Serving Limited English Proficient Clients

When serving walk-ins, the goal is to provide the same services, information and referrals as we would provide to the English-speaking public. This is true whether the walk-in ultimately turns out to be eligible for our services or not. When in doubt, ask yourself what services, information or referrals you would provide to an English speaking person in the same situation. Then make sure the Limited English Proficient person gets that same service, information or referrals

Neighborhood Voices: Getting It Together -- Connecting Local Neighborhoods and National Advocates

This report, focusing on the national relationship to local organizations, local and regional coalitions, and the forging of complementary relationships, shows that the work of advocates based in Washington can be bolstered by a renewed immersion in the day-to-day challenges of local groups. The frustrations of the local groups can be mitigated with a deeper appreciation of the constrained realities of federal advocacy in a period of devolution, retrenchment in social services and relentless assault on the role of government in providing basic supports for people and their communities. The evaluation was constructed using a total of 216 surveys that were completed. Focus groups were conducted in Albuquerque, Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, San Francisco. Additionally CURL conducted a set of case studies of local and national neighborhood leaders

New neighborhood based rough sets

Neighborhood based rough sets are important generalizations of the classical rough sets of Pawlak, as neighborhood operators generalize equivalence classes. In this article, we introduce nine neighborhood based operators and we study the partial order relations between twenty-two different neighborhood operators obtained from one covering. Seven neighborhood operators result in new rough set approximation operators. We study how these operators are related to the other fifteen neighborhood based approximation operators in terms of partial order relations, as well as to seven non-neighborhood-based rough set approximation operators

Predicting Sense Of Community in a Historic Latino/Latina Neighborhood Undergoing Gentrification

Neighborhoods with generational Mexican American populations may have high levels of block Social Cohesion and neighborhood Sense of Community. Streetcar-focused development via federal and local investment often spurs gentrification in neighborhoods with ethnic concentrations, which shifts neighborhood demographics towards more White and higher income households. The new residential and business investment in the neighborhood often has an impact on existing neighborhood social dynamics. This study includes mixed methods resident survey data of long term and newer residents. The qualitative data analysis informs quantitative data analysis in order to better understand resident descriptions of the impact of neighborhood streetcar focused gentrification on social factors in a generational Latino/Latina neighborhood at one point in time just before the streetcar opening. Specifically the study seeks to: (a) provide a description of generational and new resident experiences with block Social Cohesion and neighborhood Sense of Community; (b) determine differences (between Latino/Latina households and those with children present and other study participants) in block Social Cohesion, neighborhood Sense of Community, and Involvement in Neighborhood and Voluntary Associations; and (c) determine what factors predict neighborhood Sense of Community. The study highlights the Latino/Latina residents’ maintenance of a strong ethnic identity, generational neighborhood based social ties, and ongoing involvement in neighborhood schools and religious traditions that contribute to a strong neighborhood Sense of Community. Newer residents report being drawn to and supporting the maintenance of the neighborhood Sense of Community

Neighborhood radius estimation in Variable-neighborhood Random Fields

We consider random fields defined by finite-region conditional probabilities depending on a neighborhood of the region which changes with the boundary conditions. To predict the symbols within any finite region it is necessary to inspect a random number of neighborhood symbols which might change according to the value of them. In analogy to the one dimensional setting we call these neighborhood symbols the context of the region. This framework is a natural extension, to d-dimensional fields, of the notion of variable-length Markov chains introduced by Rissanen (1983) in his classical paper. We define an algorithm to estimate the radius of the smallest ball containing the context based on a realization of the field. We prove the consistency of this estimator. Our proofs are constructive and yield explicit upper bounds for the probability of wrong estimation of the radius of the context

Association of Mothers' Perception of Neighborhood Quality and Maternal Resilience with Risk of Preterm Birth.

We examined the associations of mothers' perception of neighborhood quality and maternal resilience with risk of preterm birth and whether maternal resilience moderated the effect of neighborhood quality perception. We analyzed data from 10,758 women with singleton births who participated in 2010-2012 Los Angeles Mommy and Baby surveys. Multilevel logistic regression models assessed the effects of mothers' perception of neighborhood quality and maternal resilience on preterm birth (yes/no), controlling for potential confounders and economic hardship index, a city-level measure of neighborhood quality. Interaction terms were assessed for moderation. Mothers' perception of neighborhood quality and maternal resilience were each uniquely associated with preterm birth, independent of potential confounders (p-values < 0.05). The risk of preterm birth among mothers who perceived their neighborhood as of poor quality was about 30% greater compared to mothers who perceived their neighborhood as of good quality; the risk was 12% greater among mothers with low resilience compared to those with high resilience. Effects of neighborhood quality were not modified by maternal resilience. The findings suggest that mothers' perception of neighborhood quality and resilience are associated with the risk of preterm birth. Further research should explore whether initiatives aimed at improving neighborhood quality and women's self-esteem may improve birth outcomes