Serving High-Risk Youth in Context: Perspectives from Hong Kong

Background: High-risk youth are often defined in occupational therapy terminology as adolescents and young adults who experience personal, contextual, or environmental barriers to effective participation in healthy, age-appropriate occupations. Without assistance for participation, these youth may acquiesce to daily routines of unhealthy risk-taking or isolation, failing to achieve developmental milestones needed for successful transition to adulthood. There are known therapeutic services targeting this population, but occupational therapy involvements have been sparsely documented. Method: Having been affiliated with a community-based occupational therapy program serving high-risk youth for many years in the US, the principal investigator of the study used a sabbatical opportunity to explore services provided to high-risk youth in Hong Kong (HK). This paper reports preliminary findings obtained from an exploratory study of analyzing transcripts of 13 one-on-one interviews with service providers in HK. Results: Two major themes are discussed in this paper: the prevalent behavioral risks among high-risk youth as perceived by the service providers and the intervention approaches used by the service providers with the high-risk youth population in HK. Conclusion: Reflecting on the preliminary outcome of the study, the authors suggest that occupational therapy may contribute to mitigating youths’ risk factors through ecological occupational engagement

Creating a Comprehensive Broad Based Curriculum Model For Adult and Alternative High School Education Based in the African Centered Paradigm

In this session we will explore the history of challenges to the African centered paradigm, and how to design a comprehensive curriculum model and lens for use with African American adult student’s ages 17 years old and up

Expanding the Application of the African Centered Paradigm Model, Use of Its Social Components as Tools in the Provision of Mobile HIV AIDS Outreach with Transgender Dropout Youth and Adults, Expanding the Empirical Study

In this session we will explore adapting some of the social components of the African centered paradigm as tools to improve the provision of street outreach services to African American male and female and transgendered sex workers targeted for positive health and well being messages, HIV and AIDS Education, Testing and informal counseling in a mobile camper setting

The instituionalization of the public school system in Missouri: 1865-1882

By the early 1870s, the public school system in Missouri became an embedded institution in the state's cultural and political fabric. This thesis provides an explanation of how and why Missouri powerholders solidified a government-supplemented educational system during Reconstruction, along with the strategies used to help the system weather the storm of political upheaval and citizen pushback in the decade after Reconstruction's close. The post-Civil War system initiated by state-level Radical Republicans was built on Missouri's antebellum common system, incubated in St. Louis, and in its early stages across the state prior to the conflict. The postbellum public system was a product of the Radical agenda to open publicly funded schools to children regardless of skin color, place of birth, gender, or class. Cultural mores held by some Missouri citizens--racism and anti-tax sentiment, among others--resulted in uneven application of reforms at the local level, but powerholders navigated this convoluted terrain through promotion, an emphasis on teacher professionalization, and a push for capacity expansion to further root the system in Missouri communities. The end of Radical Republican leadership in 1870 did not signal the end of the public school system; rather, spurred by urban growth, rural adaptation, and an expanding web of education-adjacent groups and businesses, public schooling survived in a post-Radical political environment. The system's institutionalization required Democrats to critique and modify within the system. This thesis argues that the survival of public schools from 1865 onward was neither assured nor even likely in Missouri, but key leadership choices and the legacy of education in St. Louis resulted in its continuance.Includes bibliographical references

Beyond Economic Interests: Critical Perspectives on Adult Literacy and Numeracy in a Globalised World

This volume reflects the many faces of the adult literacy and numeracy (ALN) field since the introduction, more than two decades ago, of OECD surveys that define and measure ALN as a contribution to economic productivity, efficiency and growth. The book highlights the transition to statistical tools as the only legitimate form of knowledge about literacy and explores a range of alternative visions and creative practices that focus on ‘the meaning of literacy and numeracy in people's lives’ (Yasukawa and Black 2016: 21)