Case Study Of Community Research Articles

Public assistance, living environments, and food insecurity: A comparative community case study

Food insecurity continues to affect certain seg­ments of the U.S. population at the household and individual levels even when the economy is experi­encing growth. This recognition has led to the design and implementation of food assistance programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, targeting food hardship in low-income families. This is in addition to other types of government assistance, such as housing subsidies and public housing, as low-income households and individuals face similar challenges in housing security. Concern over “concentrated poverty” in traditional public housing environment has contributed to a shift toward mixed-income developments, envisaged to improve the living conditions and economic opportunities of public-housing residents. This paper provides a compara­tive assessment of food insecurity in traditional and mixed-income public housing communities. It also examines the effect of nonhousing public assis­tance on food insecurity and the temporal relation­ship between the timing of food hardship and the receipt of assistance. Administering a modified version of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Household Food Security Module to the majority of residents in the two communities, the researchers found negligible differences in food insecurity between recipients and nonrecipients of government assistance. Nevertheless, government assistance appeared to improve the probability of being food secure as it interacted with living envi­ronments, suggestive of greater beneficial effect in the environment of mixed-income housing. The results show that the number of households experi­encing reduced food intake was lowest in the first two weeks and highest during the fourth week of the month.

دور الصندوق الاجتماعي للتنمية في تعزيز المهارات الحياتية لدى الأسر الريفية في اليمن: دراسة حالة مديرية جبل الشرق انس ذمار

This study aimed to investigate the role of the Social Fund for Development (SFD) in promoting life skills for rural families in Yemen. The study focused on a case study of the rural community of Ans District in Thamar Governorate, specifically the Conditional Cash Transfer Program for Nutrition (CCTPN). The study used a descriptive survey approach and applied a questionnaire to a sample of 150 women beneficiaries of the CCTPN. It was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study found that the CCTPN had a significant impact on enhancing life skills among the beneficiaries, particularly in the areas of health and nutrition. The study also found that the CCTPN had improved some living conditions that were almost non-existent before the project's intervention. The study showed many negative aspects that impedes the enhancement of life skills, the most prominent of which is that illiteracy is widespread in the rural community, which is a serious threat and a major obstacle to economic and development that should be given significant attention by the relevant authorities.

Landscape multifunctionality, agroecology, and smallholders: a socio-ecological case study of the Cuban agroecological transition

After the fall of the USSR, Cuba was plunged into an economic crisis with devastating effects on the agricultural system. With few options, the government restructured its agricultural system from an industrial model to a model based on smallholders and agroecology. After several decades, the results of this transition have been far reaching for both landscapes and livelihoods. This research uses mixed-methods, including remote sensing, interviews, and economic and agricultural statistics to present the case study of a smallholder community that has undergone a shift from industrial sugarcane to small-scale agroecology. This work reveals that while agricultural extent has plummeted, production of staple crops has increased dramatically. At the same time, on-farm incomes and food market availability have risen steadily. In the context of strong social, economic, and environmental protections, this represents a process of a sustainable rural transition with several concurrent benefits to people and the environment.

Community case studies: an interpretative phenomenological analysis on sexual abuse in urban Chennai.

This study attempts to explore the lived experiences of sexual abuse during COVID-19 in a big metropolitan city in India, with a special interest in understanding the contemporary problems faced by teenagers. Any Phenomenological enquiry begins with identifying and determining the suitability of the participants. In this case, the participants are teenage girls and boys, who have experienced one or other forms of sexual abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic. By restricting the act of sexual abuse that happened during a pandemic, this research brings attention to the medium (material), social conditions, and the role of the cultural world in the act of sexual abuse. It begins by distributing a questionnaire to 500 participants to identify the participants who had experienced one or other forms of sexual abuse during the aforementioned time. Secondly, brief interviews with the identified participants are conducted to record their lived experience of sexual abuse. Using this collected narrated experience as a reservoir for phenomenological reflection, this research aims to uncover moments of lived experience emphasizing spatial, corporeal, and temporal aspects as well as provide greater depth in understanding sexual abuse in the context of teenage lives. It helps to understand the different forms of sexual abuse experienced by teenagers as well as portrays how space plays a major role in the act. This article aims to highlight the role of the material world in the act as well as how the social, political, and cultural contexts are materialized in the act of sexual abuse. Also, this article analyses how the existing intervention mechanisms support the prevention of sexual abuse in different social settings as well as emphasizes the gaps in the intervention mechanisms apropos the chosen narrative data. To sum up, this study aims to create awareness, provides prevention mechanisms considering the role of the material world, and advocates for SDG 16 (Promote justice, peaceful and inclusive societies) and SDG 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls).

Picturing broader socioeconomic conditions: introducing demographic data to participatory photo mapping in order to help youth understand community stratification

ABSTRACT Shaded polygons based on quantitative demographic indicators can represent place-based characteristics that influence perceptions of social phenomena. However, social scientists have struggled to integrate demographic methods with qualitative means of participatory research meaningfully. This is especially true in work with children, where concrete depictions of broader socioeconomic conditions can be challenging yet must be balanced with their research contributions. In working with this population, we encourage the introduction of demographic community indicators when integrating Photovoice (participant-generated imagery) and qualitative GIS methods. This integration simplifies an analytical challenge and allows youth to balance perspectives and quantify how social and economic features of place affect their perceptions of social phenomena. While the broader literature has focused on one-level designs to capture participant narratives and the overlapping of spatial data, integrating these concepts with youth researchers has not been addressed. As a methodological advancement in children’s research, we believe spatial participant-generated imagery (SPGI) improves upon participatory visual research methods by depicting how participant perceptions are situated in a community context. Through this research method, participants are empowered to triangulate their lived experiences with mixed-methods research. We illustrate this process through a case study of community belonging by youth.

The psychosocial aid response after the 22/03/2016 attacks in Belgium: a community case study.

After the terrorist attacks, early psychosocial care is provided to people considered at risk of developing mental health issues due to the attacks. Despite the clear importance of such early intervention, there is very few data on how this is registered, who is targeted, and whether target-recipients accept such aid. Using registry data from the Centre General Wellbeingwork (CAW), a collection of centers in the regions Brussels and Flanders that provide psychosocial care, we examined the early psychosocial care response after the terrorist attacks of 22/03/2016 in Belgium. In total, 327 people were listed to be contacted by the CAW, while only 205 were reached out to (62.7%). Most were contacted within a month (84.9%), and were victims of the attacks (69.8%). Overall, the majority was female (55.6%). Overall, target recipients were witnesses and survivors of the attacks, though a large proportion of people were not reached by the early outreach.

Decentering Whiteness in the Academic Library: Investigating the Impact of Institutional Whiteness on Organizational Culture through a Case Study of a Grassroots Anti-Racist Community of Practice in an Academic Library

This article reports on a small-scale research project conducted in the summer of 2021. It explores the impact of a grass-roots Anti-Racist Community of Practice on organizational culture and how much it influenced the decision-making practices of the library’s Senior Management Team. Discussed are issues of structural and institutional racism, privilege, power tensions, the impact of whiteness, and the problem of a policy-led approach to increasing diversity. A case study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with eleven participants who were either part of the Anti-Racist Community of Practice, the Senior Management Team, or both. The results of the research show that the Anti-Racist Community of Practice has significantly influenced organizational culture and has shifted the decision-making processes of the Senior Management Team in the library. However, changes in decision-making have not yet manifested in anti-racist practice becoming embedded at the senior level of the library.

Promoting physical activity and youth development in schools: the case for near-peer coaches.

Sports-based youth development (SBYD) programs provide an inclusive, supportive environment for promoting physical activity as well as nurturing the development of life skills which, in combination, promote physical, mental, and emotional health in youth. The Up2Us Sports SBYD program was implemented in six schools in New Orleans, Louisiana in 2020-2022, where near-peer coaches from the community were placed in schools and present throughout the school day. The intervention period straddled the COVID-19 pandemic as well as extreme weather events, modifying program delivery. An exploratory case study was conducted to understand participant experience amid program disruptions and modifications, as well as their perceptions of program impact on physical activity and health. Interviews with coaches (n = 7), focus groups with youth (n = 14) and program observation data were triangulated to provide a description of the case. The major theme that emerged from the case study was the centrality of the near-peer mentorship relationships between coaches and youth. Participants believed near-peer relationships facilitated life skill development and increased opportunity for physical activity in schools, but pressures on coaches' time and external challenges in the community were limiting factors to the extent of program impact. This community case study demonstrates the potential role for near-peer mentors in influencing the health and wellbeing of youth from under-resourced communities and highlights the opportunity for school-based SBYD programming to provide youth with a consistent source of both relational and physical activity support.

Development and implementation of a municipal outdoor play policy for children and youth in Nova Scotia, Canada: a community case study.

Background: Children and youth benefit from outdoor play; however, environments and policies to support outdoor play are often limited. The purpose of this paper is to describe a case study of the development of a municipal outdoor play policy in Nova Scotia, Canada. The outdoor play policy was developed by the Town of Truro with support from the UpLift Partnership, a School-Community-University Partnership in Nova Scotia, Canada. UpLift supports the health and well-being of school-aged children and youth using a Health Promoting Schools approach which identifies the important role of municipal government in creating healthy school communities. The UpLift Partnership and the municipality hosted online workshops for municipal staff, community leaders and partners that included content about the importance of outdoor play, barriers and facilitators to outdoor play, best practices for youth engagement, the policy development process, and how policy actions can support outdoor play. Workshop participants developed policy actions for their community of Truro, Nova Scotia to increase opportunities for outdoor play for children and youth. Following the workshops, a small team from the municipality and UpLift drafted an outdoor play policy and submitted it to Truro town council for approval. The outdoor play policy was adopted in Fall 2021 and has since informed recreation and municipal planning decisions. By presenting a case study of the development of this outdoor play policy, we hope other communities may be inspired to develop and adopt their own outdoor play policies to benefit children and youth in their communities.

The integration spatial pattern of disaster mitigation based on local community: sikka district community case studies

The local community is a pillar of life in society, one of which is in disaster mitigation, the Sikka Krowe community who lives around Mount Egon has its local wisdom in disaster mitigation. Sampling using the grid technique with a total of 101 samples. This study, used open and closed questions and analysis of assign theme data to find out an overview of the integration of spatial patterns of mitigation. Based on the results of the study, it is known that in zone 1 with a distance of 1.5 km from the peak of Mount Egon, the Sikka Krowe community still holds disaster mitigation in the form of cultural semiotic and faunal semiotic delivered by parents and traditional elders. In zones 2 and 3, it is seen that the integration of disaster mitigation related to faunal semiotic into learning in schools and socialization carried out by the government, this is also influenced by the presence of immigrants because the results of the T test show that there is a significant influence between the value of local wisdom and disaster mitigation.

Leveraging small island context to advance and disseminate environmental health and sustainable development knowledge through higher education

Higher education curricula can be designed to effectively leverage the context of small island states to enhance and deliver sustainable development and environmental health education, catering to workforce development, citizenry, and inclusivity. Small islands and developing states, in particular, are left behind in recognizing and promoting the linkages between environmentally sustainable development and the health of its people. This community case study highlights strategies of a Caribbean-based higher learning institution, leveraging the context of a small island state, to close this gap and create equitable access to integrated sustainable development and environmental health education. Tenets of Education for Sustainable Development theory underpin the pedagogical methodologies used in the delivery of the academic program. The curriculum draws on experiential learning, competency-based education, and diversity and inclusion, oriented to active student–student and student-practitioner engagements. Learning is facilitated through the effective dissemination of information, healthy interactions within a diverse community, professional engagements with multi-disciplinary practitioners, problem-solving, and formulation and presentation of perspectives and experiences relating to the Sustainable Development Agenda and Goals. Highly engaging and inclusive academic processes can accentuate students transitioning into the role of teachers, environmentally conscious leaders and citizens, and competent public health practitioners for the local and global workforces.

Participation, agency, and youth voice in establishing school gardens: comparing cases from Kenya and Papua New Guinea

This community case study investigates the establishment of school gardens in Kenya and Papua New Guinea (PNG), focussing on engagement and participation. The gardens are intersectional interventions addressing education, health and nutrition, food security, career development, and life skills. We focus on engagement between implementing agencies and schools—including youth—during establishment as it influences garden governance, activity, and organizational and educational cultures going forward. Following a synthesis of school garden literature, country contexts, and participation and engagement models, we present two case studies based on narrative interviews with in-country project managers, project experiences, and desktop reviews. Analysis reveals distinct culturally and project-influenced typologies of participation and engagement—Kenya’s was bottom-up driven by student participation, whereas PNG was top-down with little student participation—with differences affecting school and student garden ownership and motivation. The findings provide valuable lessons for low- and middle-income countries’ (LMIC) school garden establishment, particularly in understanding how evolving project goals affect engagement, managing power differentials in top-down and bottom-up models, considering how educational and broader culture affects student participation, emphasizing the need for cultural capacity building in implementing agencies, and recognizing the potential of school gardens as assets in disrupting educational norms and student-centered approaches.

Leaning Into Difficult Topics: Inquiry Communities as Teacher Professional Learning for Turbulent Times

Although teachers make frequent decisions about whether and how to address difficult topics, they typically do so with minimal support. This article reports a case study of an inquiry community of 20 educators who engaged in practitioner inquiry as professional learning for addressing the difficult topics that they teach within their curricula or otherwise encounter within their professional practices. Through an inductive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with 12 community participants, the article’s authors identified four themes characterizing how the inquiry community supported teachers to lean into the difficult topics they believed they needed to address. The community helped teachers define difficult-topics inquiry while connecting them across divergent political and professional perspectives. The community assisted teachers in engaging difficult topics through purposefully structured inquiry talk, and it prompted them to (re)conceptualize difficult-topics teaching as inquiry. The article demonstrates the potential of difficult-topics inquiry communities as professional learning for turbulent times.

General infection prevention, mitigation, and control procedures implemented in the university education during the COVID-19 pandemic to achieve classroom attendance: a successful community case study.

The COVID-19 pandemic entailed confinement and elimination of face-to-face university classes in Spain. The Francisco de Vitoria University in Madrid (UFV by its Spanish acronym) implemented risk management systems to enable on-campus university activity to avoid a negative impact on students, teachers, and faculties. A tracking/registry system was implemented to collect data, identify COVID-19-related cases, implement containment measures, and do follow-up in the UFV community (administration/services personnel [ASP], teaching/research personnel [TRP], and students), from September 2020 to April 2022. In addition, a prevention plan was implemented on campus to avoid COVID-19 spreading. Satisfaction with these measures was assessed through an online questionnaire. A total of 7,165 suspected COVID-19 cases (84.7% students, 7.7% ASP, 6.5% TRP) were tracked (62.5% female cases, mean age (±SD) 24.8 years (±9.2 years)), and 45% of them confirmed (82% symptomatic/16% asymptomatic), being the student group that with the highest percentage (38.3% total tracked cases). The source of infection was identified in 50.6% of the confirmed cases (90.2% located off-campus). Nineteen COVID-19 outbreaks were registered (inside-10/outside-9). COVID-19 incidence rates were similar or lower than those reported in the Community of Madrid, except in the last wave, corresponding to Omicron variant. The degree of satisfaction (scale 1-6) with the implemented measures was high (scores 4.48-5.44). During the COVID-19 pandemic, UFV control measures, periodic monitoring, and the effectiveness of the tracking system have contributed to maintaining classroom teaching, guaranteeing health and safety. UFV has adapted to a new reality as an example of good practice for future pandemics or emergency situations.

A case study of using community-based consensus methods to facilitate shared decision-making among a spinal cord injury network.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) research and policy decisions are rarely made in partnership with people with SCI, making them less relevant, applicable, and used by those whom the decisions are intended to support. Across disciplines, consensus methods have been promoted as a viable solution for supporting shared research and policy-based decision-making. In this paper, we describe a partnered approach between academic researchers and the Ontario SCI Alliance, a non-profit, SCI community mobilization network to co-develop and co-disseminate a community-based consensus exercise. The community-based consensus exercise included two modified Delphi surveys and one in-person retreat. The partnership's goal with this exercise was to facilitate shared decision-making for the development of their upcoming strategic plan. We then interviewed partners and participants from the Delphi and in-person retreat to discuss successes, challenges, and lessons learned from the exercise. Survey 1 was disseminated to over 2,500 members of the Ontario SCI community and received 374 responses (276 coming from people with SCI). Survey 2 had 118 responses, with 87 coming from people with SCI. The retreat had 73 attendees, including people with SCI, family/friends of people with SCI, clinicians, researchers, and SCI community and research organization staff/volunteers. The retreat included a presentation of the survey results, a clinician/researcher panel, and externally-facilitated working groups. All survey responses and retreat materials were synthesized. Using the synthesized feedback, the Ontario SCI Alliance was able to implement several changes for the Ontario SCI community, including higher-quality primary care experiences (reduced wait times, more accessible examining rooms), the development of a wound care strategy with the Ontario government, and an advocacy campaign for public coverage for catheters and urinary care supplies. From the five interviews conducted, five themes were co-constructed regarding the successes, challenges, and lessons learned from the exercise: (1) Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility; (2) Partnership; (3) Design Considerations; (4) Transparency and Clarity in Communication; and (5) Sustainability. Findings from this community case study demonstrate the feasibility of conducting a community-level consensus exercise among an equity-deserving group while providing detailed guidance for how to ensure future research and policy-based decision-making is shared across diverse knowledge users.

Women, water and access: inscribing gender power in and through a place.

This paper explores the socio-cultural and gender-based dynamics associated with place values, and their implications for women's access to water through case studies of upland and riverine communities in southern Nigeria. We used a range of fieldwork methods including public meetings, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, keen observations, key informants and other secondary sources. Our findings show that drinking water sources are a part of the many forms of visible material structures that embody and generate automatic reproduction of gender-based beliefs, attitudes, feelings and practices. The outcome of such practices affects men and women differently in relation to access, workload and capacity for hygiene and other socio-economic practices. In discussing access to essential public goods, social and economic capacities take priority focus over the impact of 'place values' either as standalone or intersectional elements. Research should be expanded to incorporate these elements and their intersectional perspectives in shaping access to water.

Nature tourism and space production. Case study in an indigenous community in the region of los Altos de Chiapas

Este artículo analiza la producción del espacio turístico en la comunidad Río Arcotete del municipio de San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas. Se muestra el proceso mediante el cual los gobiernos federal y estatal de Chiapas han creado las condiciones para que una comunidad indígena que adolece de una crisis agrícola y con una pluriactividad acentuada se involucre en los servicios turísticos. Los resultados muestran que bajo las condiciones que impone el mercado turístico, los indígenas se han apropiado de esta actividad productiva, lo cual ha generado una dinámica de cambios intracomunitarios que fortalecen sus ingresos, pero a condición de una dependencia cada vez mayor del turismo. El reto que ahora tiene la población originaria es cumplir con las circunstancias que el mercado implanta, lo cual la debilita y genera una lenta maduración del destino turístico. La investigación es cualitativa basada en fuentes primarias y trabajo de campo.

Riverbank erosion vulnerability assessment and coping strategies: A case study of the riparian communities in the Mekong River Basin in Cambodia

Riverbank erosion is a major hazard for riparian communities in the Mekong River Basin. This study aims to (1) assess the livelihood vulnerability of two communities residing along the Mekong River, namely, Kaoh Soutin (KS) and Ruessei Srok (RS), by using the livelihood vulnerability index framed within the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change vulnerability framework (LVI-IPCC) and (2) identify the coping strategies of the communities based on semi-structured interviews. The results show that KS is slightly more vulnerable to riverbank erosion than RS, as indicated by LVI-IPCC values of 0.49 and 0.46 for KS and RS, respectively. RS exhibits high adaptive capacity and low sensitivity, but its exposure level is relatively high. Majority of the respondents in KS (62 %) and RS (93 %) were affected by riverbank erosion. In KS, approximately 48 % of the respondents experienced displacement, and 39 % of them relocated once. Meanwhile, in RS, 81 % of the respondents experienced displacement, with 46 % displaced at least three times. The affected households have coped with riverbank erosion by reducing expenses, diversifying their income sources, seeking support from others, and receiving assistance from local authorities, NGOs, and government interventions. Despite such efforts to mitigate the effects of riverbank erosion, the high level of exposure and external factors, such as high living costs and low profits from agriculture, have weakened the ability of the people in both communities to cope with disasters. Moreover, the social ties among households, especially in KS, have declined, thereby making low-income households highly vulnerable to riverbank erosion.

Integrating multi-national teams: over a decade of lessons learned in Chiapas with Partners in Health-Mexico.

In a globalized world where pathology and risk can flow freely across borders, the discipline of global health equity has proposed to meet this challenge with an equal exchange of solutions, and people working toward those solutions. Considering the history of colonialism, ongoing economic exploitation, and gaping inequities across and within countries, these efforts must be taken with care. The Partners In Health program in Chiapas, Mexico was founded in 2011 by a team of leaders from both the United States and Mexico to strengthen the public health and care delivery systems serving impoverished rural populations. Key to the strategy has been to marshal funding, knowledge, and expertise from elite institutions in both the United States and Mexico for the benefit of an area that previously had rarely seen such inputs, but always in close partnership with local leaders and community processes. With now over a decade of experience, several key lessons have emerged in both what was done well and what continues to present ongoing challenges. Top successes include: effective recruitment and retention strategies for attracting talented Mexican clinicians to perform their social service year in previously unappealing rural placements; using effective fund-raising strategies from multinational sources to ensure the health care delivered can be exemplary; and effectively integrating volunteer clinicians from high-income contexts in a way that benefits the local staff, the foreign visitors, and their home institutions. A few chief ongoing challenges remain: how to work with local communities to receive foreign visitors; how to hire, develop, and appropriately pay a diverse workforce that comes with differing expectations for their professional development; and how to embed research in non-extractive ways. Our community case study suggests that multinational global health teams can be successful if they share the goal of achieving mutual benefit through an equity lens, and are able to apply creativity and humility to form deep partnerships.

Water Governance in the Cambodian Mekong Delta: The Nexus of Farmer Water User Communities (FWUCs), Community Fisheries (CFis), and Community Fish Refuges (CFRs) in the Context of Climate Change

Cambodia faces the challenge of managing excess water during the wet season and insufficient water during the dry season. This harms human life and endangers aquatic and natural resources, agricultural practices, and food security. Water governance is crucial to ensure the well-being of both people and their food security. However, Cambodia’s water governance is hindered by various obstacles, including sectoral and centralized influences, top-down and large-scale strategies, weak coordination among relevant agencies, and limited involvement of local communities. This study examines water governance across different sectors, from centralized to community-based natural resources management, and explores the opportunities that can be done to improve water governance. This study undertakes the literature and case studies of farmer water user communities (FWUCs), community fisheries (CFis), and community fish refuges (CFRs) in three Mekong Delta provinces in Cambodia. This study concludes that water governance has been challenged by FWUCs competing for water resources to intensify rice production at the expense of increased pesticides and fertilizer uses, which undermine the fishery productivity, degrade the natural resources in rivers and water bodies, and increase water conflicts among farmers and sectors in the face of climate change. To enhance water governance in Cambodia, it is critical to integrate it at the district level. This will promote sustainable water use and management across the country and pave the way for a brighter future.