Mary and Frances Youth Center

The Mary and Frances Youth Center opened in 2007 on Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) Monroe Park campus in Richmond. Its facilities include two private tennis courts and a number of classrooms designed for youth-centered programming and training. The youth center’s flagship program since opening has been Lobs & Lessons, a nationally recognized tennis and learning program, but it also hosts and leads Discovery summer program, which provides middle-school students with in-depth experiences in science, technology, engineering, arts and health sciences. In addition to these programs, the youth center co-manages the implementation of the Youth Program Quality Intervention, a quality improvement process for out-of-school service providers across the region. VCU and the youth center are committed to maintaining a safe, supportive environment for minors participating in VCU programs. To that end, the Safety and Protection of Minors Policy was launched in March 2016 to ensure all youth programs and activities on campus meet specific requirements, including biennial background checks

First Line of Defense: Protecting Youth on Campus

Many institutions recognize the need for a centralized process to address the safety of youth on campus. Legislation, publicized incidents, state and national laws, and research have pushed this topic to the forefront. In an effort to educate, mitigate risk, and create consistency, the implementation of university-wide youth protection policies has become a common practice. While each campus is different, foundational components to these policies can create a cultural shift and educate individuals on their role in reporting abuse and neglect. Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) launched its youth protection policy, Safety and Protection of Minors, in July 2016. The policy took over two years to create and is now in the second year of implementation. Based on the evolution of this policy, from inception to application, the university has learned that this initiative is a shared responsibility and that leaders play a key role

The Spatially Interactive Literature Analysis System Study Tool: A GIS Tool for Interpreting History

The Spatially Interactive Literature Analysis System Study Tool (SILAS.ST) follows in the tradition of the original SILAS, developed by Stephen Benzek (MS GIS Cohort 12). This second phase of SILAS focuses on the educational functionality of the application. With SILAS.ST, students can overlay and juxtapose information from multiple sources and explore and document the historical information for each source brought into ESRI’s ArcGIS, a geographic information system (GIS). Current geographic metadata standards are not suitable for documenting historical sources in GIS, and often they are too cumbersome for students who are new to GIS and metadata. SILAS.ST has been fitted with its own metadata standard for the purpose of documenting historical geographic data. When students fill out and share information in the metadata forms, they will better understand the historical relevance and uncertainty inherent in the maps they create and the map layers they encounter when studying historical topics. Students will also learn how to document historical sources using the custom metadata, easing the transition from critiquing textual sources to evaluating visual map layers. Additional customization of the ArcMap user interface, such as custom toolbars, buttons and direct access to the new metadata forms, will aid in the introduction of digital mapping technologies to humanities students. SILAS.ST has earned the Association of American Geographer’s (AAG) Amy Mather New Scholar Award for 2009, which honors students for their outstanding contribution to the field of Biblical Geography

Creating, Collaborating and Adapting: Implementing a Decentralized Youth Policy

The first year implementing a new policy on campus comes with unique opportunities as well as challenges in ensuring appropriate controls and protections for minors. A decentralized policy can often highlight these barriers, but can also create space for innovation. When a policy is located in departments like human resources and risk management infrastructures designed to bolster policies and manage liability are present. For policies in non-traditional areas of higher education, the journey to a sustainable policy model requires a different approach. Virginia Commonwealth University’s policy, Safety and Protection of Minors, is located under the Division of Community Engagement, within the Mary and Frances Youth Center. The Center directly facilitates youth programs while also serving as a hub for youth development best practices through our policy work and training programs. We will share our experience implementing this policy during its’ first year and the ways in which we strengthened through key modifications. Identifying and orienting policy advocates, designing processes for background checks and non-compliance, incorporating multiple campuses, and creating partnerships with campus departments can help provide a strong foundation on which to rely. We will also share long term goals for year two of a new policy. This includes creating a process for auditing, developing a database of university youth programs and establishing a plan for policy assessment. The second half of the session will incorporate critical group discussions aimed at identifying key issues in policy implementation with opportunities for feedback and networking. By analyzing hurdles, identifying solutions and offering opportunities for in depth discussion and networking, we hope attendees will leave with strategies to overcome policy challenges

Time Varying Predictor Model of Socialization Behavior in Children Diagnosed with Pediatric Brain Tumors

Medical advances have improved the survival rate of children with brain tumors, allowing research on long-term outcomes. Prior research suggests that social functioning is often negatively affected by brain insults, and social functioning may be related to childhood receptive vocabulary in children with traumatic brain injuries (Greenham et al., 2010). The current study addressed this hypothesis with children diagnosed with pediatric brain tumors longitudinally using latent growth curve modeling (LGCM). Our sample consisted of 154 children with 544 evaluations from 2 to 7 years post diagnosis. All children completed the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test Revised (PPVT-R) and Vineland Socialization Scale. Participants were diagnosed with mixed tumor types and diverse tumor locations. The average time since diagnosis was used to determine the latent growth curve factor loading (2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 years post diagnosis). Results indicated that the predictors (PPVT-R and radiation therapy) accounted for 41% of the variance of the slope of socialization behavior and 38% of the variance of the intercept. Socialization and PPVT-R scores were significantly positively correlated (intercept γ=.47,