Fostering Communication

The period of transition for foster youth into independent adulthood is an important life stage, and one that has yet to be explored in HCI circles. We studied an online community centered on the experiences of former foster youth through the first year of its existence to better understand how online spaces are being used by this population. Our mixed-method study included the coding of all posts from the first year of the online community and offers a mix of quantitative and qualitative findings. These findings include alignments and gaps in an established descriptive framework from the field of social work as it relates to the online communication of former foster youth. It also includes how the domains from the framework co-occur, and some potential implications of these co-occurrences. Future research on this subject is warranted, particularly related to why former foster youth seek online platforms to engage in conversations on these topics and how effective community members perceive the platform to be in safely and securely facilitating their needs.

Advocating Digital Literacy: Community-Based Strategies and Approaches

As the pandemic waves hit the world, digital literacy becoming more profoundly essential than ever as the world shifts its daily life towards digitalization. In addition, digital literacy skill plays a big role in the teaching and learning process. In this study, the future strategies for enhancing digital literacy for educational purposes through community development programs are being discussed. The authors analysed and reviewed diverse sources of articles, reports and documents from previous researches and works of literature. It is found that there are six main community-based strategies to enhance digital literacy to improve the learning experience, which are improving and maximizing the usage of digital infrastructure in rural areas, providing necessary digital facilities and devices for underprivileged citizens, offering attractive benefits to boost participation, conducting engaging activities and learning modules of digital literacy programs, well-trained teachers and instructors in educational institutions, and role of effective community leaders. Moving forward as the education sector moves towards digitalization, digital literacy skills will become the key role toward effective learning experience. It is recommended to all levels of community members to take part in advocating the next generations with digital literacy. Received: 28 September 2021 / Accepted: 16 November 2021 / Published: 3 January 2022

Sustainable Socio-Intercultural Development

This chapter has the objective to explain and analyze the issues, problems, concerns, and tendencies related to the sustainable socio-intercultural development. The analysis departs from the assumption that the nature of a sustainable socio-intercultural development system should be based on the common socio-cultural values and public understanding to strengthen the sustaining practices of governance. The method employed is the reflective approach based on an analytical review of the theoretical literature and empirically derived current practices in communities, governments, and organizations. The analysis concludes that the implementation of a sustainable socio-intercultural socioeconomic and environmental development needs to be supported by a well-designed institutional governance. To achieve this, a commitment on the practice of effective community economic growth and socio-environmental sustainable development is required.

Towards Programs Sustainability: Assessment of Institutional Determinants for Effective Community Participation in Development Programs in Tanzania

This paper brings to the fore an assessment of institutional determinants for effective community participation in development programs for the case of Tanzania. It is highly acknowledged in various scholarly literature that there is a strong link between community participation and development programs. In fact, literature shows that community-based development programs that have allowed community members to be fully involved in various programs have been successful when compared to those where community members are seen as spectators.However, in order for community members to take part in the programs, there are several determining factors, ranging from socio-economic, socio-cultural to institutional based factors.This study therefore sought to assess institutional determinants with the aim of identifying the major institutional determinants capable of influencing effective community participation in development programs. The study used four programs that were categorized as Locally Funded, Government Funded, Donor Funded and Joint Funded development programs. A combined sample size of 316 participants from all the four programs was employed. Collected data were analyzed through the within-case analysis and the comparative analysis approaches.Results of the study revealed that program benefits, objectives and leadership were the major institutional determinants for promoting effective community participation in development programs. when compared to methods used in the other three examined programs. Hence, the study concluded by emphasizing on the need to ensure these institutional based factors (program benefits, objectives and leadership) should always be given due attention in any development program.

Evaluating the Benefits of a SNAP-Ed-Funded Community Garden Intervention Using Ripple Effect Mapping

In North Carolina, rural communities experience high rates of chronic illness due to health inequities exacerbated by the decline of major industries. Community gardens increase access to fresh produce and opportunities for physical activity and may offer additional benefits. These benefits can be difficult to measure as they are often unplanned or unintended. This article describes how we utilized Ripple Effect Mapping (REM), a participatory approach for evaluating complex interventions, to understand the impact of a SNAP-Ed-funded program. We purposively selected six community gardens to participate in 2-hour, facilitated REM sessions. On average, 15 people participated in each session. Participants developed a map of benefits using Appreciative Inquiry, mind mapping, and consensus-building methods. The map organized benefits across three levels: first ripple (individual), second ripple (interpersonal), and third ripple (community). In addition, participants coded benefits using the Community Capitals Framework. After the sessions, the research team extracted identified impacts into a matrix, aligned them with the SNAP-Ed Evaluation Framework, and developed digitized maps. These data corroborated findings from previous evaluations and offered insight into community-identified benefits not previously documented, including other types of capital generated by community gardens in rural communities. In addition, REM was an effective approach to measure and report several SNAP-Ed evaluation indicators, including LT11: Unexpected Benefits. Ultimately, the research team found REM to be an effective community-engaged method for understanding a complex intervention’s benefits while centering participant community voices and transferring ownership of the data to community partners, a key principle in equitable evaluation.

Social Innovation in the Academic Curricula of Chemical Science Degrees in South Africa

Social innovation is growing internationally and is a focus area for sub-Saharan Africa. While studies have been conducted on the factors thatcontribute to the failure to incorporate social innovation in academic curricula,there is a paucity of such research in the South African context, especially inrelation to university curricula. This qualitative study explored chemicalscientists’ perceptions on the interventions required to introduce socialinnovation to the academic curricula of the chemical science degree inSouth African universities. Semi-structured interviews were conductedwith 14 chemical scientists and the data was analysed using thematicanalysis. The key findings included the overall lack of awareness andunderstanding of social innovation and the social challenges confrontingSouth Africa. These factors hamper the development of sustainableacademic curricula, effective community engagement and societal change.Furthermore, academic institutions’ reluctance to embrace change is causefor concern. Key words: Social innovation, chemical sciences, academic curriculum,South African universities

Families and Collective Futures: Developing a Program Logic Model for Arts-Based Psychosocial Practice With South African Rural Communities

Aim: This aim of this study is to describe the development of a program logic model to guide arts-based psychosocial practice delivered in rural South African farming communities affected by transgenerational traumas.Background: The rationale for developing a program logic model for arts-based psychosocial practice in South Africa was based on the lack of evidence for effective community arts-based psychosocial interventions for collective trauma, unknown consensus about best practices and the need for developing cogent collective psychosocial practices. Further to this, the aims and benefits of the practice required clarity given the psychosocial complexity of the environment within which the practices for this population are being offered. The logic model offers a valuable resource for practitioners, participants and funders to understand the problem being addressed, how practice is defined, as well as the impact of practice and on intermediate and longer term goals.Methods: The authors used a systematic iterative approach to describe the operationalization of arts-based psychosocial practice. This resulted in the design of the logic model being informed by data from focus groups, an overview of the literature regarding transgerenational trauma in this population, operational policies and organizational documents. The development of the logic model involved actively investigating with practitioners their work with remote farming communities. We thematised practitioners practice constructs to identify salient practice elements and their relationship to perceived benefits and lastly feedback from practitioners and participants following implementation to make adjustments to the logic model.Results: The results were clearly identified in the form of visual mapping using the design of a program logic model. The logic model was divided into 5 parts and was verified by practitioners following implementation. The parts of the program logic model are (Part 1) main presenting problem, (Part 2) operational processes, (Part 3) practice elements, (Part 4) benefits, and impact and (Part 5) review.

Confirmation bias: A barrier to community policing

This is a very challenging time for police–community relations, one characterized by a mutual lack of trust between police and citizens. But trust is an important tenet of effective community policing. Trust between police and communities can result in better problem solving, fewer legal violations by citizens, less frequent use of force by the police, less resistance by citizens during arrests, greater willingness to share information, less inclination to riot, and greater willingness of community members and police to cooperate. One key obstacle to fostering trust between the community and police is confirmation bias—the tendency for people to take in information and process it in a way that confirms their current preconceptions, attitudes, and beliefs. Recognizing and addressing confirmation bias, therefore, plays a critical role in fostering more productive engagement. If we are to improve police–community relations and co-create a way forward, learning to approach debates with open minds, an awareness of the lens of our own perspectives, commitment to considering the opposite, and the goal of listening with curiosity are essential.