Improving children's behaviour and attendance through the use of parenting programmes: an examination of good practice

There is powerful evidence that attendance at school and academic performance are positively related and that those who are excluded and do not attend school regularly, whatever the reasons, are more likely to become involved in crime. Recently, much emphasis has been put on the role that parents can play in improving the attendance and behaviour of their children. The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 introduced new powers for Local Education Authorities (LEAs) to apply for a parenting order to help address children's behaviour in school. This court order compels a parent to attend a parenting programme and to fulfil other requirements as determined necessary by the court for improving their child's behaviour

Exploring Strategies in Website Development in Human-Computer Interaction for Older Adults Over 65: A Case Study

Human-computer interaction (HCI) website developers often lack the understanding necessary to build interfaces to meet accessibility requirements for older adults over 65. Adults over 65 often have difficulty using computer technology to access information over the Internet and are slow to adapt because websites are not fully accessible to older adults. Grounded in the technology acceptance model, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore strategies that HCI website developers use to build interfaces to meet accessibility requirements for older adults over 65. The participants were four HCI website developers from four website development companies in the New York City metropolitan area of the United States. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and organizational documents. Using thematic analysis, the major themes found were ease of readability and accessibility, ease of navigation and simplicity, and the importance of feedback. A key recommendation is for web designers and developers to use best practices and guidelines identified by the World Wide Web Consortium to create accessible websites for adults over 65. The implications for positive social change include the potential to improve the number of websites that are easier to use for older adults, thus providing benefits to older adults by enriching their worlds, allowing their families to use distance communication to interact with them, and affording health providers with an avenue to have more contact with the older adults

Contextualising empowerment practice: negotiating the path to becoming using participatory video processes

Participation and empowerment are major drivers of social policy, but participatory projects often happen within contested territory. This research interrogates the assumed participation-empowerment link through the example of participatory video. Fieldwork unpacks the particular approach of Real Time, an established UK project provider. Disrupting representational framing, the emergent relational processes catalysed were explored in context, to address not whether participatory video can increase participants’ influence, but how and in what circumstances. This thesis therefore builds more nuanced understanding of empowerment practice as the negotiated (rhizomic) pathway between social possibility and limitation. Following Deleuze, a becoming ontology underpinned study of project actors’ experiences of the evolving group processes that occurred. An action research design incorporated both collaborative sense-making and disruptive gaze. Analysis draws on interpersonal and observational data gathered purposively from multiple perspectives in 11 Real Time projects between 2006 and 2008. Five were youth projects and six with adults, two were women-only and one men-only, two with learning-disabled adults and four aimed at minority-ethnic participants. Participatory video as facilitated empowerment practice led to new social becoming by opening conducive social spaces, mediating interactions, catalysing group action and re-positioning participants. Videoing as performance context had a structuring and intensifying function, but there were parallel risks such as inappropriate exposure when internal and external dialogical space was confused. A rhizomic map of Real Time’s non-linear practice territory identifies eight key practice balances, and incorporates process possibilities, linked tensions, and enabling and hindering factors at four main sequential stages. Communicative action through iteratively progressing video activities unfolded through predictable transitions to generate a diversifying progression from micro to mezzo level when supported. This thesis thus shows how participatory video is constituted afresh in each new context, with the universal and particular in ongoing dynamic interchange during the emergent empowerment journey

Towards An Intersectional Praxis In Design

This research engages with how design and designers might engage with Intersectionality and why this practice is integral to the field. It offers critique, criticality, and proposed models to the field of design. Through the use of a feminist standpoint autoethenographic method as a strategy this research aims to meet the objective of identifying frustrations within studying in the Strategic Foresight and Innovation program, and working as a designer in order to address gaps in design pedagogy and practice, while speaking from an underrepresented experience within the design field. Research is presented through academic writing, flow of consciousness essays, zine making, communication design, and speculative desig

The problems of offenders with mental disorders: A plurality of perspectives within a single mental health care organisation

Managers, doctors, nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, psychologists, unqualified staff and service users were interviewed for a qualitative study of risk management and rehabilitation in an inner city medium secure forensic mental health care unit. Different professional orientations to service user problems were identified. Doctors focused primarily on the diagnosis of mental disorder, which they managed mainly through pharmaceutical interventions. Psychologists were principally concerned with personal factors, for example service user insight into their biographical history. Occupational therapists concentrated mainly on daily living skills, and social workers on post-discharge living arrangements. Some front line nurses, held accountable for security lapses, adopted a criminogenic approach. Service users were more likely than professionals to understand their needs in terms of their wider life circumstances. These differences are explored qualitatively in relation to four models of crossdisciplinary relationships: monoprofessional self-organisation combined with restricted communication; hermeneutic reaching out to other perspectives; the establishment of interdisciplinary sub-systems; and transdisciplinary merger. Relationships between professions working in this unit, as portrayed in qualitative interviews, corresponded mainly to the first model of monoprofessional self-organisation. Reasons for restricted crossdisciplinary understanding, particularly the wide power/status differences between the medical and other professions, and between staff and patients, are discussed

Critical Perspectives on Creative Women’s Entrepreneurship

For this project, a Good w/ Food dinner series was hosted for creative women entrepreneurs. A salient insight that stands out in this research is that the systemic challenges faced by creative women entrepreneurs -- such as the lack of appropriate supports structures, inadequate governmental policies, and lack of recognition of the types of work that creative entrepreneurs actually engage in -- is compounded by additional intersectional issues, such as gender discrimination in the available programming and entrepreneurial support structures. This reinforced the importance of this research and the need for the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub network to develop programming that addresses the systemic challenges faced by creative women entrepreneurs. The format of the dinners allowed participants to gain value by actively building authentic social relationships, while developing an understanding of the creative entrepreneurship ecosystem as it occurs through the lived experiences of participants at all stages of their careers. Insights from this project have been used to inform future program development and advocacy work done by OCAD University and the WEKH network

With Federal Moratorium Expiring, 15 Million People at Risk of Eviction

Nationwide, renters are recovering from an unprecedented economic crisis. With vaccines widely accessible, employment rising, and federal and state benefits available to millions of people, many of the over 100 million people living in rental housing are making a gradual recovery. Despite this progress, a meaningful percentage of renters are on the precipice of eviction, displacement, and homelessness. More than 15 million people live in households that are currently behind on their rental payments (7.4 million adults, 6.5 million households), which places them at legal risk of eviction. According to one estimate, these households collectively owe more than $20 billion to their landlords. On a per tenant basis, average debt owed to landlords exceeds$3,000, with significant variation based on time away from work, family needs, and other factors.When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) eviction moratorium ends on July 31st, these renters may face eviction, civil lawsuits for unpaid rent, and aggressive debt collection—crises that will continue to cause harm years into the future. Nearly 50% of those who are behind on rent anticipate that they will be evicted in the next two months. The threat of eviction is particularly acute for renters of color. Currently, 22% of Black renters and 17% of Latinx renters are in debt to their landlords, compared to 15% overall and 11% of White renters. Rental debt is also challenging for renters with children, with 19% unable to make payments.This report highlights the current number of people at risk of eviction as the federal moratorium expires, how we got here, and policies states can implement to help prevent a wave of evictions from cascading into long-term health and financial crises for millions of households