Volunteering and Social Activism: Pathways for Participation in Human Development

This discussion paper explores the following questions, drawing on the above-mentioned background study: How is volunteering an d social activism understood?; How do volunteering and social activism foster people's participation?; What is the relationship between participation and development?; What is required to widen and sustain participation

Best practices for deploying digital games for personal empowerment and social inclusion

Digital games are being increasingly used in initiatives to promote personal empowerment and social inclusion (PESI) of disadvantaged groups through learning and participation. There is a lack of knowledge regarding best practices, however. The literature on game-based learning insufficiently addresses the process and context of game-based practice and the diversity of contexts and intermediaries involved in PESI work. This paper takes an important step in addressing this knowledge gap using literature review, case studies, and expert consultation. Based on our findings, we formulate a set of best practices for different stakeholders who wish to set up a project using digital games for PESI. The seven cases in point are projects that represent various application domains of empowerment and inclusion. Case studies were conducted using documentation and interviews, covering background and business case, game format/technology, user groups, usage context, and impact assessment. They provide insight into each case’s strengths and weaknesses, allowing a meta-analysis of the important features and challenges of using digital games for PESI. This analysis was extended and validated through discussion at two expert workshops. Our study shows that a substantial challenge lies in selecting or designing a digital game that strikes a balance between enjoyment, learning and usability for the given use context. The particular needs of the target group and those that help implement the digital game require a highly specific approach. Projects benefit from letting both intermediaries and target groups contribute to the game design and use context. Furthermore, there is a need for multi-dimensional support to facilitate the use and development of game-based practice. Integrating game use in the operation of formal and informal intermediary support organiszations increases the chances at reaching, teaching and empowering those at risk of exclusion. The teachers, caregivers and counsellors involved in the implementation of a game-based approach, in turn can be helped through documentation and training, in combination with structural support

Framework of Social Customer Relationship Management in E-Health Services

Healthcare organization is implementing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as a strategy for managing interactions with patients involving technology to organize, automate, and coordinate business processes. Web-based CRM provides healthcare organization with the ability to broaden service beyond its usual practices in achieving a complex patient care goal, and this paper discusses and demonstrates how a new approach in CRM based on Web 2.0 or Social CRM helps healthcare organizations to improve their customer support, and at the same time avoiding possible conflicts, and promoting better healthcare to patients. A conceptual framework of the new approach will be proposed and highlighted. The framework includes some important features of Social CRM such as customer's empowerment, social interactivity between healthcare organization-patients, and patients-patients. The framework offers new perspective in building relationships between healthcare organizations and customers and among customers in e-health scenario. It is developed based on the latest development of CRM literatures and case studies analysis. In addition, customer service paradigm in social network's era, the important of online health education, and empowerment in healthcare organization will be taken into consideration.Comment: 15 pages. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1204.3689, arXiv:1203.3919, arXiv:1204.3685, arXiv:1203.4309, arXiv:1204.3691, arXiv:1203.392

Democratic Education In The Egyptian Higher Education: Investigation Of Tutors’ Perception Of Democratic Education In The Egyptian Higher Education

Democratic education (DE) sees young people not as passive recipients of knowledge, but rather as active co-creators of their own learning and valued participants in a learning community. This study investigates tutors’ understanding and implementation of DE in the Egyptian Higher Education (HE). It investigates HE tutors’ conception about learners controlling their educational process by being fully embedded in it. Data for this qualitative paper was collected from 20 tutors from two Egyptian universities via one-to-one interviews and focus groups. This study highlighted the inference of political events in Egypt, since 2011, on HE students in their way of thinking and reflecting and addressed the need of DE to be a part of the educational paradigm. This paper concluded that DE is based on placing students in the centre of their learning and empowering them. Also, tutor-student dialogic approach and tutor-student trust are essential approaches to implement DE

What activities might facilitate personal recovery for adults who continue to self-harm? A meta-synthesis employing the connectedness/hope and optimism/identity/meaning/empowerment framework

© 2017 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc. Self-harm is an international concern. While treatment in health care focusses on methods to reduce the act, there is less exploration in how to assist adults who are unable to minimize their self-harm. In order to aid these people, in the present systematic review, we employed a qualitative meta-synthesis to explore the lived experience of what activities might facilitate personal recovery for adults who continue to self-harm. Findings were interpreted by drawing on the CHIME framework; a taxonomy of personal recovery comprising of connectedness, hope and optimism, identity, meaning and purpose, and empowerment. The located activities in the review converged on different support groups, and although face-to-face groups were discovered, the majority highlighted the benefits of Internet forums where mutuality and reciprocity were key to promoting personal recovery. Adults desired time to share accounts of themselves, to develop connection and identity. Furthermore, hope was established by group members accepting that self-harm has a role, while congregating with others who did not judge the act. Helping relationships also promoted hope by having a balance between goals and protection against disappointment. The nature of writing online seemingly had cathartic properties fostering meaning, alongside empowerment being facilitated by adults controlling the narrative of their self-harm. It is hoped that these insights might guide self-harm research to develop beyond the confines of minimizing self-injury in health care

Consumer Engagement: Helping People Want What They Need

Developing or delivering a product, tool, or service that meets consumers' needs and leads to impactful behavior change is a significant challenge. Simply creating tools to foster financial security has not been enough to ensure that consumers will use them, much less benefit from them. Consumer engagement is an approach to tackling these key challenges that focuses on the needs, expectations, and realities of those being served by financial empowerment practitioners.Consumer Engagement: Helping People Want What They Need describes both a philosophy and a process for developing and delivering financial products and services. At the core is the consumer, who is the intended target of financial empowerment efforts and the key stakeholder; he/ she is the actor who ultimately decides what tools to use and is an indispensable source of intelligence about his/her needs and wants.Three pillars define consumer engagement, each of which informs and relies on the others: Demand Focus, Deep Connection, and Enthusiastic Use

Public Participation in New Local Governance Spaces: The Case for Community Development in Local Strategic Partnerships

Research into public participation in local decision-making has increased over the past forty years, reflecting increased interest in the subject from academic, policy and practitioner perspectives. The same applies to community development, a valuesbased profession promoting a transformational agenda. During the New Labour government’s period in office (1997-2010), public participation featured centrally in several policies, reflecting their adherence to communitarian theory and Third Way politics. Additionally, the language of community development (promoting community empowerment and social justice) featured in these policies. Guidance for Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) – central to New Labour’s local government reforms – required them to facilitate public participation in decision-making, and used the language and values of community development. This paper reports on research into LSPs’ public participation practice. Applying a constructivist methodology, the research applied an evaluative framework reflecting the community development values in all 22 LSPs in the Yorkshire & Humber region. Data was collected through documentary review and interviews with LSP officials in each participating LSP. Case study research was conducted in one LSP, concentrating on two communities, generating deeper understanding of the process of facilitating public participation in different circumstances. Notions of power feature centrally in the analysis, and the research concludes that local authorities struggle to relinquish power to communities in any meaningful way, even within the context of government guidance requiring this process to be implemented. These findings are extrapolated to present a brief critique of the present UK government’s stated commitment to de-centralising power to communities in various policy areas

Pathways to Progress: The Portfolio and the Field of Youth Economic Opportunity

In 2014, the Citi Foundation launched Pathways to Progress, a three-year, $50 million initiative in the United States to help 100,000 low-income youth -- ages 16 to 24 -- develop the workplace skills and leadership experience necessary to compete in a 21st century economy.To achieve its ambitious goal, the Foundation enacted a multi-tiered strategy in ten cities: Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Newark, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. The U.S. strategy also includes complementary national and local investments, including the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, the National Academy Foundation, and the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues. In addition to the core and complementary program investments, the Citi Foundation's multitiered strategy includes substantial volunteer engagement by Foundation employees, and a significant communications platform -- augmenting grantee organizations' efforts to share their impact with the field.In its efforts to advance youth economic opportunity on a significant scale, the Citi Foundation has invested in solutions that offer promise of sizeable and replicable impact