Healthalachia: Rural Appalachian Youth Creating Solutions for Our Future

Kentucky’s Appalachian youth experience high rates of adverse childhood experiences. Opioid abuse, poverty and unemployment dominate our news headlines. Youth are suffering negative impacts of these issues and experiencing disproportionate rates of depression, suicidal thoughts, food insecurities, obesity and lack of physical activity. Overdose deaths and incarceration rates among parents with substance abuse disorders negatively impact family units and contribute to increased homelessness, foster care and kinship care among our youth population. Healthalachia was developed and piloted as a student-based, youth empowerment initiative that provides competitive mini-grants and research mentors to groups of high schoolers who aim to identify a health concern at their school and implement a student led improvement plan. This student-based research pilot engaged students from three rural high schools in Kentucky to identify and strategically address a specific health or social problem. Each team was required to have students, school staff and community members who agreed to actively participate in the project. The initiative was a partnership between University of Kentucky Center of Excellence in Rural Health (UK CERH) and the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative (KVEC). Student teams were provided with funding for their project and technical support as they implemented their projects

Shaping our future: Creating the World Future Council

This book describes the mission of the World Future Council, which came into existence shortly after publication. Many values are shared across cultures and those values need to be represented by a common voice. The World Future Council was launched to fill that role, and seeks to be an ethically powerful global voice that appeals and responds to basic human values

Interactive Architecture: Creating Opportunities for our Future

It is the contention of this thesis that developing more interactive relationships will create new opportunities for a building to respond and adapt to the rapid pace of change. Through means of flexibility and efficiency, his expanded dynamic process can generate direct engagement between a building and the users and the natural environment that interact with it

Creating Our Future -- Transforming a Traditional Non-Profit into a High Performing Organization

The purpose of the project was to transform the Boys & Girls Club of Cleveland County Board of Directors (the Club) from an executive-directed organization to an organization that encouraged Board member involvement. Our goal was to serve more kids every day, expand facilities, take functional responsibility of the operation of the Club while finding more funding sources to meet the budget. The organization needed to change or it would not be in existence. Using Kotter’s Eight Step Change Model, the leadership team worked to create a sense of urgency for the change process. Strategic planning sessions established goals and objectives to be achieved to transform the organization from an autocratic leadership style to a participative style of leadership. The emphasis of the project was to achieve the major goal of serving more kids every day. Over the 30-month period, the Club grew from serving an average of 70 children a day to serving over 140 children a day at three separate locations. The Teen Center and an extension unit at Graham Elementary School are open and operational. The organizational budget has grown by 52% with funding sources from grants and foundations increasing by over 200%. The functional committees of the Board have taken ownership of a wide variety of tasks formerly part of the executive director’s role. The creation of the Emeritus Board has enabled the Club to involve more diversified, younger Board members. In Boys & Girls Club of America National Youth Outcome Initiative survey of Club performance, the Cleveland County Club performed higher than the national average in seven of eight areas. Today, the Club is a high-performing organization serving twice as many children

2008 California County Scorecard of Children's Well-Being: Creating Healthier Communities for Our Future

Rates each county on twenty-six indicators of children's well-being, including health status, insurance status, access to dental care, weight, safety, and preschool enrollment. Highlights data by race/ethnicity and summarizes comprehensive initiatives

Strategic Management and HRM

[Excerpt] The purpose of this chapter is to discuss this intersection between Strategic Management and HRM, what we know, and future directions for SHRM research. We will begin by briefly discussing the concept of strategy and the popularization of the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm. Next we will address its role in creating the link between HRM and Strategic Management including key questions that the RBV has raised in relation to SHRM. We will then examine the current state of affairs in SHRM; the progress made, and key questions and concerns occupying the attention of SHRM researchers. Finally, we will conclude with our views on future directions for SHRM research