The effect of participating on service trips on community engagement and student development

Service-learning is important in the development of the individual and of the community: it enriches student learning, teaches civic responsibility, and strengthens and enhances the community. Service trips allow students to share this enrichment with communities outside their own, giving them an opportunity to experience a diversity of cultures, backgrounds, and community needs. Equally important, student exposure to diverse cultures and individuals will increase personal and social development among participants. In the current study, individuals indicating higher levels of personal and social development resulting from service trips will demonstrate the importance service trips have on the development of the participants. Individuals whose interest in participating in community activities as a result of their service trip will be more likely to have a higher level of involvement in community engagement, again as a result of their experiences. Participants completed a post-trip assessment to measure personal development and to predict future levels of community engagement due to service trip experience. This study was a mixed methods with an equal paradigm emphasis. Using a grounded theory approach, themes were identified and linked them together. Results suggest that personal and social development increase and cultural awareness and future levels of engagement in the individual\u27s community were raised due to service trip experience. Implications of this study suggest that a service learning paradigm will positively influence a college student\u27s development and community environment

Investment-Linked Takaful Plan Patronage: Evidence From Malaysia

Investment-linked Takaful is a recent innovation introduced in Malaysia. This study focuses on Investment-linked takaful plan selection in Malaysia. We have used a self-administered questionnaire to collect data from 143 respondents from the Klang Valley area. Data collected through the survey was analyzed through descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis. Results indicate that fee payment and benefits play a significant role in Takaful operator selection while coverage and benefits affect the investment-linked product selection in Malaysia. This study is unique as it provides empirical evidence on the investment-linked takaful investment which is limited in supply. Results provided by this study can be useful for takaful operators in designing the most appropriate investment-linked product for attracting customers

From past to present: the changing focus of public health

Key sections include: Environment, infectious disease, locating public health, the enlightenment, the Sanitarians, national provision of services, the inception of the National Health Service, ‘crisis in health’, The New Right, The Third Way, new public health. Public health, the new ideology may be taken to mean the promotion of healthy lifestyles linked to behaviour and individual responsibility supported by government action; whereas traditionally the description tended to relate more to sanitary reform and ‘healthy conditions’. The chronological development of public health is mapped out, supported by the outlining and discussion of the emerging themes and influences pertaining to the study of public health. The approach to public health is positioned alongside the health of the population and the prevailing political/societal influence at the time. Public health is impacted on by poverty and environmental factors. Presently government policy to improve public health is delivered in a strategy that recognises the need for health improvement at times when the greatest impact on health is poverty and exclusion. The evidence reviewed demonstrates clearly that poor health without appropriate resources or intervention is cumulative and that the ‘right’ form of intervention can bring about long term health gains. Intervention from a national agenda needs to include individual’s health and the health of the community brought about through joint partnerships and multi-sectorial working

What Makes Educational Campaings Succeed?

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A legacy handbook for enterprise

Legacy Handbook reviewing emda's experience of enterprise activity. Identifies key achievements and draws out lessons learned that may be relevant to successor bodies active in this area

LESSONS IN EVALUATING COMMUNICATIONS CAMPAIGNS

Builds on the findings of the first and second papers. It examines specifically how campaigns with different purposes (individual behavior change and policy change) have been evaluated, and how evaluators have tackled some of the associated evaluation challenges that the first three papers raised as important to address. It features fi ve brief case studies in which the main unit of analysis is not the campaign, but the campaign's evaluation. The case studies provide a brief snapshot of the real experiences of campaign evaluations. The paper also features cross-case lessons that highlight important findings and themes

Increases in salience of ethnic identity at work: the roles of ethnic assignation and ethnic identification

To better understand how ethnicity is actually experienced within organisations, we examined reported increases in ethnic identity salience at work and responses to such increases. Thirty British black Caribbean graduate employees were interviewed about how and when they experienced their ethnic identity at work. The findings demonstrated that increased salience in ethnic identity was experienced in two key ways: through ‘ethnic assignation’ (a ‘push’ towards ethnic identity) and ‘ethnic identification’ (a ‘pull’ towards ethnic identity). We explore how and when ethnic assignation and ethnic identification occur at work, and their relevance to how workplaces are experienced by this group of minority ethnic employees. The findings suggest the need for further research attention to the dynamic and episodic nature of social identity, including ethnic identity, within organisations, and to the impact of such increases in salience of social identities on behaviour at work

'Working our way to health': Final Evaluation Report

This summary presents the findings of an independent evaluation of the ‘Working our Way to Health’ programme. This programme was delivered by Sefton PCT, funded through the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund, and was aimed at improving the health of men in three of the most deprived wards in its locality. It aimed to encourage men to be health aware and increase access to health and leisure services in order to improve key lifestyle behaviours and advance gender equity. The programme included: • Community agency and health staff training • Peer mentoring programme • Healthy lifestyle programme It aimed to promote community partnerships to assist the expansion of health advice and services into a new community arena and engage a previously unattainable section of the male population in healthier lifestyle interventions

Painting the Capitol Pink: The Breast Cancer Research Stamp and the Dangers of Congressional Cause Marketing

Breast cancer awareness campaigns—widespread, largescale efforts focusing on general “awareness” of the breast cancer, rather than the dissemination of information on detection and treatment—are common sights in the American public and private spheres.  From NFL players donning pink socks to crafters selling “I love boobies!” t-shirts online, breast cancer-branded events and products have become an essential marketing tool to reach women, signal corporate virtue in a palatable, nonaggressive manner.  Even the federal government is party to the trend: in 1998, the U.S. Congress authorized the sale of the Breast Cancer Research Stamp (BCRS) by the U.S. Postal Service to raise awareness and research funds for breast cancer.  The BCRS has been available ever since.This Article posits that the BCRS is more an attempt by the federal government to capitalize on the goodwill and consumer engagement generated by breast cancer awareness marketing in the private sector, and less a good-faith attempt to treat, cure, or prevent breast cancer among Americans.  The Article addresses three questions: (1) how does the BCRS reflect a private sector trend of embracing breast cancer cause marketing?; (2) why does Congress continually reauthorize the BCRS, even as other semipostal stamps lapse?; and (3) why has Congress chosen to raise money for breast cancer research through the BCRS?  In answering these questions, I argue that the true legislative motivations behind the BCRS are to generate goodwill amongst voters, promote small-government values, and align with breast cancer awareness causes without compromising other political positions.  I conclude that the BCRS exemplifies how Congress has eschewed expert opinion and instead adopted private sector marketing strategies when passing legislation