Millennium Villages Evaluation: Midterm Summary Report

This report presents the midterm findings from an impact evaluation of the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) in northern Ghana. The MVP has been designed to demonstrate how an integrated approach to community-led development can translate the international Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) into results. The project in northern Ghana is one of several instigated over the past 10 years, and is set to reach nearly half a million people across 10 countries in Africa. Central to the MVP approach is the synergistic value of integrated community-based investments, focused on scientifically proven interventions, delivered simultaneously rather than as one-off investments. The premise is that a critical platform of basic needs must be reached before economic development can really take off. The project in northern Ghana has been running in three districts since May 2012, investing over £11 million on health, education, agriculture and infrastructure interventions in 35 communities, and reaching around 30,000 people

Children in Prostitution: A study of young women in the rehabilitation centres in Malaysia

Child prostitution has been a major cause of concern in recent years. It is a global phenomenon, which has spread widely in both developing and developed countries. In Malaysia, child prostitution does exist, but it is a phenomenon that the public does not really acknowledge or understand. This study is an attempt to investigate the nature of child prostitution in Malaysia and to identify the key characteristics of victimized children to raise awareness of the phenomenon in the public, government, and NGOs. Two methods of data collection were used in this study; that is semi-structured interview and narrative interview. Altogether, 63 young women safeguarded from prostitution in two rehabilitation centres participated in this study as respondents. The findings suggest that the vast majority of prostituted young women in this sample are likely to: have experienced family dysfunction, family breakdown or domestic violence; be emotionally and physically abused during childhood; suffer from family problems and poor relationship with the family; leave school and home at an early age; and be sexually abused or exploited before they were drawn into prostitution. Ninety-two percent of the respondents entered prostitution between the ages of 13 to 17 years old. The youngest was nine years old. About 48 percent were engaged in prostitution after being deceived by 'boyfriends' who really acting as pimps and 38.1 percent were influenced by peers. Most of them 'served' sex to between 6-10 men per day, 'worked' seven days a week, and were abused by pimps and customers. About 83 percent used drugs, most commonly psychotropic pills and marijuana. The vast majority of them did not use any contraception during prostitution. Implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions made for an effective response to the problem and in aiding the young women in prostitution and the rehabilitation centres, as well as for further research

Ba Win and Pete Baumann

Selected excerpts from an event at which Ba Win and Pete Baumann were the guest speakers. The full transcript may be restricted. To request access contact the Simon’s Rock College Archives. Ba Win: Mrs. Hall told me that she thought that a variant on even a good American high schools might be possible based on her conversations with her alumnae, her Concord graduates who had come back to visit her, and she asked them how are things going, and these young women at the best schools in America, they would say “Fine, it’s OK.” without much enthusiasm but she knew they were doing well, and when she dug further she found that what had happened was that she had a bunch of bright students at Concord, and she had great teachers working for her, and in a private school you don’t have to conform to state standards, you can do whatever you want within reason, and what had happened was that... the teachers would raise the bar and the students would respond to the teachers raising the bar and on and on it went. So much so that it wasn’t until their sophomore or even their junior years that her Concord Academy students really encountered real work, that without meaning to, they had anticipated the first two years of college, and they had gone into it, and so it really brought to Mrs. Hall the question about the convention that 18 year olds are only supposed to be doing this much, in fact her 18 year old students were doing a whole lot more than that. Ba Win: For years and years and years, after the original campus was built, and it was a very nice new campus, we did not have sophisticated facilities. Science was taught with a piece of chalk, photo labs were as basic as they could be, but basic as they were, 3 weeks ago in the New York Times, they had a series of winter scenes in the city, 10 pictures, utterly beautiful, all [by] Simon’s Rock [alumni Jan Staller ‘70] At a time when we had very primitive performance facilities we nevertheless produced the Coen Brothers, Ethan and Joel Coen, so we’ve had extraordinary people come out of this place. We have more than a piece of chalk now to do the sciences, and that’s how it should be, when you recruit the most talented people that you can find you owe them the appropriate facilities but the tradition of really teaching, not just using bells and whistles, has persisted. Pete Baumann: I thought of an idea, wouldn’t it be nice to put a little water in [the Library Atrium] or something or something like that so I dug a ditch and got some stones and river rocks, and put in some black plastic and some water. [...] Ace who was there by himself, and one of the guys decided, you know, throw in a couple extra frogs and he ate them, except for one, and that one survived and we called him Deuce. Deuce had a little bit of a problem, he couldn’t swim well, he couldn’t swallow well and I had to kind of hand feed him, and everyone would come in and take pictures of the frogs, little kids would come in with their parents, maybe brothers and sisters, maybe prospective students. I used to bring them out and show them the frogs, well some of these little kids grew up and became students at Simon’s Rock, graduated, and brought their kids in, that’s how long. The two bullfrogs were in there for 15 years, Ace and Deuce were, and they were very tame, the bullfrogs were, the students used to pick them up and pet them, and if the students were sitting there the frogs would come out and sit right there between them like they were part of the conversation, it was really something. Ba Win: Betty Hall was very successful at Concord Academy at a time when the women\u27s voice was very nascent, she was one of the people who by being a strong leader was showing that generation who were at school with her that all the usual rules and limitations should not apply, they were ridiculous, they should fall away. But she was also of an older style, she would begin a meeting by saying “Ladies” and when she started Simon’s Rock she had one foot in her mother\u27s generation and one foot in the next generation. It’s important to remember that she started the school in the second half of the 60s when questioning authority was very much en vogue. She took care to hire younger teachers, she did not want to hire very experienced people because she was sure once they came they would revert to what they were familiar with, she wanted something new and as a result she went out and hired a whole lot of recently minted MA and PhDs, but they were also stepping out of the 60s having just come out of college where protests and demands were commonplace, so, basically Betty collided with the 60s and she found it really, really hard. In many ways the form of education that she proposed was transformative, it was very different, it wasn’t you sit there obediently and silently and I’ll tell you and you record it, and of course if you have questions I’m happy to answer. It was going from that to challenging everything.https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/sr-oral_hist/1002/thumbnail.jp

The Transition of Collegiate Athletes to Professional Sports: A Case Study at a California University Division One Athletic Program

The following study investigates the correlation between athletic success in athletes as they transition from high school or college athletics to the professional world of competitive sports. Athletes who are described as being “cant-miss prospects” are never really a sure-fire thing for professional teams, so the purpose of this study was to research and analyze what situation for athletes would be best for them specifically relating to how many years an athlete should stay in college to develop their technical skills as well as mature as a human being before forgoing their remaining college eligibility by declaring for a professional sports draft. These issues are important for professional teams and scouts as each year, they are sent out to evaluate the new talent coming through the ranks and determine their athletic skill as well as their emotional stamina, all of which play a major factor in whether a player is drafted first overall or 10th overall, which could be a difference of around $10 million. There is a focus on gaining expert opinions from coaches and players to help determine what path is best suited for these athletes

The Lives of Young Adults Who Have Graduated from Residential Children\u27s Mental Health Programs (FULL REPORT)

This report presents the results of a research process in which 59 young adults who had received residential mental health treatment in the past were sorted into descriptive profiles based on the information they shared about their lives and personal functioning with researchers. Five different groups of young adults emerged from this process and represent the clearest categorizations for understanding this particular sample of young adults from across Southern Ontario who received residential treatment. Sorting young adults into distinct groups based on their functioning within key life domains (like education, employment, social connections, personal functioning) is useful to understanding the long term community adaptation of youth previously involved in children’s residential mental health treatment. Through a process of describing the defining characteristics of particular groups of young adults we can begin to think about adapting services and supports to meet the unique needs of distinct groups of youth as they transition into young adulthood

Gaze Patterns of Social and Nonsocial Stimuli: A Possible Early Marker for Autism Spectrum Disorder

The push for early identification and diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has led to new developments in this area of research. Eye tracking is a promising behavioral screening measure that has been heavily investigated for over a decade. Differences in eye gaze between typically developing (TD) children and children with ASD when viewing social and nonsocial videos have been observed, but only within videos of children playing as social stimuli and with geometric shapes as nonsocial stimuli (Pierce et al., 2016; Shaffer et al., 2017). In addition to social stimuli and geometric shapes, the current study expanded on previous research by including nonsocial inverted and blurred videos as stimuli. Participants were 15 TD children, ages 8 months to 5 years, and two children with ASD, ages 3 months and 3 years old. Each child was observed through a Tobii eye tracking system as they watched eight consecutive 10 second videos with video clips alternating between social and nonsocial conditions (geometric, inverted, or blurred). The two children with ASD looked for a similar amount of time and with a similar number of saccades for each video type; the same was also true within the TD children condition. The absence of a difference in looking time and saccade number calls into question what really accounted for the difference in gaze patterns found in the previous research. Further examination into the use of eye tracking as a screening measure must be conducted before a fully implementable measure is established

МЕТОДИЧНІ ВКАЗІВКИ З АУДІЮВАННЯ АНГЛІЙСЬКОЮ МОВОЮ для самостійної роботи студентів першого курсу напрям підготовки 0305 Філологія

Подано методичні вказівки з аудіювання англійською мовою для самостійної роботи студентів першого курсу напряму підготовки 0305 Філологія

The need for support: Young people living through a family health crisis

Young people living with a family health crisis are found to experience high levels of distress, anxiety, low mood and depressive symptoms and are at risk of becoming disengaged with education, socially isolated and uncertain regarding what the future will hold for them. A body of research indicates that practical intervention, including youth work, engagement with other young people and targeted support can have a significant impact upon a young person’s capacity to cope with a complex family health crisis and develop self-reliant behaviours. Despite the plethora of evidence to indicate the need for systems of support for children and young people experiencing a family health crisis, current provision across the UK is inconsistent, inequitable and not clearly underpinned by policy intervention. This study sets out to indicate the extent and nature of need of children and young people who are living with a family health crisis in Britain, the type of support they require and the ways in which Hope Support meets those needs

Designer/industry interface

The transcript from the discussion panel section of this event provides an interesting exchange of ideas around the notion of textile reuse and value. Following on from the exhibition Ever & Again: Experimental Recycled Textiles in October 2007, the Textiles Environment Design (TED) Project organized a one day Textiles Upcycling Symposium at Chelsea College of Art & Design on Friday 18th July 2008. The aims of the Symposium were to engage the audience and invited fashion and interior textile designers in thinking about high quality and innovative recycling practices for the future (‘upcycling’). The morning session featured the work of 12 of the most well known designers working in this field, including Orsola De Castro – ‘From Somewhere’, Kate Goldsworthy, Amy Twigger Holroyd – ‘Keep and Share’, Emmeline Child – ‘Emmeline4Re’, Kerry Seager - ‘Junky Styling’, Cyndi Rhodes – ‘Worn Again’, and Barley Massey – ‘Fabrications’. For the afternoon session invited key participants from industry contributed to an informal panel discussion with the designers and audience, to discuss the potential for shifting these ideas into mainstream and larger scale commercial production. This was chaired by sustainable textiles expert Dr Jo Heeley. The day also included a keynote speech from Professor Marie O’Mahony and a presentation of the outcomes of the three-year research project led by Rebecca Earley, which has involved teaching staff, researchers and students from Chelsea College of Art & Design

МЕТОДИЧНІ ВКАЗІВКИ З АУДІЮВАННЯ АНГЛІЙСЬКОЮ МОВОЮ для самостійної роботи студентів першого курсу напрям підготовки 0305 Філологія

Подано методичні вказівки з аудіювання англійською мовою для самостійної роботи студентів першого курсу напряму підготовки 0305 Філологія