An Evaluation of FIRST Court in the Douglas County Child Welfare System: Improvements in Caseworker-Attorney Relations

The current project examines improvements made in the Douglas County Juvenile Court system since the implementation of FIRST Court in January of 2017. Specifically, this thesis examines how attorney-caseworker interactions have changed since the implementation of this new therapeutic track. Previous research has shown that problem-solving courts are effective in achieving desirable case outcomes by using a therapeutic, rehabilitative approach as opposed to a traditional, punitive approach. Research has also shown that party collaboration and teamwork positively influence case outcomes. The present evaluation used court observations and professional interviews for the purpose of assessing participation and involvement, levels of trust and respect, and perceived level of team membership for both attorneys and caseworkers. Court observations were collected over the course of the first year. Interviews were conducted at the beginning of the implementation of FIRST Court and six months after FIRST Court began. Our findings show that while perceived feelings of trust and respect were not improved for caseworkers, levels of participation and feelings of team membership significantly improved with the implementation of FIRST Court. Implications and limitations are discussed

An Evaluation of FIRST Court in the Douglas County Child Welfare System: Improvements in Caseworker-Attorney Relations

The current project examines improvements made in the Douglas County Juvenile Court system since the implementation of FIRST Court in January of 2017. Specifically, this thesis examines how attorney-caseworker interactions have changed since the implementation of this new therapeutic track. Previous research has shown that problem-solving courts are effective in achieving desirable case outcomes by using a therapeutic, rehabilitative approach as opposed to a traditional, punitive approach. Research has also shown that party collaboration and teamwork positively influence case outcomes. The present evaluation used court observations and professional interviews for the purpose of assessing participation and involvement, levels of trust and respect, and perceived level of team membership for both attorneys and caseworkers. Court observations were collected over the course of the first year. Interviews were conducted at the beginning of the implementation of FIRST Court and six months after FIRST Court began. Our findings show that while perceived feelings of trust and respect were not improved for caseworkers, levels of participation and feelings of team membership significantly improved with the implementation of FIRST Court. Implications and limitations are discussed

Engineering disorder at a nanoscale: a combined TEM and XAS investigation of amorphous versus nanocrystalline sodium birnessite

The term amorphous metal oxide is becoming widely used in the catalysis community. The term is generally used when there are no apparent peaks in an X-ray diffraction pattern. However, the absence of such features in X-ray diffraction can mean that the material is either truly amorphous or that it is better described as nanocrystalline. By coprecipitating a sodium birnessite-like phase with and without phosphate (1.5 %), we are able to engineer two very similar but distinct materials – one that is nanocrystalline and the other that is amorphous. The two closely related phases were characterized with both Mn K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. These structural results were then correlated with catalytic and electrocatalytic activities for water oxidation catalysis. In this case, the amorphous phosphate-doped material was less catalytically active than the nanocrystalline material