Fighting on Many Fronts: SEIU in Los Angeles

[Excerpt] The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has a unique perspective on the issue of contracting out because it represents both public and private workers in industries which involve significant contract work. While some of the problems with contract work can be resolved when employees of contractors are unionized, there are many services which are most appropriately performed by governments. In addition, when work traditionally performed by public workers is contracted out, the motivation is generally to cut costs by reducing wages and benefits, cutting staff and reducing the quality of service. SEIU\u27s public employee locals continually see the problems caused for public workers and the general public by the privatization of public sector work

Center for Teaching & Learning + Scott Memorial Library: Academic Year 2016/2017

Contents: About Us Staff Highlights Milestones Metrics Programs & Exhibit

The Center for Teaching & Learning: July 1, 2014 - December 2015

Contents: From the Director New Center Supports Teaching and Learning CTL Supports Scholarly Publishing iCE Platform Fosters Interactive Learning Experience A Physical and Virtual Makeover for Scott Library Reaching Out to Our Users Exhibits & Special Events Staff Highlight

Public participation and policy: unpacking connections in one British LA21

YesWithin western cultures, the term `public participation¿ has strong positive connotations, and is associated with the promotion of democracy. The contention of this paper is that these invocations of democracy - although not entirely inaccurate - obscure the varied and tangible effects of public participation on wider policy processes. Drawing on Sharp and Connelly 2001, this paper argues that participation should not be analysed in terms of the type of democracy it invokes, but rather in terms of the extent and nature of its influence on the policy process. In particular, the policy process is examined for conflict between participants over (1) the extent of participation, (2) the nature of participation and (3) the influence of the participation, as well as (4) the outcomes to which it leads. This approach to the analysis of participation is demonstrated through a study of one element of participation in an authority¿s Local Agenda 21 process. The paper concludes that participation is inherently political and practitioners need to act strategically to manage participation in support of progressive agendas

Reducing Anti-LGBT Hate Crimes and Improving Services to Survivors

Over the course of a lesbian, gay, or bisexual individual\u27s lifetime there is a 20% risk of experiencing hate violence, while a transgender individual\u27s risk of violence is 27%. Three key recommendations are given for reducing the victimization of LGBT people by hate crimes

Living in Sandwell: An Exploratory Study into the Key Issues and Challenges that Affect a Small Group of People with Mild Learning Disabilities

This paper is concerned with a small group of people with a mild learning disability; who they are and what their lives are like. This group is not typically known by the label of mild learning disability in research, social policy or in service provision, due to a lack of suitable assessment or identification methods. This small study, using focus groups as a data collection method and undertaken as a pilot study for further research, has shown this group experienced wide ranging social disadvantage, and difficulties and challenges in daily living due to their learning disability. These included travel, shopping, parenting, lack of IT skills, plus experiencing local anti-social behaviour on a regular basis. Lack of recognition and appropriate support can leave them vulnerable to a range of difficulties and issues including social isolation and harassment

Problematising the discourse of 'Post-AIDS'

This paper reflects on the meanings of ‘post-AIDS’ in the Global North and Global South. I bring together a range of contemporary arguments to suggest that the notion of ‘post-AIDS’ is, at best, misplaced, not least because its starting point remains a biotechnical one. Drawing on aspects of the sub-Saharan African experience, this essay suggests that, despite significant shifts in access to antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV continues to be fundamentally shaped by economic determinants and social and cultural practices. In this essay, I question the certainty of the discourse of (Western biomedical) ‘positive progress’ (Johnson et al. 2015), which underpins the ‘post-AIDS’ narrative, and suggest that living with HIV and AIDS in our contemporary global context is a life lived with ongoing complexity, stigma and chronicity. I suggest that HIV in the Global North shares many characteristics with HIV in the Global South, yet differs in significant ways, not least in the fact that a resource-rich context generates an environment where health and social care support is possible, and, mostly, usual. In both contexts, however, the experience of living with a highly stigmatized illness with no cure in both the Global South and North suggests that this is a point of shared experience

Scott Memorial Library: Academic Year 2015-2016

Includes: Milestones Metrics Top Ten List