A Process to Identify and Address Barriers to Providing Financial Capability Programming to Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence

Financial dependence on an abusive partner is a threat to long-term safety for survivors of interpersonal violence. This study piloted a process to identify and address barriers to implementation of financial capability and asset building (FCAB) programming for survivors in one domestic and sexual violence agency. A tiered implementation approach included (a) a participatory diagnostic evaluation with clients ( n = 10), staff ( n = 10), and stakeholders ( n = 3); (b) an expert panel to prioritize the barriers and propose implementation strategies; and (c) the development of a tailored action plan. The formative evaluation identified limited staff financial knowledge, self-efficacy, and incentives as barriers. The tailored action plan included research-tested implementation strategies: (a) conduct ongoing training for staff, (b) identify “champions,” and (c) change the record system. Monitoring and evaluation of the action plan is ongoing; the process provides a replicable method for social service agencies to improve FCAB programming and to ultimately improve economic conditions for clients.

Digital Support for Renal Patients Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Examining the Efforts of Singapore Social Service Agencies in Facebook

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, social service agencies (SSAs) play a crucial role in supporting renal patients, who are particularly vulnerable to infections. Social media platforms such as Facebook, serves as an effective medium for these SSAs to disseminate information. Content analysis of the SSAs’ Facebook posts can provide insights on whether Facebook has been adequately utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic and enable SSAs to improve their social media use in future pandemics. This study aimed to compare renal-related SSAs’ Facebook post content before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Facebook posts of three SSAs National Kidney Foundation (NKF), Kidney Dialysis Foundation (KDF), and Muslim Kidney Action Association (MKAC), posted during the pre-COVID-19 period (January 23, 2019 to June 2, 2019) and the peri-COVID-19 period (January 23, 2020 to June 1, 2020) were extracted. A classification scheme was developed by two coders with themes derived inductively and deductively. Each Facebook post was assigned with a theme. Quantitative analyses indicate that the number of Facebook posts increased from 115 in the pre-COVID-19 period to 293 in the peri-COVID-19 period. During peri-COVID-19, posts regarding lifestyle changes, donations and infectious disease surfaced. While the proportion of posts about encouraging kindness increased from one to 77 posts, the proportion of posts about community-based events and psychosocial support decreased from 44 to 15 posts and 17 to 10 posts respectively during the two periods. Facebook was found to be well-utilized by two of the three renal SSAs in engaging their beneficiaries during the pandemic. During future pandemics, renal SSAs should place emphasis on posts related to psychosocial support and encouraging kindness. Further studies are required to ascertain the impact of COVID-19 from the perspective of renal patients and also to validate the classification scheme which was developed in this study. The study’s methodology and classification scheme can be used to guide future studies for evaluating the social media outreach performance of renal health support groups.

A Struggle for Survival: Meaning of Late Life in a Rural District in Uganda: A Qualitative Study

Background: Between 2015 and 2050, the aging population of Uganda (aged 50 years and older) will be nearly doubled. Therefore, later-life problems have become an area of increasing research and policy interest. This study aimed at exploring how aging people living in extreme poverty in a low-income country experience their everyday life and what kind of meaning systems employed by them to understand and cope with their living conditions.Methods: We conducted a qualitative interview with 14 participants in the Buikwe district. In this interview, 11 women and 3 men were included, and a thematic analysis was employed for data processing and analysis.Results: Unanimously, all participants reported their condition as extreme poverty. The key informants (KIs) emphasized respect from descendants and the community as a foundation for a meaningful later life. In contrast, this aspect has been ever mentioned by no caregivers but by only one care-receiver. The willingness/ability of children to support the elderly who are in need of support formed a major part of the reflections of care-receivers, which would be decisive for their position in the society and the respect they would receive. In addition, both Christianity and traditional beliefs as well as beliefs in witchcraft and ancestral spirits were employed as a basis for actions and reflections.Discussion: The question arises whether life in extreme poverty conditions can be perceived as meaningful. Respect was mentioned as fundamental by the KIs, thereby giving priority to social relations as the most meaningful factor for living a meaningful life. The ability and willingness of the possible descendants for support as the focus of care-receivers might be a more down-to-earth description of this aspect but without using the same level of abstraction. For the majority, due to their belief system did not serve as a source of consolation their main focus was on social relationships for support. To improve the wellbeing of the old people, their sense of meaning must be restored through a system, guaranteeing the coverage of basic needs and measures to restore dignity through a reintegration in both community and congregations. Social service agencies who are targeting the elderly people need to work toward this objective.

Assessing Polyvictimization in a Family Justice Center: Lessons Learned From a Demonstration Project

There is a growing interest in developing comprehensive assessments that measure intimate partner violence (IPV) alongside other adverse events that correlate with IPV and compound its effects. One promising line of research in this area has focused on the impact of exposure to multiple types of victimization, i.e., polyvictimization. The purpose of this study is to examine the experience of administration of a polyvictimization tool from staff and client perspectives in order to inform future tool developments and assessment procedures. Qualitative interviews and focus groups with clients and staff from a family justice center who had experience with the assessment tool were used to identify strengths and challenges of the assessment too and inform future tool development. Findings demonstrate that an assessment tool provides the space for clients to talk about trauma and facilitate empowerment, while providing the opportunity for psychoeducation and service referrals. Concerns about the assessment tool included adverse reactions without proper framing and language, as well as shifting the emphasis from screening for adversities toward strengths, coping skills, and resilience. Implications for future measurement development and establishing best practices in polyvictimization assessment are discussed, with an emphasis on the benefits of social service agencies utilizing assessment tools.

Operating the Panoptic Sort

This chapter emphasizes the nature of the panoptic sort as a discriminatory technology. It emphasizes the role played by surveillance, or the collection, processing, and analysis of data gathered from a variety of transactions, many of them commercial, but many involving bureaucratic institutions involved in governance. While there is already an extensive literature on the nature and usage of data gathered by governments, this chapter focuses primarily on the transaction-generated information gathered by corporations. Its coverage includes traditional data-gathering methods familiar to government and social service agencies, but also includes technological systems, including the rapidly evolving telecommunications network. Considerable attention is paid to developments in the use of computers for data processing and analysis, including a primary function of the panoptic sort: classification, clustering, and segmentation of individuals into groups. The chapter ends with a discussion of an important but emergent segment of the information marketplace, that served by organizations that generate extensive lists of categories or types of persons, often described in terms of their market, or policy-related value.

Alternative education in Aotearoa New Zealand

Secondary students who become disenfranchised from mainstream schools are directed to attend Alternative Education (AE) centres. AE was a grassroots’ initiative in the 1990s led by youth organisations, iwi, community social service agencies and churches to meet the education and pastoral needs of rangatahi. Due to the tenuous links held between AE and the mainstream system and with no government policy work occurring within the sector for the decade prior to 2009, the sector struggled for adequate resourcing and professional recognition. Through a poetic inquiry approach this paper explores three key AE government policy directions over a ten-year period, from 2009 to 2019. Unbuckling prose found within official documents, concrete (visual) poems were created to perform a critical reading of policy. The policy poems form a narrative arc that show the discrediting of AE providers and demonising of students in AE has recently given way to more hopeful directions in policy.

Working with others: An investigation of early childhood education and care centre relationships with external organisations

This article reports on research conducted in New Zealand that deals with early childhood education (ECE) centre working relationships with external organisations, including agencies, social services, and other education providers. The goal of the research was to identify the types of current collaboration, the nature of these relationships, and benefits that are being derived from them. A total of 79 online surveys, supplemented by follow-up interviews, confirmed that ECE centres presently work collaboratively with several external organisations. They include educational providers, social service agencies, health services, and cultural support organisations. However, the nature of these relationships is largely compartmentalised and ad hoc, resulting in the potential for incomplete information sharing, and a lack of consistent, integrated decision making. Truly transformative partnering relationships remain a largely aspirational goal in ECE education. Key impediments include time for relationship building, and insufficient funding. Recommendations for improvement are offered, which are likely to be consistent with the goals of the Ministry of Education’s Early Learning Action Plan 2019–2029.