Acceleration of Village Welfare through Bumdes: Disorientation of Implementation of Bumdes Regulations and Policies

Village-Owned Enterprises (BUMDes) do not have legal certainty regarding their form of legal entity and it will make it difficult to meet the hope of all villagers to run businesses together in accordance with their characteristics, potential, and their respective resources. This research aims to provide input and solutions to the government to be able to accelerate the welfare of villages through BUMDes. The method used in this research is literary or library research by using normative juridical approach. In the processing of data, this journal used qualitative and quantitative approach. This research showed the result that there is disorientation in the implementation of BUMDes regulations and policies, such as: first, the incompatibility of village regulations with other laws and regulations. Second, the low community initiative in driving the village economy. Third, the vagueness of BUMDes position as a social and commercial institution. Fourth, policies that have not directed the professionalism of BUMDes. The solution in accelerating village welfare through BUMDes is to provide the flexibility of BUMDes in the form of legal entity as a bridge to be able to enlarge capital in the investment sector.

A Pilot Assessment of a ‘Plastic Free Community’ Initiative, Respective Community Actions and Residents’ Behavior

The problems of plastic pollution are increasing and have been linked to sustainability efforts. Some communities have tried to tackle this issue by implementing ‘plastic free’ initiatives, such as the ‘Plastic Free Community’. Community initiatives foster change and encourage improved environmental outcomes; however, it is unclear if ‘plastic free’ initiatives have the capacity to ‘snowball’ into further sustainable behaviors or if they are a ‘distraction’ from more pressing environmental issues. This study presents the behavioral changes, snowball and distraction effects from the first Scottish mainland ‘plastic free community’ initiative. The pilot study of ‘Plastic Free Anstruther’ (Scotland) identifies self-transcending values and locus of control as important drivers for change, but adoption of single-use plastic alternatives and a ‘single use’ mindset resulted in a limited ‘snowball’ effect. Future ‘Plastic Free Community’ initiatives should focus on encouraging more circular approaches and individual behavior change to reduce waste and improve environmental outcomes. While the initiative resulted in greater awareness of wider environmental issues, additional incentives for individual and business pro-environmental behavior could further improve economic, social and environmental sustainability.

Evaluation of the Savvy Caregiver Program for LGBTQIA Adults Living With Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias

Approximately 350,000 LGBTQIA+ older adults in the U.S. currently have Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD), with projections nearing 1 million by 2030. LGBTQIA+ older adults face challenges in receiving adequate and inclusive care and caregiving support due to the inability to rely on traditional family networks, greater disability, and discrimination when seeking aging services. Working with the Los Angeles LGBT Center Aging in Community Initiative, we evaluated the: 1) Adaptation of the Savvy caregiver training program for care providers of LGBTQIA+ persons living with ADRD; and 2) Feasibility and acceptability of the program. Care providers were very satisfied with the program, strategies, information, and activities of the tailored Savvy program. For psychosocial outcomes, there were trends in greater care planning, increases in asking friends/family for support, and decreased loneliness. Additional research is needed on culturally-relevant aging services and behavioral interventions for care providers of LGBTQIA+ persons living with ADRD.

Cultural and contextual considerations in designing programs to support the incorporation of early childhood development within ongoing national nutrition programmes: A focus on the Baby-Friendly Community Initiative (BFCI) in a rural African context

The Baby Friendly Community Initiative (BFCI) offers a unique platform for integration of counselling on early childhood development (ECD) with existing maternal and child health and nutrition messages. To understand how to efficiently deliver such a program, this study determined the feasibility of integrating counselling on child stimulation into the Kenyan BFCI activities. Qualitative interviews (N=97) among female (aged 15-49 years) and male users, stakeholders, and services providers in Koibatek sub-County (mainly inhabited by the Tugen people, a Nilotic group in sub-Saharan Africa) provided extensive information on understanding regarding ECD, caregiving beliefs, needs at different levels and barriers and facilitators. Contextual influences and existing health system infrastructure are important considerations when designing integrated interventions to improve nurturing care of children.

What contributes to online communities' prosperity? Understanding value co-creation in product-experience-shared communities (PESCs) from the view of resource integration

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand the factors influencing content generation and community initiative in PESCs. Taking advantage of an emerging PESC – Xiaohongshu APP, the study identifies three antecedent resources, including customer-owned knowledge, harmonious passion to shopping and perceived information usefulness, that affect content generating and further community initiative.Design/methodology/approachBased on the service-dominant (S-D) logic model and resource integration related work, the authors proposed a conceptual framework empirically tested using data of a survey and the real content-generating behavior from 347 respondents.FindingsThis paper identifies three resource antecedents of content generating behavior with significant influence. Furthermore, there is a moderating effect of perceived information usefulness among these three resources, which echoes the concept of resource integration. Content generating has a significant and positive influence on community initiative.Originality/valueFirst, the paper identified customer and platform resources promoting the prosperity of PESCs, enhancing the research on antecedents of community prosperity. Second, the paper empirically quantifies the process and outcome of resource integration conceptual model. Third, it enriches the understanding of C2C interaction by investigating the value creation process on PESCs. Moreover, findings in the study provide insights for community managers to improve the operation of PESCs.

Schulich students for emergency childcare: Results of a community initiative during COVID-19

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic led to the abrupt suspension of many businesses and services in Ontario including schools and childcare centres. This resulted in many parents struggling to identify options for childcare, including frontline healthcare workers (HCWs). A volunteer initiative composed of medical and dental students was developed to provide emergency childcare support to HCWs in Southwestern Ontario. Experts in areas of public health, law, and bioethics were consulted to minimize the risks associated with participation and develop a clear policy to prioritize the health and safety of all participants. Social media was utilized to recruit volunteers and HCWs who were matched on a first-come, first-served basis. 59 medical and dental students were recruited to provide emergency support for 21 HCWs within the unique safety and ethical conditions posed by COVID-19. By reflecting on the strengths of this initiative and the challenges faced during its completion, key areas of improvement were identified that should be addressed in future initiatives of a similar nature.

Publishing accessible content on OJS and beyond

Open Journal Systems (OJS) was released in 2001 and has since become the most widely used open-source journal publishing platform in existence, with over 25,000 journals using it worldwide. Over the past few years, the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), its creator, has been working on improving accessibility of the platform, including the release of the first accessible Default theme in OJS 3.3. This presentation will go over the accessibility improvements made to day and those planned ahead. Making the platform accessible is only half the battle however as it is often the published content that presents barriers to readers. Creating resources for editors and authors to improve content accessibility – in OJS and beyond – is one of the goals of the PKP Accessibility Interest Group (AIG), a community initiative established in 2020. We will highlight the work of the group and the resources it makes available to the public. This overview is presented on behalf of the PKP AIG.

Catalyzing Knowledge-Driven Discovery in Environmental Health Sciences through a Community-Driven Harmonized Language

Harmonized language is critical for helping researchers to find data, collecting scientific data to facilitate comparison, and performing pooled and meta-analyses. Using standard terms to link data to knowledge systems facilitates knowledge-driven analysis, allows for the use of biomedical knowledge bases for scientific interpretation and hypothesis generation, and increasingly supports artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Due to the breadth of environmental health sciences (EHS) research and the continuous evolution in scientific methods, the gaps in standard terminologies, vocabularies, ontologies, and related tools hamper the capabilities to address large-scale, complex EHS research questions that require the integration of disparate data and knowledge sources. The results of prior workshops to advance a harmonized environmental health language demonstrate that future efforts should be sustained and grounded in scientific need. We describe a community initiative whose mission was to advance integrative environmental health sciences research via the development and adoption of a harmonized language. The products, outcomes, and recommendations developed and endorsed by this community are expected to enhance data collection and management efforts for NIEHS and the EHS community, making data more findable and interoperable. This initiative will provide a community of practice space to exchange information and expertise, be a coordination hub for identifying and prioritizing activities, and a collaboration platform for the development and adoption of semantic solutions. We encourage anyone interested in advancing this mission to engage in this community.