Understanding the impact of the Cheshire Children’s Fund: Findings from 11 family case studies

The Children’s Fund was created in 2000 as part of the Government’s commitment to tackle disadvantage amongst children and young people. The aim of the Fund was to facilitate the development of more extensive and better co-ordinated early intervention services for children and young people aged 5 to 13 years who were at risk of social exclusion. Cheshire Children’s Fund, the local response to this national initiative, is guided by the Children’s Fund Partnership which is made up of representatives from local voluntary and statutory organisations. The aim of this research was to explore the impact of a number of projects which had received funding from the Cheshire Children’s Fund, specifically to learn how these projects had worked with children and families where there had been a positive outcome. The objectives of the research were to identify, for each child or family, the reasons for the provision of a service, the type of service that had been provided, and the impact that it had had on their lives. The research explored the factors that enabled a positive outcome for each family: the similarities and differences between the cases were also examined to determine whether any contributing factors were present across the services. The 11 projects were selected to cover a range of themes to reflect the breadth of the Children’s Fund work in Cheshire. They provided a range of services under the headings of crime prevention, promoting inclusion, success in schools and family support.Cheshire Children’s Fun

Book Review: Transformative Translanguaging Espacios: Latinx Students and their Teachers Rompiendo Fronteras sin Miedo

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Health identities: from expert patient to resisting consumer

This article explores the formation of 'health identities': embodied subjectivities that emerge out of complex psychosocial contexts of reflexive modernity, in relation to data on health and illness practices among groups of people and patients using medical technologies including weight-loss drugs and the erectile dysfunction drug sildenafil (Viagra). We examine a range of health identities, from the 'expert patient' - a person who broadly adopts a biomedical model of health and illness, to a 'resisting consumer', who fabricates a health identity around lay experiential models of health and the body. The understanding of health identities is developed within a theoretical framework drawing on previous work on body/ self and the work of Deleuze and Guattari. It is concluded that the constellation of health identities reflects the diversity of relations in an industrialized, technology-driven, consumer-oriented and media-saturated society

Rethinking the Hispanic Teacher Shortage: Dual Language Schools as Identity-Affirming Organizations

Research has established the connection between the academic success of culturally and linguistically diverse students, and their schools’ ability to recruit and retain teachers that reflect such diversity (Shirrell et al., 2019). Studies have also highlighted the criticality of the students’ home language use as a way to enhance academic growth and develop their sociocultural competence and well-being (Feinauer & Howard, 2014). There is no research, however, addressing the differences between the experiences of Hispanic teachers in bilingual Catholic education compared to those in monolingual English Catholic education. This article highlights the differences captured by a recent study, and discusses the potential lessons learned from these differences— including their connection to the recruitment and retention of Hispanic bilingual teachers. It concludes by proposing meaningful future research, and by offering recommendations to (a) affirm bilingual Hispanic identities and (b) positively impact educators’ career choices and their students’ academic experiences

Addressing the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Cultural Competency Gap in Genetic Counseling: A Curriculum Pilot Study

Previous studies have reported that 90.1% of genetic counselors know they have counseled a patient who identifies as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender (LGBT). Since unique health disparities exist within the LGBT population, studies have found significant benefit to LGBT patient care curriculum in medical training programs. Of genetic counselors surveyed in past studies, few (17%) had received LGBT specific training and most (61%) desired such training. This information suggests a need for LGBT topics to be implemented into the education of genetic counselors. This study tests this hypothesis by development, implementation and assessment of a replicable LGBT curriculum that was observed by 21 students currently enrolled in a genetic counseling training program. The curriculum was developed by review of literature regarding present LGBT issues in health care and genetic counseling, as well as methods of teaching cultural competency. The curriculum was assessed using participant completion of the adapted Sexual Orientation Counselor Competency Scale (SOCCS) pre- and post-curriculum observation. The SOCCS allowed for assessment of the change in sexual orientation competency of genetic counseling students in the areas of knowledge, attitudes and skills due to this curriculum. Additionally, a Knowledge-Based Survey specific to genetic counseling was used to further assess the benefits. The curriculum developed as a result of this study was shown to improve participants’ total sexual orientation competency, knowledge and skills on providing genetic counseling to the LGBT population. Students reported that they believed the curriculum would serve as a useful reference in their careers and were, on average, overall satisfied with the content and presentation of content. Additional findings and methods for implementation and adaptation for use in future genetic counseling trainings are presented

Use and experiences of front-line health services amongst Black and Minority Ethnic residents of Western Cheshire

This small-scale study was designed to explore the use and experiences of front-line health services within the Western Cheshire Primary Care Trust area amongst residents belonging to black and minority ethnic groups. A qualitative approach was adopted for the study as the aim was to explore perceptions and capture experiences

Examination of commercial aerial refueling as part of the National Defense Strategy

The purpose of this study was to analyze current military and commercial air-to-air refueling capabilities. With that, technical and training requirements, liabilities, procurement of parts, as well as obsolescence of those parts, and overall sustainment impediments for commercial air-to-air refueling companies wanting to or performing air-to-air refueling for all branches of U.S. military service were considered. Commercial air-to-air refueling plays an important role for the United States Navy and the United States Air Force is currently trying to determine if they also need these commercial capabilities. By taking an in-depth look at air-to-air refueling, we will determine how the U.S. government will meet the intent of the National Defense Strategy

Building an Identity Despite Discrimination: A Linguistic Analysis of the Lived Experiences of Gender Variant People in North East England

Trans issues are at the forefront of today’s society. It is estimated that approximately one percent of the UK population is gender variant, and the number of people accessing treatment is growing each year. However, linguistic research into trans identities and communities is still deficient. Models of language and gender studies still assume a binary gender structure and do not take into consideration the increasing amount of gender variance in society. Additionally, a lack of an established transgender studies discipline and limited numbers of trans researchers makes research into trans populations more difficult. The aim of this study is to examine how transgender people in North East England construct their identity with a backdrop of discriminatory discourses perpetuated by British news media and wider society. Sociolinguistic research into trans populations is an emerging area of study, as language and gender research has traditionally been constrained by cisnormative assumptions. Even with Butler’s (1990) seminal work on gender and discourse, this kind of research has still been done within the binary gender system. Taking an inductive approach to data collection and analysis, I conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with trans participants in the North East, and used a mixture of Membership Categorisation Analysis and Narrative Analysis for data analysis. The findings from the research illustrate how difficult it is for gender variant people to find a name or label for themselves within the binary system, and that emerging terminology is often inadequate for trans identities. Additionally, there is a pressure for gender variant people to adhere to narratives appearing in media outlets which perpetuate one way of ‘being trans’. The difficulty in finding a name for oneself promotes a feeling of being the other. Also, the perpetuation of a singular trans narrative creates pressure and fear in people who may not adhere to it. In conclusion, this fear which arises for trans individuals is often pre-emptive as being othered through language and exposed to external ideas of gender variance creates an extra burden on participants. It is this that leads them to equate their positive experiences with luck

To clean or not to clean: cleaning mutualism breakdown in a tidal environment

The dynamics and prevalence of mutualistic interactions, which are responsible for the maintenance and structuring of all ecological communities, are vulnerable to changes in abiotic and biotic environmental conditions. Mutualistic outcomes can quickly shift from cooperation to conflict, but it unclear how resilient and stable mutualistic outcomes are to more variable conditions. Tidally controlled coral atoll lagoons that experience extreme diurnal environmental shifts thus provide a model from which to test plasticity in mutualistic behavior of dedicated (formerly obligate) cleaner fish, which acquire all their food resources through client interactions. Here, we investigated cleaning patterns of a model cleaner fish species, the bluestreak wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus), in an isolated tidal lagoon on the Great Barrier Reef. Under tidally restricted conditions, uniquely both adults and juveniles were part‐time facultative cleaners, pecking on Isopora palifera coral. The mutualism was not completely abandoned, with adults also wandering across the reef in search of clients, rather than waiting at fixed site cleaning stations, a behavior not yet observed at any other reef. Contrary to well‐established patterns for this cleaner, juveniles appeared to exploit the system, by biting (“cheating”) their clients more frequently than adults. We show for the first time, that within this variable tidal environment, where mutualistic cleaning might not represent a stable food source, the prevalence and dynamics of this mutualism may be breaking down (through increased cheating and partial abandonment). Environmental variability could thus reduce the pervasiveness of mutualisms within our ecosystems, ultimately reducing the stability of the system