that this model of relationship and support should be implemented on a national level.

The long arm of community: the influence of childhood community contexts across the early life course.

PubMed

Wickrama, K A S; Noh, Samuel

2010-08-01

This study examines the longitudinal effects of childhood community contexts on young adult outcomes. The study uses a sample of 14,000 adolescents (52% female) derived from the 1990 US Census and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Addhealth). The study examines whether community and family environments exert separate and/or joint long-term influences on young adult achievement and depression. We found both direct and indirect long-term influences of childhood community adversity on young adult educational attainment. The indirect influences of childhood community adversity operated through family and individual-level factors. The long-term influence of childhood community adversity on young adult depression was only indirect. Overall, community influences on young adult achievement outcomes were mediated by family context and by the adolescents' adjustments and transitions, including adolescent depression, school adjustment, and disruptive transitional events. The moderating effect of childhood community adversity suggests that the protective effects of family resources on young adult outcomes dissipate significantly in extremely adverse neighborhoods. The findings demonstrate the importance of integrating multiple theoretical perspectives for longitudinal research to capture pathways of community influence on adolescent developmental and young adulthood outcomes.

Condition of Iowa Community Colleges, 2005

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iowa Department of Education, 2006

2006-01-01

Iowa's 15 Community Colleges offer thousands of credit and non-credit courses. The 2005 "Condition of Iowa Community Colleges" report will review Iowa Community College programs and related services. The report is supported by Management Information System (MIS) data, as reported by Iowa Community Colleges to the Iowa Department of…

On Measuring Community Participation in Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khodyakov, Dmitry; Stockdale, Susan; Jones, Andrea; Mango, Joseph; Jones, Felica; Lizaola, Elizabeth

2013-01-01

Active participation of community partners in research aspects of community-academic partnered projects is often assumed to have a positive impact on the outcomes of such projects. The value of community engagement in research, however, cannot be empirically determined without good measures of the level of community participation in research…

What's All This Fuss about Communities?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balester, Valerie

Communities of one sort or another are found in the literature of many disciplines and are used to explain any number of things: linguists examine language in terms of speech communities, while composition researchers write of discourse communities. Linguists have advanced various definitions of communities, but Stanley Fish's "Is There a…

Ordinary Alchemy: Understanding School and Community Co-Development through the Experiences of a Community School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diaz Pineiro, Odalys Maria

2010-01-01

Practice and inquiry into school-community connections have been guided by problematic assumptions about the role of neighborhood schools, community based institutions, and local economic development policies in the evolution of urban communities. Formal relationships between schools and urban neighborhoods grounded in these assumptions have been…

Bossier Parish Community College and Delgado Community College Collaborative Pharmacy Technician Program Distance Education Initiative.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bossier Parish Community Coll., Bossier City, LA.

Two Louisiana community colleges--Bossier Parish Community College (BPCC) and Delgado Community College (DCC)--proposed, developed, and implemented a collaborative Pharmacy Technician program for delivery through the use of two-way interactive video. The new program was inspired by new certification requirements instituted by the state of…

Collecting costs of community prevention programs: communities putting prevention to work initiative.

PubMed

Khavjou, Olga A; Honeycutt, Amanda A; Hoerger, Thomas J; Trogdon, Justin G; Cash, Amanda J

2014-08-01

Community-based programs require substantial investments of resources; however, evaluations of these programs usually lack analyses of program costs. Costs of community-based programs reported in previous literature are limited and have been estimated retrospectively. To describe a prospective cost data collection approach developed for the Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) program capturing costs for community-based tobacco use and obesity prevention strategies. A web-based cost data collection instrument was developed using an activity-based costing approach. Respondents reported quarterly expenditures on labor; consultants; materials, travel, and services; overhead; partner efforts; and in-kind contributions. Costs were allocated across CPPW objectives and strategies organized around five categories: media, access, point of decision/promotion, price, and social support and services. The instrument was developed in 2010, quarterly data collections took place in 2011-2013, and preliminary analysis was conducted in 2013. Preliminary descriptive statistics are presented for the cost data collected from 51 respondents. More than 50% of program costs were for partner organizations, and over 20% of costs were for labor hours. Tobacco communities devoted the majority of their efforts to media strategies. Obesity communities spent more than half of their resources on access strategies. Collecting accurate cost information on health promotion and disease prevention programs presents many challenges. The approach presented in this paper is one of the first efforts successfully collecting these types of data and can be replicated for collecting costs from other programs. Copyright © 2014 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. All rights reserved.

The Power of Community Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Capers, Natasha; Shah, Shital C.

2015-01-01

In this article, Shital Shah, who supports community schools as assistant director for educational issues at the American Federation of Teachers, and Natasha Capers, a coordinator for the New York City Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ), a parent-led collaborative of unions and community organizations, discuss the community schools movement…

[Community Service Program, Westmont College.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kistler, Christina

This report describes a 2-year project at Westmont College, California, which established a Community Service Program with the purposes of decreasing student debt and increasing student participation in community organizations. Eligible students worked 8-10 hours per week for a qualified community agency and received credit towards tuition for the…

Communities for the New Century.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bishop, Ann Peterson

2000-01-01

Discusses making community networking a reality for all citizens, noting ways to reduce the digital divide that segments computer use along socioeconomic lines. Lists 4 insights that may help in the design and implementation of community services devoted to computer access and training. Notes a website on community networking, and recent…

Austin Community College Benchmarking Update.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Austin Community Coll., TX. Office of Institutional Effectiveness.

Austin Community College contracted with MGT of America, Inc. in spring 1999 to develop a peer and benchmark (best) practices analysis on key indicators. These indicators were updated in spring 2002 using data from eight Texas community colleges and four non-Texas institutions that represent large, comprehensive, urban community colleges, similar…

Architectural Adventures in Your Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henn, Cynthia A.

2007-01-01

Due to architecture's complexity, it can be challenging to develop lessons for the students, and consequently, the teaching of architecture is frequently overlooked. Every community has an architectural history. For example, the community in which the author's students live has a variety of historic houses from when the community originated (the…