Academic literature on the topic 'American Women's Voluntary Services'

During World War II (WWII), the American Women’s Voluntary Services (AWVS) became the largest service organization in the U.S. At the onset of American entry into WWII, the AWVS already included 18,000 volunteers. Within two years of its creation, the group expanded to 350 chapters nationwide, with the height of its wartime membership reaching roughly 325,000. Both on a national and local level, the AWVS proved instrumental to the success of home-front mobilization during WWII. With numerous community chapters, significant wartime initiatives, and proximity to the national AWVS in New York City, the New Jersey groups serve as a starting point for a more nuanced reflection on the AWVS during WWII. Along with considerations of gendered citizenship and volunteerism, the narrative of the AWVS presents women who both adhered to accepted forms of volunteerism and pushed social boundaries. The activities of the AWVS occupied a space somewhere in between nurturing and militaristic, blurring gendered lines of acceptable wartime participation and occupying a unique role not easily categorized. These women reimagined local activism and cooperation as encompassing more than their socially accepted supporting roles and expanded into areas of civilian defense, disaster response, emergency preparedness, and more.

Mothers' pensions were the first explicit welfare benefits established outside of poor relief in the United States. Contrary to established wisdom in political science, their enabling statutes spread very quickly across most states in the 1910s, with smaller, nonindustrial states often in the vanguard. Previous research concerning the predictors of state-level policy innovations has focused on a small subset of possible explanatory variables, typically economic or electoral conditions. We operationalize and test hypotheses about the influence of economic conditions, culture and ideology, electoral politics, governmental institutions and prior public policies, and the role of business, labor, and women's voluntary groups on the priority of state enactments. Our findings indicate that widespread federations of women's voluntary groups exerted a powerful influence on mothers' pension enactments even before most American women had the right to vote. We demonstrate the value to empirical political science of theories and variables referring to gender and women's politics.

In this Review in 1993, Skocpol, Howard, Lehmann, and Abend-Wein analyzed the rapid enactment of mothers'pension laws in the American states in the 1910s. They concluded that the widespread federations of women's voluntary groups exerted a powerful influence on these enactments even before most American women had the right to vote. Sparks and Walniuk challenge these conclusions, noting that all 10 equal-suffrage states are among the 29 that passed mothers' pensions before 1916, and presenting new measures of suffrage endorsement and suffrage pressures in regression analyses suggesting that women's votes—actual and potential—played a major role in leading some states to adopt mothers' pensions earlier than their normal patterns of legislative change would predict. In response, Skocpol defends the 1993 conclusions. She adduces that the aggregate pattern of enactment of mothers'pensions corresponds much more closely to endorsements by women's groups than to suffrage timing and puts forth reasons to doubt the validity and significance of Sparks and Walniuk's tests.

AbstractPrevailing conceptions of the welfare state in the United States have failed to acknowledge the widespread partnership that exists between government and private voluntary organizations in the provision of human services. Thanks in large part to this partnership, voluntary organizations have retained a significant role in the American welfare state, delivering a larger share of government-financed human services than government agencies. By cutting back on government spending, therefore, the Reagan administration has significantly reduced the revenues of the nonprofit sector while calling on this sector to do more. Although nonprofits as a group have overcome the resulting cutbacks, they have done so chiefly by increasing their income from service charges, rather than their private charitable support.

Catherine Clinton and Michele Gillespie, The Devil's Lane: Sex and Race in the Early South (New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1997, £28.50). Pp. 274. ISBN 0 19 511242 3.Tera Hunter, To ‘Joy My Freedom’: Southern Black Women's Lives and Labors after the Civil War (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997, £19.95). Pp. 311. ISBN 0 674 893 9 3.Theda Perdue, Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700–1835 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998, £38.00). Pp. 252. ISBN 0 8032 3716 2.Vicki L. Ruiz, From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1998, £24.99). Pp. 240. ISBN 0 19 5114833.The historical study of women has evolved from a consideration of elite women, the quest for suffrage, and women in organized groups to encompass different classes, ethnic groups, and social settings. Writing women back into the historical record has led to a more creative use of data sources, a greater depth of understanding about how societies work on both formal and informal levels, and the exploration of gendered patterns of most aspects of the economy, social structure, and politics. However, the conceptual frameworks of women's history have not kept pace with the expansion of scholarship to encompass a more diverse population.These four books highlight two trends in contemporary historical practice: the inclusion of gender as an essential aspect of our understanding of the past and the use of comparative frameworks to investigate the significance of socially constructed sex roles for society. By contrasting women's lives in different settings and racial groups, the authors illustrate how communities shape gender roles and how those roles influence a wide range of social, political, economic, and cultural events. Gender thus takes its place as a fundamental category of historical analysis without which it is difficult to understand American (or any other) history; women's work, family relationships, voluntary, social, and political activities are as central to understanding society as men's.

The paper aims to contribute to an understanding of how stress from the combined responsibilities of home and employment varies according to the family circumstances and employment characteristics of women and men. For women, family responsibilities are associated with shorter hours of employment and lower occupational achievement, whereas for men, marriage is a career asset. Yet the reason for women's underachievement is disputed: some researchers claim that women's part-time work in low-paid, low-status jobs represent women's voluntary choice. Others argue that women's employment options are constrained by their domestic responsibilities; and that reducing hours of work and modifying career aspirations may represent one way of balancing home and employment so as to minimise stress. Data are used from the National Institute of Social Work (NISW) Workforce Survey of over 1000 women and men in four broad types of work in the social service departments of five English local authorities. Information is available on staff's perception of stress from combining paid and unpaid roles. We examine whether there are gender differences in reported stress among those who have structurally similar domestic circumstances; whether gender differences in stress can be explained in terms of occupational segregation and hours of employment; and whether the lower stress reported by part-time employees is independent of family responsibilities and type of occupation. A key concern is to assess whether part-time employment enables women with family responsibilities to avoid high levels of stress. There was increased stress on those staff with dependent children or with informal caring commitments. Men reported higher stress than women, irrespective of family circumstances, but the difference disappeared once account was taken of type of work and hours. Family responsibilities and employment characteristics had independent effects on stress levels. Type of work, in terms of level of responsibility, had more influence on stress than hours worked. Among full-time non-manual staff, women with family responsibilities experienced more stress than equivalent men, suggesting that women's occupational advancement is achieved at greater cost in terms of stress than men's.

The social capital school has proposed that one of the key mechanisms for generating good democratic outcomes is participation in voluntary associations. Of late, group-based microcredit programmes are considered as effective policy instruments for generating and strengthening civic networks of the community. However, on the micro-level we do not know enough about how membership in microcredit programmes promotes civic engagement, nurtures democratic learning process and makes their members more cooperative. In this paper I investigate whether microcredit providing NGOs have run through and nurtured democratic practices at the local level and whether they mobilize citizens politically and promote leadership among the women. The results indicate that microcredit organizations in the area that I studied failed to promote women's political capabilities or civic engagement since these organizations mainly concentrate on the services of credit distribution and installments collection, and have deviated or shifted away from community mobilization.

Project (M.A.R.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 2005.
An integrative project submitted to the Faculty of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Religion. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-57).

Obesity is associated with higher death rates from breast and gynecological cancers. African American women(AAW) are more likely to be diagnosed with these cancers at later stages and have lower survival rates than Caucasian women. African American women are also disproportionately affected by obesity. Studies suggest that the healthcare experiences of obese women (primarily stigmatization), may contribute to their decisions to utilize healthcare services. However, these studies have largely comprised Caucasian women; there remains a paucity of studies addressing this issue in AAW. The purpose of this study was to explore the healthcare experiences of obese AAW and their utilization of preventive healthcare services. Interpretive phenomenology, based on the work of Maxx van Manen, was used to describe and interpret the healthcare experiences of 15 obese AAW living in communities in Georgia. The women ranged in age from 23 to 62, with body mass index ranging from 35-55. The majority of the sample (83%) had adequate health insurance. This was a well educated sample with 87% having college degrees or some college education. Individual, audio-taped interviews were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using interpretive phenomenological methods, with analysis and collection occurring concurrently. Data were analyzed as a whole then line by line to identify themes across transcripts. Two patterns and five themes were identified. Patterns were: They're not listening and Good or bad, it's my decision. Themes were: Attributing all problems to weight; They say lose weight but give us no tools; Stigmatization; Cancel my appointment please: I won't be back, and Empowerment. The women recalled a pleothra of negative encounters with providers that they termed "demeaning" and "nastiness for no reason." Many women reacted by delaying or avoiding healthcare, some not returning for preventive health screens for many years. The significant association between obesity and mortality from cervical and breast cancers necessitates timely preventive screens by obese women. The results of this study can help to inform practice, education, and research. Recommendations for all three areas were deleneated in the study.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2006.
Title from title screen. Y. Barry Chung, committee chair; Joel Meyers, Leslie Jackson, Catherine Y. Chang, committee members. Electronic text (104 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Apr. 19, 2007. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2008.
Title from file title page. Brian J. Dew, committee chair; Kris Varjas, Barbara Gormley, Catherine Cadenhead, Leslie Jackson, committee members. Electronic text (169 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed July 7, 2008. Includes bibliographical references.

The Catholic Church is one of the largest providers of medical care in the US, with 1 in 6 acute-care beds residing in a Catholic hospital. One third of these hospitals are in rural or underserved areas in the US, and advocacy for the vulnerable is a central platform of the Catholic Healthcare Association. Despite this, the Church has been under attack for allegedly putting women at risk of injury or death due to the care restrictions concerning reproductive health stipulated in the Ethical and Religious Directives (ERDs). Additionally, scholars are questioning the distinctiveness of the Catholic healthcare mission in practice, pointing to the increased homogenization of Catholic and non-Catholic hospitals. For these reasons, it is necessary to assess if and how women are being harmed in Catholic hospitals and, if there is harm being done, if there is a way to prevent these harms while preserving the Catholic Social Tradition in medicine. In carrying out this assessment, I read the current literature closely to explore both the origins and the practical consequences of these ethical conflicts. Subsequently, I use Chris Durante's "pragmatic perspectivism" to formulate a proposal that considers both Catholic medical ethics and secular medical ethics on the same plane. The proposal suggests the adoption of an alternative and complementary lens for Catholic health care. Using this framework would allow the Church to pursue its health care mission in a fuller sense, unencumbered by the inertia of the medical industry towards homogenization due to legal and economic pressures. It also provides the potential for Catholics to more easily receive Catholic care in all hospitals, not just those under Catholic sponsorship. Importantly, it would also prevent any American woman from being practically forced to receive Catholic care, circumventing many of the ethical conflicts present in the current system.

Despite demonstrating eating disorder rates equivalent to White women, African American and Asian American women are less likely to seek treatment and are more likely to terminate treatment prematurely. One of the most successful programs for eating disorder prevention has only focused on surface-level cultural adaptations. Prevention literature maintains that deep-structure cultural adaptation (e.g., integrating cultural values and beliefs) can enhance outcomes for ethnic minorities. This dissertation examined the feasibility of Sustainable Adapted Treatments for Eating Disorders (SATED), a pilot intervention that included a culturally- targeted pre-treatment to an eating disorder dissonance-based intervention. A sample of 72 women (ages 18-30) were recruited via the SONA pool, student organizations, and community organizations. In Study 1, 47 women participated in focus groups (i.e., 21 African American women and 26 Asian American women). Grounded theory was used to analyze data, and this data was then used to develop a culturally-informed pre-treatment. Pre-treatment protocols (30- 45 minutes) were developed for both African American and Asian American groups and were refined prior to implementing the intervention. In Study 2, a pilot intervention, 25 women were assigned either to a pre-treatment condition, or 30-45 minute, individualized session (N = 12) or a no pre-treatment condition (N = 13) prior to completing an eating disorder DBI which took place over two 2-hour sessions. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires at baseline, post-intervention, and at 2 to 3-month follow-up. Constructs assessed included eating disorder symptomatology, attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help, and body dissatisfaction. Overall feasibility and acceptability of the pre-treatment and pilot intervention were assessed via triangulation of methods including third-party observations, in-depth interviews, and fidelity checks. Preliminary findings from the questionnaires indicated that there was a general downward trend for eating pathology across both the pre-treatment and no pre- treatment condition, except for eating restraint. Body dissatisfaction decreased for both groups from baseline to post-test, but increased at follow-up. Attitudes towards treatment-seeking increased for both groups from baseline to follow-up. Results may inform feasibility issues that accompany translational research with ethnic minorities and inform a future definitive trial.

Understanding the health of American Muslims remains a neglected topic in public health research with even fewer empirical studies conducted with American Muslim women. To address persistent knowledge gaps related to the health behaviors and health outcomes of this population, in 2015, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health (SOPH) funded the Muslim Women's Health Project (MWHP) through its Back of the Envelope (BOTE) mechanism. The purpose of the MWHP was to collect exploratory, self-reported data on health indicators, beliefs, behaviors, and experiences from American Muslim women through online social networks. In this chapter, the authors summarize published findings from the MWHP that may serve as case studies to inform further discussions among health practitioners and public health researchers who seek to improve population health through healthcare delivery and equity research.

This chapter examines women's voluntary associations' role in mobilization. It examining the Women's Committee of the Council of National Defense, the Young Women's Christian Association, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the National Association of Colored Women, and the American Red Cross, it analyzes the way in which women activists conjoined the war emergency to their own goals of staking their claim to full citizenship, and continuing their reform agendas begun in the Progressive reform era. As they did so, white women invoked “maternalism” and emphasized the instrumental role that women played in protecting the family. African American activists similarly focused on the centrality of women citizens, but did so in the specific context of racial uplift. Their engagement in meaningful war work encouraged them to view the war – over optimistically as it turned out – as an opportunity to achieve both long-standing reform goals and an enhanced role for women in public life.

Breast cancer incidence and mortality rates are of concern among Latin American women, mainly due to the growing prevalence of this disease and the lack of compliance to proper breast cancer screening and treatment. Focusing on Venezuelan women and the challenges and barriers that interact with their health communication, this paper looks into issues surrounding women's breast cancer, such as the challenges and barriers to breast cancer care, the relevant ethics and responsibilities, the right to health, breast cancer risk perception and risk communication, and the media interventions that affect Venezuelan women's perceptions and actions pertaining to this disease. In particular, it describes an action-oriented research project in Venezuela that was conducted over a four-year period of collaborative work among researchers, practitioners, NGOs, patients, journalists, and policymakers. The outcomes include positive indications on more effective interactions between physicians and patients, increasing satisfactions about issues of ethical treatment in providing healthcare services, more sufficient and responsible media coverage of breast cancer healthcare services and information, a widely supported declaration for a national response against breast cancer in Venezuela, and the creation of a code of ethics for the Venezuelan NGO that led the expansion of networking in support of women's breast cancer healthcare.

This chapter explains the policies, politics, and everyday practices of the New American Services. It highlights the tensions surrounding citizenship and the role that nongovernmental (or nonprofit) organizations play in Fargo under neoliberalism by analyzing these practices in terms of the “NGOization” of refugee resettlement. The chapter defines NGOization as the proliferation of NGOs under neoliberalism as extensions, or new faces, of the state. It views NGOs from a feminist's lens, and challenges the master narrative that refugee resettlement was purely humanitarian or simply unaccountable. The chapter provides an overview of everyday resettlement practices and beliefs about resettlement staff, and how their work can be interpreted in regard to the larger social issues laid out in this book: race, citizenship, and diversity. It also talks about the Cooperative Agreement between the Government of the United States (the State Department and the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration) and VOLAGS or voluntary agencies.

Abstract By its very nature, a society predicated on pluralism invites multiple stake holders to engage in public endeavors. With respect to social welfare, the governmental sector, the voluntary sector, and the for-profit sector have all been involved in addressing the extensive needs of citizens. History has witnessed the rise, consolidation, and fall of structural interests that have, at various times, dominated American social welfare. For most of the twentieth century, the liberal paradigm of social policy, the welfare state, prevailed, providing an effective and accountable response to the needs of citizens. Since the 1980s, however, welfare liberalism has been under assault by conservatives who have slowed, then reversed, the liberal vector in social policy. The Right has employed multiple strategies with respect to the welfare state: proposing faith-based services as an alternative to public social programs, co-opting established programs like Medicare, and reducing vital revenues through tax cuts.

Taking a culture-centered approach within the uses and gratifications theoretical framework, a quantitative content analysis was conducted to analyze the support messages of two online message boards: the Dear Baby message board created and moderated mainly by overseas Chinese prenatal and postnatal women, and the BabyCenter message board created and moderated mainly by USAmerican prenatal and postnatal women. Both similarities and differences of the two message boards were identified in message type (seek or give support), content, support type and support behavior. Constructed narratives were produced to qualitatively analyze the voices within the context of both USAmerican and overseas Chinese online communities. The results can help researchers and practitioners to better understand how cultural characteristics of Chinese and USAmerican groups influence the patterns of women’s online social support seeking/giving behaviors, enabling them to customize specific communication programs and services to meet the needs of members of those two cultural groups.

Aim/Purpose: This paper provides the results of the preliminary analysis of the findings of an ongoing study that seeks to examine the social media use, cultural and political awareness, civic engagement, issue prioritization, and social activism of Gen Z students enrolled at four different institutional types located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The aim of this study is to look at the group as a whole as well as compare findings across populations. The institutional types under consideration include a mid-sized majority serving or otherwise referred to as a traditionally white institution (TWI) located in a small coastal city on the Atlantic Ocean, a small Historically Black University (HBCU) located in a rural area, a large community college located in a county that is a mixture of rural and suburban and which sits on the border of Maryland and Pennsylvania, and graduating high school students enrolled in career and technical education (CTE) programs in a large urban area. This exploration is purposed to examine the behaviors and expectations of Gen Z students within a representative American region during a time of tremendous turmoil and civil unrest in the United States. Background: Over 74 million strong, Gen Z makes up almost one-quarter of the U.S. population. They already outnumber any current living generation and are the first true digital natives. Born after 1996 and through 2012, they are known for their short attention spans and heightened ability to multi-task. Raised in the age of the smart phone, they have been tethered to digital devices from a young age with most having the preponderance of their childhood milestones commemorated online. Often called Zoomers, they are more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation and are on track to be the most well-educated generation in history. Gen Zers in the United States have been found in the research to be progressive and pro-government and viewing increasing racial and ethnic diversity as positive change. Finally, they are less likely to hold xenophobic beliefs such as the notion of American exceptionalism and superiority that have been popular with by prior generations. The United States has been in a period of social and civil unrest in recent years with concerns over systematic racism, rampant inequalities, political polarization, xenophobia, police violence, sexual assault and harassment, and the growing epidemic of gun violence. Anxieties stirred by the COVID-19 pandemic further compounded these issues resulting in a powder keg explosion occurring throughout the summer of 2020 and leading well into 2021. As a result, the United States has deteriorated significantly in the Civil Unrest Index falling from 91st to 34th. The vitriol, polarization, protests, murders, and shootings have all occurred during Gen Z’s formative years, and the limited research available indicates that it has shaped their values and political views. Methodology: The Mid-Atlantic region is a portion of the United States that exists as the overlap between the northeastern and southeastern portions of the country. It includes the nation’s capital, as well as large urban centers, small cities, suburbs, and rural enclaves. It is one of the most socially, economically, racially, and culturally diverse parts of the United States and is often referred to as the “typically American region.” An electronic survey was administered to students from 2019 through 2021 attending a high school dual enrollment program, a minority serving institution, a majority serving institution, and a community college all located within the larger mid-Atlantic region. The survey included a combination of multiple response, Likert scaled, dichotomous, open ended, and ordinal questions. It was developed in the Survey Monkey system and reviewed by several content and methodological experts in order to examine bias, vagueness, or potential semantic problems. Finally, the survey was pilot tested prior to implementation in order to explore the efficacy of the research methodology. It was then modified accordingly prior to widespread distribution to potential participants. The surveys were administered to students enrolled in classes taught by the authors all of whom are educators. Participation was voluntary, optional, and anonymous. Over 800 individuals completed the survey with just over 700 usable results, after partial completes and the responses of individuals outside of the 18-24 age range were removed. Findings: Participants in this study overwhelmingly were users of social media. In descending order, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Tik Tok were the most popular social media services reported as being used. When volume of use was considered, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and Twitter were the most cited with most participants reporting using Instagram and Snapchat multiple times a day. When asked to select which social media service they would use if forced to choose just one, the number one choice was YouTube followed by Instagram and Snapchat. Additionally, more than half of participants responded that they have uploaded a video to a video sharing site such as YouTube or Tik Tok. When asked about their familiarity with different technologies, participants overwhelmingly responded that they are “very familiar” with smart phones, searching the Web, social media, and email. About half the respondents said that they were “very familiar” with common computer applications such as the Microsoft Office Suite or Google Suite with another third saying that they were “somewhat familiar.” When asked about Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Blackboard, Course Compass, Canvas, Edmodo, Moodle, Course Sites, Google Classroom, Mindtap, Schoology, Absorb, D2L, itslearning, Otus, PowerSchool, or WizIQ, only 43% said they were “very familiar” with 31% responding that they were “somewhat familiar.” Finally, about half the students were either “very” or “somewhat” familiar with operating systems such as Windows. A few preferences with respect to technology in the teaching and learning process were explored in the survey. Most students (85%) responded that they want course announcements and reminders sent to their phones, 76% expect their courses to incorporate the use of technology, 71% want their courses to have course websites, and 71% said that they would rather watch a video than read a book chapter. When asked to consider the future, over 81% or respondents reported that technology will play a major role in their future career. Most participants considered themselves “informed” or “well informed” about current events although few considered themselves “very informed” or “well informed” about politics. When asked how they get their news, the most common forum reported for getting news and information about current events and politics was social media with 81% of respondents reporting. Gen Z is known to be an engaged generation and the participants in this study were not an exception. As such, it came as no surprise to discover that, in the past year more than 78% of respondents had educated friends or family about an important social or political issue, about half (48%) had donated to a cause of importance to them, more than a quarter (26%) had participated in a march or rally, and a quarter (26%) had actively boycotted a product or company. Further, about 37% consider themselves to be a social activist with another 41% responding that aren’t sure if they would consider themselves an activist and only 22% saying that they would not consider themselves an activist. When asked what issues were important to them, the most frequently cited were Black Lives Matter (75%), human trafficking (68%), sexual assault/harassment/Me Too (66.49%), gun violence (65.82%), women’s rights (65.15%), climate change (55.4%), immigration reform/deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA) (48.8%), and LGBTQ+ rights (47.39%). When the schools were compared, there were only minor differences in social media use with the high school students indicating slightly more use of Tik Tok than the other participants. All groups were virtually equal when it came to how informed they perceived themselves about current events and politics. Consensus among groups existed with respect to how they get their news, and the community college and high school students were slightly more likely to have participated in a march, protest, or rally in the last 12 months than the university students. The community college and high school students were also slightly more likely to consider themselves social activists than the participants from either of the universities. When the importance of the issues was considered, significant differences based on institutional type were noted. Black Lives Matter (BLM) was identified as important by the largest portion of students attending the HBCU followed by the community college students and high school students. Less than half of the students attending the TWI considered BLM an important issue. Human trafficking was cited as important by a higher percentage of students attending the HBCU and urban high school than at the suburban and rural community college or the TWI. Sexual assault was considered important by the majority of students at all the schools with the percentage a bit smaller from the majority serving institution. About two thirds of the students at the high school, community college, and HBCU considered gun violence important versus about half the students at the majority serving institution. Women’s rights were reported as being important by more of the high school and HBCU participants than the community college or TWI. Climate change was considered important by about half the students at all schools with a slightly smaller portion reporting out the HBCU. Immigration reform/DACA was reported as important by half the high school, community college, and HBCU participants with only a third of the students from the majority serving institution citing it as an important issue. With respect to LGBTQ rights approximately half of the high school and community college participants cited it as important, 44.53% of the HBCU students, and only about a quarter of the students attending the majority serving institution. Contribution and Conclusion: This paper provides a timely investigation into the mindset of generation Z students living in the United States during a period of heightened civic unrest. This insight is useful to educators who should be informed about the generation of students that is currently populating higher education. The findings of this study are consistent with public opinion polls by Pew Research Center. According to the findings, the Gen Z students participating in this study are heavy users of multiple social media, expect technology to be integrated into teaching and learning, anticipate a future career where technology will play an important role, informed about current and political events, use social media as their main source for getting news and information, and fairly engaged in social activism. When institutional type was compared the students from the university with the more affluent and less diverse population were less likely to find social justice issues important than the other groups. Recommendations for Practitioners: During disruptive and contentious times, it is negligent to think that the abounding issues plaguing society are not important to our students. Gauging the issues of importance and levels of civic engagement provides us crucial information towards understanding the attitudes of students. Further, knowing how our students gain information, their social media usage, as well as how informed they are about current events and political issues can be used to more effectively communicate and educate. Recommendations for Researchers: As social media continues to proliferate daily life and become a vital means of news and information gathering, additional studies such as the one presented here are needed. Additionally, in other countries facing similarly turbulent times, measuring student interest, awareness, and engagement is highly informative. Impact on Society: During a highly contentious period replete with a large volume of civil unrest and compounded by a global pandemic, understanding the behaviors and attitudes of students can help us as higher education faculty be more attuned when it comes to the design and delivery of curriculum. Future Research This presentation presents preliminary findings. Data is still being collected and much more extensive statistical analyses will be performed.

The connection of a new pipeline lateral or loop to an existing high pressure pipeline system has always been fraught with high costs and the potential for major system impacts. Pipeline owners and operators have historically had to choose between a traditional cold connection with its high associated costs and a less expensive but more mysterious hot tap. Although the cost savings of a hot tap have always been considerable, they were not always sufficient to justify the risk of complications during the branch weld or hot tap or during the subsequent operation of the system. Despite their extraordinary costs and throughput impacts, the perceived certainties of cold connections were often sufficient to justify their regular use. The recent Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change has resulted in new commitments by the world’s governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For the North American gas industry, these initiatives could result in voluntary compliance objectives, incentive based programs or legislated reforms — any of which will have significant impacts on current practices. TransCanada PipeLines Limited (TransCanada) has successfully managed the risk/reward conundrum and completed more than 700 large diameter (NPS 12 to NPS 30) horizontal high pressure hot taps without incident since 1960. TCPL’s research and development work has enabled it to refine its procedures to the point where it can now complete branch welding and hot tapping work with minimal effects on throughput, negligible emissions and no system integrity impacts. For TransCanada, the direct advantages of a hot tap over a cold connection have resulted in the avoidance of gross revenue losses of $1 million or more per hot tap, no environmental emissions, seamless service and no impacts whatsoever to shippers. TransCanada PipeLines Services Ltd. (TPSL) has further streamlined the supporting field procedures and now provides a complete turn key service to industry.

Reliable and affordable non-parental childcare is intimately related to female participation and other outcomes in the labor market given the conflicting demand for women's time on both, work and care activities. In terms of policy, public provision and subsidy of childcare services lift some of the time constraints and contribute to help families in the transitions through the initial years of parenthood. Both enrollment and this in turn increases the probability for mothers to look for a job or to be employed. This paper summarizes the available evidence specifically discussing characteristics and impact of childcare policies and programs in the Latin American region. Almost all random assignment and quasi-experimental studies show consistent positive effects on the intensive or extensive margins of female labor supply. This document also provides a review of incipient evidence about factors that affect program take-up and demand for childcare services and other informal care arrangements.

Positive results from clinical trials of the anti-retroviral medications zidovudine and nevirapine created the possibility of offering an affordable and feasible intervention worldwide to reduce HIV transmission from an infected pregnant woman to her infant. Governmental and nongovernmental health services in many highly affected areas of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe have responded by piloting and rapidly expanding programs for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT). Since their inception in 1999, programs have offered voluntary HIV counseling and testing (VCT) to more than 800,000 pregnant women around the world. An important objective of VCT is to identify which pregnant women are HIV-positive so they can receive antiretroviral drugs to prevent transmitting HIV to their infants. HIV counseling and testing also offer an opportunity to promote HIV prevention, encourage serostatus disclosure, and foster couple communication on HIV and PMTCT. This brief focuses on VCT in the antenatal care setting, examining service utilization by pregnant women, their perceptions of services, client outcomes as a result of undergoing HIV counseling and testing, and strategies for improving quality and coverage of VCT as a key component of PMTCT programs.

Preventing unintended pregnancy among HIV-positive women through family planning (FP) services is one of the four cornerstones of a comprehensive program for prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT). Reducing unintended pregnancies among HIV-positive women would yield a reduction in infections among infants and a reduction in the number of children potentially orphaned when parents die of AIDS-related illnesses. It also reduces HIV-positive women's vulnerability to morbidity and mortality related to pregnancy and lactation. In addition, family planning for both HIV-positive and -negative women safeguards their health by enabling them to space births. This brief focuses on findings from Horizons studies on the extent to which voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) and PMTCT programs address family planning. In Kenya and Zambia, the Horizons Program collaborated with NARESA and the MTCT Working Group, respectively, and UNICEF to document the acceptability, operational barriers, costs, and impact of pilot PMTCT services.