Rozprawy doktorskie na temat „Communism and social studies”

The purpose of this project was to write a grant proposal to fund a transitional housing program for disenfranchised minority youth between the ages of 16-24 who are students at Youth Justice Coalition (YJC) in Inglewood, California. This program will provide underprivileged youth with an opportunity to have a basic life need met, while developing autonomous abilities that will serve as a core foundation to help youth who are identified as marginal at best to reach self-actualization, thus breaking the generational cycle of depravity and immobilization. The transitional housing program's foundational core is centered on the Ecological Perspective, which takes into account not only the individual, but also the environment from which the individual came as a basis to better understand how to best meet the needs of those from various walks of life. The submission and/or funding of this grant was not a requirement for the successful completion of this project.

The purpose of this project was to locate a potential funding source and write a grant that will provide peer led education to immigrant Latino families regarding mental health services. This project goal is to increase the utilization of services within their community. A search was conducted to locate an appropriate funder for the proposed program. Various areas needed to be addressed to identify an appropriate funder which included correlation of goals and visions between the purposed program and the funding source. In funding this program, The California Endowment was chosen as the outcomes align with the goals of the program which include but are not limited to "health-home," decreasing youth violence and improving youth development. The goals for this program are to provide education to immigrant Latino families about mental health in an environment that is comfortable and non-threatening. This program will also provide various resources that will facilitate the services that are needed within this population.

Community psychology is a unique field of psychology that perceives individuals as linked to their context. The role of psychologist within this branch of psychology is viewed as one who is responsible for addressing the individual, as well as the social patterns and structures that adversely affect well-being. The use of community gardens as a therapeutic tool may serve as a two-fold intervention that can be used at both the individual and community levels. This doctoral project explores the therapeutic benefits of community gardening through the lens of the community psychology perspective. Framed within a community psychology perspective in which clients are inextricably linked to their social and physical context, engaging with nature through community gardening may lead to healthier client outcomes. A literature review was conducted to inform the author of current data related to the study of community gardens and their impact on mental health. The reviewed data pointed to the impact of community gardens on individual physical and mental health, and the social and physical community contexts that additionally affect mental health. Additional consultations with experts in the field were used to corroborate and extend research findings in the literature. The information collected from the current body of literature and consultations were presented as a professional presentation to mental health workers to increase their knowledge of the therapeutic benefits of community gardening. The limitations of the current body of literature, considerations for application in clinical practice, and recommendations for future areas of study were also considered.

The purpose of this thesis and the overall goal of this grant is to offer support to a community-based hospice agency by creating a position for a veterans' health consultant. The consultant will train staff to the unique care needs of veterans at the end of life by using the National Hospice-Veteran Partnership model from wehonorveterans.org. Upon the completion of an extensive literature review, this writer wrote a grant proposal for Wisteria Hospice, a local community-based hospice agency located in the City of Long Beach. After conducting a thorough funding search, the Archstone Foundation was chosen as the most compatible funding source. This funding source was selected as this foundation provides funds for professional education and training, focusing on end of life care. The actual submission of this grant for funding was not required for successful completion of this project.

There are currently an estimated 93 million children with disabilities in the world. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report each year that 1 in every 700 babies is born with Down syndrome. Yet in spite of the enormity of numbers, they remain one of the most marginalized groups in society. Discrimination, negative attitudes, inadequate healthcare, and segregated education systems effectively bar differently abled children from realizing their full potential. This study uses a single-subject case study of one spectacular sport event involving one child with Down syndrome. It is framed by Vygotsky’s "zone of proximal development" (ZPD) theory, which suggests that social interaction, adult guidance, and peer collaboration, can support development that exceeds what can be attained alone. A thematic analysis was used to measure differences in recurring themes among three separate sources of data including (1) online YouTube video comments, (2) written correspondence, and (3) focus group interviews. Four emerging themes including servant leadership (31%), happiness (27%) inclusion (20%), and community (17%), were most frequently identified. However, significant differences in frequencies of thematic responses were noted between the three sources of data. Findings support past research that has found comparative differences between participants and observers in how one relates to people and scenarios. Observers are likely to remove themselves from “understanding” an experience, and may be less likely to feel the full spectrum of human emotion and character. This unintentional yet impactful event points to the power and mystery of how a person’s influence can extend much further than their immediate community, but to external observers from the wider world. Findings also confirm the role of Servant Leadership, Community, and Inclusion as critical for reshaping attitudes and assuring equity across policies and programs so that children who are differently abled can reach their full potential.

Colonial legacies affect neocolonial experiences of conflict in the 20th and 21st centuries. A critical and comprehensive appreciation of the global "war on terror" reveals terrorism "from above'" (state-sponsored terrorism) as a growing issue in the international community. Further, women's varied experiences within communities of resistance are often undermined, ignored, or maligned within formal research on conflict and peace. Liberation psychologists are called to align with oppressed, marginalized, and suffering communities. To this end, this work explores the experience of women political prisoners of the Irish conflict for independence from Great Britain. A qualitative critical psychosocial analysis was used to understand the phenomenology of women's political imprisonment through the firsthand narratives of Republican women imprisoned during the "Troubles" of Northern Ireland. The intention of this study was to 1) provide an analysis of power and its connection to social conditions, 2) to provide a psychological analysis of how oppression may breed resistance in communities struggling for liberation, and 3) to explore the gendered experience of Irish women political prisoners. The results indicated that political imprisonment may be understood as a microcosm of oppression and liberation, and the subjective experience of political prisoners may glean insights into how communities develop critical consciousness, organize politically, resist oppression, and meaningfully participate in recognizing their human rights. Additionally, this research challenged the exclusion of women's voices as members of resistance movements and active agents in both conflict and peace building and challenged the failure to investigate state-sponsored terrorism, or terrorism from above.

This study examined the relationship of Internet-Mediated Social Network, the formation of adult Christian community, and its affect on adult Christian growth. The researcher compared and analyzed three types of adult Christian learning communities: traditional, hybrid, and virtual. Each week over the course of six weeks, the three types of learning communities met weekly. Participants were pretested and posttested, utilizing instruments that evaluated spiritual maturity. Analysis of interactions on Internet-Mediated Social Networking was conducted. Findings were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Results indicated the usage of Internet-Mediated Social Network offers potential for adult Christian education and should be further explored.

This qualitative study explored substance abuse providers' attitudes, perceptions and beliefs about the impact of crack cocaine in the African American community.

Fifteen participants were surveyed utilizing a semi-structured interview guide about (a) their experiences working with African American clients; (b) biases, stereotypes and stigmas that have impacted African Americans in relation to the use of crack cocaine; and (c) attitudes, perceptions and beliefs about the media's role in the racialization of imagery and its impact on the African American community.

Participants reported multiple significant indicators regarding a client's success in treatment as well as the competence of providers who work with African American clients. Furthermore, participants indicated that a thorough knowledge base of the historical experience of African Americans and its implication for the use of crack cocaine is necessary. Mental health professionals need to have a better understanding of the historical impact of crack cocaine on African American individuals, families and the community as a whole.

In recent decades, there has been a significant rise in the prominence and visibility of gay-identified men choosing to become fathers. The rise in planned gay fatherhood may be partially due to young gay men’s radically evolving views of fatherhood (Berkowitz, 2011a). The current research is a phenomenological investigation in to the lived experience of gay fathers and community. Research questions include: How do gay men re-orient to evolving sources of social support over the transition to parenthood? How does the experience and quality of social support affect the process of becoming a father for gay men? Do gay fathers experience a sense of inclusion or exclusion in various social settings? How do gay fathers experience social milieus differently than before having children? Data collection consisted of interviews with 12 gay identified cisgender men who became fathers in the context of a previously established gay or queer identities. Interviews were in-depth and semistructured. While some fathers have described the process of becoming a parent as a second coming out process that allows a casting off of internalized oppression, others have described feeling alienated from previous social networks. Participants did not describe a distancing from a gay community, nor did a majority appear to feel embedded in a gay community describing diverse group of friends before and after having children. Participants experienced varying levels of family support in which future parenting identity became paramount to maintaining connections and approval from family members. Several fathers described interactions, particularly in public, that fall under the category of microaggression laden with stereotype threat. Such intrusions were disorienting and threatened to undermine an emerging sense of competence at critical stages of establishing a new fatherhood identity. Suggestions for further research and implications for therapeutic interactions are considered.