Municipal Structures

This paper examines whether political institutions affect the way municipalities are managed based on case studies of the different municipal structures adopted by 24 cities across North America. The aim is to provide recommendations to the London Chamber of Commerce with respect to municipal management. The findings reveal that municipal governance is dependent upon the structure of the corporation and the way in which the structure affects governance is determined by the roles of the key players

Examining the Effects of Policies on the Delivery of Shelter Services to Women Who Have Experienced Intimate Partner Violence

Problem: Shelters for abused women function within a broad context that includes intersecting social structures, policies and resources, which may constrain and limit the options available to abused women and tacitly reinforce the cycle of abuse. Method: This feminist, qualitative study drew on in-depth interviews and focus groups conducted with 37 staff and 4 executive directors from 4 shelters in Ontario, Canada, along with a critical discourse analysis of salient policy texts in order to explore how salient policies and structures shape shelter service delivery and may indirectly contribute to the health and quality of life of women who access services. Together, the interviews and critical discourse analysis formed an integrated analysis of the dialectic between policy as written and enacted. Findings: The study findings illuminate the complexity of the system and its impact on women, shelters and the community, and highlight how specific types of social policies (particularly those related to social housing, child welfare, and income assistance) and various system structures, shape the day to day reality of shelter service delivery and impact outcomes for abused women and their children. Collectively, these findings reflect a general lack of understanding about intimate partner violence that creates monumental barriers and obstacles for shelters in delivering their services. These findings offer direction regarding where these policies could be improved, and provide a basis for shelters, policy makers, advocates, and the community to strengthen current services and policies, potentially enhancing outcomes for women

Structural Justice: A critical feminist framework exploring the intersection between justice, equity and structural reconciliation.

Violence against women is a human rights violation (UN, 2006). It affects the health of women globally (UN, 2009) and its elimination is at the heart of many international and national goals. Intimate partner violence (IPV), one of the most common forms of gender-based violence, affects one in three women worldwide (WHO, 2013). The consequences of IPV create negative health outcomes for women that diminish their quality of life and their overall well-being. Abused women access community supports such as shelters to seek safe refuge from the abuse and restore their lives. While shelters play an extensive role in helping women to rebuild their lives they often struggle to navigate inflexible and unjust systemic structures that can be re-victimizing to women and undermine their ability to live violence free. This study describes an emergent narrative of structural justice (SJ) that arose while examining the structural challenges of 6 shelters for abused women in urban and rural Virginia. It details the critical exploration of the intersection between structure and justice by integrating existing literature with qualitative participant narratives (N=36); and constructing an operational definition of structural justice (SJ) through an iterative process. Findings reveal SJ oriented patterns that shape five core tenets at the heart of this narrative. This SJ offers a framework out of which we can create a narrative of hope and a call-to-action. to rectify systemic violence. This framework contributes to the discourse concerning the elimination of VAW as it focuses on creating justice, equity and structural reconciliation

Making a Difference in Children’s Lives: Lessons Learned from Planning and Implementing a Virtual Summer Camp During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Summer camps are known to increase knowledge and engage children during the summer holidays. However, the COVID-19 pandemic placed a freeze on all activities that required face-to-face interaction during the summer of 2020. The purpose of this paper is to describe the planning, implementation, and evaluation of a virtual summer camp for children. Our virtual camp “Whimsical Wednesdays was hosted by a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) that is dedicated to changing children\u27s lives and providing service to the community. We recruited children aged 6-12 to attend the virtual summer camp through informational flyers posted on the institution’s website, Instagram, Facebook, and other social media networks. The camp ran for five consecutive Wednesdays during July 2020 and engaged children in 60-minute sessions between 11:00 a.m. and noon. An average of 20 children participated each week in topics such as performing arts, reading, STEM, health and wellness, and cultural awareness. Overall, the camp demonstrated that children and facilitators were able to engage and interact using the online platforms Zoom and Nearpod. All participants expressed satisfaction with the program through survey evaluation instruments. Lessons learned include successes and challenges with technology, evaluation, and data collection methods. These lessons will be used to improve future programs

"It Doesn't Freak Us Out the Way It Used to": An Evaluation of the Domestic Violence Enhanced Home Visitation Program to Inform Practice and Policy Screening for IPV.

The Domestic Violence Enhanced Home Visitation (DOVE) intervention used in the Perinatal Nurse Home Visiting Intervention Enhanced With mHealth Technology (RCT: R01HD071771) is a nurse-lead evidenced-based intervention that has been shown to decrease violence overtime. This summative mixed-methods impact evaluation is intended to provide insight to enhance the DOVE IPV protocol for screening and intervention by (a) identifying which core aspects of DOVE facilitated or inhibited its success and what was most critical to optimal IPV (intimate partner violence) screening and intervention practices, (b) informing how DOVE IPV screening and intervention were influenced by the experiences of home visitor (HV), and (c) identifying policy considerations and best practice recommendations for the DOVE protocol. Participants were HVs and managers (N = 13) in rural/urban home visiting programs delivering DOVE across three states. The sample had a mean age of 48.76. Three fourths were baccalaureate-prepared nurses with an average of 10.5 years of home visiting experience. The method used in this study was one-to-one qualitative in-depth interviews with HVs. Data were interpretively analyzed using Nvivo 10 to generate three themes. Participants endorsed screening women for IPV with DOVE being the approach of choice to facilitate IPV screening and intervening with women. HVs found DOVE helped enhance their IPV knowledge, screening, and intervening capabilities while filling an existing void in this type of preparation of HV nurses. Establishing a relationship with the women before initiating screening was an important aspect in delivering DOVE as was the training, support, and increased comfort level in addressing IPV. The evidence offers an understanding of which core aspects of DOVE contributed to its success and what was most critical to optimal IPV screening and intervention practices. Furthermore, this evaluation provided multilevel insights into how best to advance home visiting practices and policies when screening and intervening with perinatal women exposed to IPV

Patterns and Predictors of Service Use Among Women Who Have Separated from an Abusive Partner

Using baseline data from a survey of 309 Canadian women recently separated from an abusive partner, we investigated patterns of access to health, social, legal, and violence-specific services and whether abuse history and social and health variables predict service use. We compared rates of service use to population rates, and used logistic regression to identify determinants of use. Service use rates were substantially higher than population estimates in every category, particularly in general and mental health sectors. Although women were confident in their ability to access services, they reported substantial unmet need, difficulty accessing services, and multiple barriers. The strongest unique predictors of use varied across service type. Health variables (high disability chronic pain, symptoms of depression and PTSD), low income, and mothering were the most consistent predictors. Service providers and policy makers must account for social location, abuse history, and health status of Intimate Violence (IPV) survivors. Strategies to enhance access to primary health care services, and to create a system of more integrated, accessible services, are required

Infusing Technology Into Perinatal Home Visitation in the United States for Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence: Exploring the Interpretive Flexibility of an mHealth Intervention.

BACKGROUND: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is common during pregnancy and the postpartum. Perinatal home visitation provides favorable conditions in which to identify and support women affected by IPV. However, the use of mHealth for delivering IPV interventions in perinatal home visiting has not been explored. OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to conduct a nested qualitative interpretive study to explore perinatal home visitors' and women's perceptions and experiences of the Domestic Violence Enhanced Home Visitation Program (DOVE) using mHealth technology (ie, a computer tablet) or a home visitor-administered, paper-based method. METHODS: We used purposive sampling, using maximum variation, to select women enrolled in a US-based randomized controlled trial of the DOVE intervention for semistructured interviews. Selection criteria were discussed with the trial research team and 32 women were invited to participate. We invited 45 home visitors at the 8 study sites to participate in an interview, along with the 2 DOVE program designers. Nonparticipant observations of home visits with trial participants who chose not to participate in semistructured interviews were undertaken. RESULTS: We conducted 51 interviews with 26 women, 23 home visiting staff at rural and urban sites, and the 2 DOVE program designers. We conducted 4 nonparticipant observations. Among 18 IPV-positive women, 7 used the computer tablet and 11 used the home visitor method. Among 8 IPV-negative women, 7 used the home visitor method. The computer tablet was viewed as a safe and confidential way for abused women to disclose their experiences without fear of being judged. The meanings that the DOVE technology held for home visitors and women led to its construction as either an impersonal artifact that was an impediment to discussion of IPV or a conduit through which interpersonal connection could be deepened, thereby facilitating discussion about IPV. Women's and home visitors' comfort with either method of screening was positively influenced by factors such as having established trust and rapport, as well as good interpersonal communication. The technology helped reduce the anticipated stigma associated with disclosing abuse. The didactic intervention video was a limiting feature, as the content could not be tailored to accommodate the fluidity of women's circumstances. CONCLUSIONS: Users and developers of technology-based IPV interventions need to consider the context in which they are being embedded and the importance of the patient-provider relationship in promoting behavior change in order to realize the full benefits. An mHealth approach can and should be used as a tool for initiating discussion about IPV, assisting women in enhancing their safety and exploring help-seeking options. However, training for home visitors is required to ensure that a computer tablet is used to complement and enhance the therapeutic relationship. CLINICALTRIAL: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01688427; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01688427 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6limSWdZP)

Multiple Sclerosis Decreases Explicit Counterfactual Processing and Risk Taking in Decision Making

Deficits in decision making (DM) are commonly associated with prefrontal cortical damage, but may occur with multiple sclerosis (MS). There are no data concerning the impact of MS on tasks evaluating DM under explicit risk, where different emotional and cognitive components can be distinguished.Methods: We assessed 72 relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) patients with mild to moderate disease and 38 healthy controls in two DM tasks involving risk with explicit rules: (1) The Wheel of Fortune (WOF), which probes the anticipated affects of decisions outcomes on future choices; and (2) The Cambridge Gamble Task (CGT) which measures risk taking. Participants also underwent a neuropsychological and emotional assessment, and skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded.Results: In the WOF, RRMS patients showed deficits in integrating positive counterfactual information (p <0.005) and greater risk aversion (p <0.001). They reported less negative affect than controls (disappointment: p = 0.007; regret: p = 0.01), although their implicit emotional reactions as measured by post-choice SCRs did not differ. In the CGT, RRMS patients differed from controls in quality of DM (p = 0.01) and deliberation time (p = 0.0002), the latter difference being correlated with attention scores. Such changes did not result in overall decreases in performance (total gains).Conclusions: The quality of DM under risk was modified by MS in both tasks. The reduction in the expression of disappointment coexisted with an increased risk aversion in the WOF and alexithymia features. These concomitant emotional alterations may have implications for better understanding the components of explicit DM and for the clinical support of MS patients

Music, Silence, and the Senses in a Late Fifteenth Century Book of Hours

Although it is common in the musicological literature to compare decorated music books with books of hours, studies addressing the musical features of books of hours are rare. This article considers musical features in the decoration of a book of hours made by leading illuminators in Ferrara ca. 1469. Images appearing in books of hours are considered to have had an exemplary and meditative function in relation to devotional practice; therefore, this study asks what the reader was intended to learn from musical images, drawing conclusions about the alignment of the senses and the significance of music in fifteenth-century religious experience

A Questionnaire on Materialisms

Recent philosophical tendencies of “Actor-Network Theory,” “Object-Oriented Ontology,” and “Speculative Realism” have profoundly challenged the centrality of subjectivity in the humanities, and many artists and curators, particularly in the UK, Germany, and the United States, appear deeply influenced by this shift from epistemology to ontology. October editors asked artists, historians, and philosophers invested in these projects—from Graham Harman and Alexander R. Galloway to Armen Avanessian and Patricia Falguières to Ed Atkins and Amie Siegel—to explore what the rewards and risks of assigning agency to objects may be, and how, or if, such new materialisms can be productive for making and thinking about art today