Community Board Research Articles

Local Government Systems and Decentralization: Evidence from Pakistan’s Devolution Plan

The discourse of governance and development practitioners continues to embrace community participation and community empowerment as an elementary means of building local capacity for poverty reduction, development and change at the local level. This article is a review of the decentralization initiatives of local government systems after the announcement of the devolution plan in Pakistan. It evaluates the initiatives’ participatory methods to ascertain the extent to which they have improved the process of community development at the local level. This article also measures the impact of community empowerment on the sustainability of community-driven projects implemented under the decentralization initiative through community-based organizations known as Citizen Community Boards (CCBs). Document analysis and literature review methodologies were employed to gain further insight into the decentralization phenomenon in Pakistan. The results describe human development, improvements in community empowerment and the sustainability of local projects; however, the sense of community has yet to be translated into shared benefits for rural communities. The fundamental goal of decentralization seems to be elusive because only power was transferred to the local level, whereas there is little support for community capacity building and community access to resources and the elites still control the electoral process. It is argued that community development initiatives in Pakistan require continuous support from local governments to boost local rural economies. Likewise, community-local government participatory development strategies can lead to strong local ownership and empowerment in rural communities.

A Study on the Smart Service of Ecological Education using Technique of Augmented Reality for Community Board and Smart Phone

A Study on the Smart Service of Ecological Education using Technique of Augmented Reality for Community Board and Smart Phone

まちづくり協議会が主体となる「船カフェ」の実践

The purpose of this paper is to report on the result of “Floating Cafe” pilot project that community board had practiced, and to analyze the sufficient conditions for practice of “Floating Cafe”.The conclusions are; 1) “Floating Cafe” attracted wide range of customers, and gave positive consciousness for them. “Floating Cafe” will be community business. 2) The sufficient conditions are; a management agreement which specify a community board can use a floating pier is concluded; a community board include organizations which have retail associations, cruise companies, and experts like universities; members of a community board have collaboration each other.

PBRN CONFERENCE A SUCCESS

On June 21-22, 2012, NAPCRG tried something new. It worked. On these dates NAPCRG held its first annual practice-based research network (PBRN) conference. This meeting was supported by a conference grant from AHRQ, who has a longstanding interest in PBRN work, and who, until now had put on an annual PBRN conference. This meeting therefore represents a new, formal relationship with AHRQ, a new annual meeting for NAPCRG, and a chance to work with a whole new set of scientists, educators, and clinicians who care about practice-based research. Over 200 registrants attended the conference, from 6 countries. Japan! Romania! Brazil! Australia! And 30 investigators from Canada! Under NAPCRG's stewardship, this conference could well become—most likely will become—a world forum for PBRN work. Moreover, a broad range of disciplines were represented, including family medicine, general internal medicine, pediatrics, nursing, public health, dentistry, pharmacy, psychology, and social work. All of this is good, but the real news has to do with how PBRNs are evolving. For 3 decades, practice-based research networks have been a core resource in the primary care research armamentarium, and a preferred platform for describing practices and clinical conditions, as well as for testing clinical interventions. At this PBRN meeting we heard about: Networks of networks linked together with elegant, efficient, lean infrastructures to answer difficult clinical or services questions Very large networks of practices linked together by their electronic health records. Some of these networks are large enough to tackle detailed comparative effectiveness trials Hybrid PBRN/CBPR networks that incorporate community resources, community boards, and deep community partnerships. These networks can test interventions that make use of public health, community health, and primary care resources PBRNs whose datasets are linked to very large administrative datasets, or claims datasets, that can produce complete services data PBRNs that cut across disciplines (eg, primary care, public health, dentistry, behavioral health) to address health and heath care issues that occur across these multiple sectors Multinational PBRNs that take nesting to a whole higher level—that afford comparisons of similar clinical conditions in different systems of care PBRNs that are taking on questions of practice redesign and system change, and are proving useful even with the sophisticated designs required of quality improvement efforts, during which interventions are continuously evolving; and PBRNs that are used as platforms for disseminating innovations and keeping practitioners close to practice improvement research Two additional highlights of this meeting merit mention: the 2 plenaries. The first was delivered by Joe Selby, Executive Director of PCORI, who described how well suited PBRNs are to addressing patient-centered outcomes research. The second was a panel discussion presented by Larry Green, Jon Kerner, Jim Mold, and Jack Westfall, who discussed the intersection of public health and primary care, and how PBRNs have begun to address this interface as it applies to cancer prevention, asthma control, and health and health care extension in a statewide network. During an all-attendees evaluation and suggestion session at the conclusion of the conference, participants strongly endorsed this conference as a standing event, and suggested that we should consider expanding the international participation, deepening the interprofessional conversation, fostering additional opportunities for funders and researchers to engage with one another, continuing to explore the innovative ways researchers are designing PBRNs and PBRN studies, offering special events or sessions for PBRN staff, and above all, expanding the venues at which research results could be showcased. Practice-based research networks have come of age, and are now capable of answering difficult, complex, and important questions. This conference demonstrated that to good effect. At the end of the conference, NAPCRG's Board of Directors concluded as much and recommended that efforts begin immediately to seek support and plan improvements for next year's PBRN conference.

Determinants of the Range of Ethnocultural Diversity on Nonprofit Boards

Using data from a survey of large nonprofits across Canada, this study focuses on the determinants of the range of diversity (defined as the number of different ethnocultural and visible minority groups represented) on boards across the country. The determinants of diversity that the article examines include community, organizational, and general board characteristics as well as board diversity practices. We examine the extent to which these factors are related to an increased range of diversity on the boards. It appears that the diversity of the community that nonprofits operate in and efforts to institutionalize formal diversity-related policies are particularly significant determinants of diversity, although board size and reliance on interorganizational alliances in recruitment of board members also have a small relationship. The implications for theory and practice are examined.

District Leadership that Works: Striking the Right Balance

District Leadership that Works: Striking the Right Balance

Harnessing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to Enable Community-Oriented Primary Care

Background: Despite growing acceptance and implementation of geographic information systems (GIS) in the public health arena, its utility for clinical population management and coordination by leaders in a primary care clinical health setting has been neither fully realized nor evaluated. Methods: In a primary care network of clinics charged with caring for vulnerable urban communities, we used GIS to (1) integrate and analyze clinical (practice management) data and population (census) data and (2) generate distribution, service area, and population penetration maps of those clinics. We then conducted qualitative evaluations of the responses of primary care clinic leaders, administrators, and community board members to analytic mapping of their clinic and regional population data. Results: Practice management data were extracted, geocoded, and mapped to reveal variation between actual clinical service areas and the medically underserved areas for which these clinics received funding, which was surprising to center leaders. In addition, population penetration analyses were performed to depict patterns of utilization. Qualitative assessments of staff response to the process of mapping clinical and population data revealed enthusiastic engagement in the process, which led to enhanced community comprehension, new ideas about data use, and an array of applications to improve their clinical revenue. However, they also revealed barriers to further adoption, including time, expense, and technical expertise, which could limit the use of GIS and mapping unless economies of scale across clinics, the use of web technology, and the availability of dynamic mapping tools could be realized. Conclusions: Analytic mapping was enthusiastically received and practically applied in the primary care setting, and was readily comprehended by clinic leaders for innovative purposes. This is a tool of particular relevance amid primary care safety-net expansion and increased funding of health information technology diffusion in these settings, particularly if the hurdles of cost and technological expertise are overcome by harnessing new advances in web-based mapping technology.

The national registration and accreditation scheme

Australia is the first country in the world to have a national registration and accreditation scheme regulating health practitioners. All states and territories are part of the scheme, with Western Australia joining on 18th October 2010; the other states and territories commencing on 1st July 2010. The theme of this conference is appropriately “Setting the Pace”. The Podiatry Board of Australia (PodBA) was worked feverishly since its first meeting on 20th September 2009 to prepare for commencement day. The PodBA and the other nine national boards were challenged to prepare for the implementation of the “National Law” when the legislation had not been presented and passed though state and territory parliaments, when there were no offices and no staff for the support agency AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency) and when the Boards had no finances of their own. The task has been enormous. Goodwill and faith in the process has been required of the community, governments, professions, accreditation organisations, educators, the state and territory boards and you the registrants. Thank you for your patience. This presentation provides me with the opportunity to explain some the functions of the PodBA and how they will impact you. Topics will include: • The Registration and Accreditation Scheme • Registration • Registration Standards • Codes and Guidelines • The Public Register • Notifications The PodBA has a small booth in the Exhibition Hall. Please come to the display and introduce yourself to the Jenny Collis (Executive Officer for PodBA) and other members of the PodBA.

Final Issue of Pediatric Health

Future Medicine Ltd, Unitec House, 2 Albert Place, Finchley Central, London, N3 1QB, UK Tel.: +44 208 371 6090; Fax: +44 208 343 2313; e.manzotti@ futuremedicine.com; www.futuremedicine.com The current economic situation has left many individuals and organizations with very difficult choices to make. Pediatric Health was launched in October 2007, with high levels of support from the pediatrics community, authors and editorial board. We have always received excellent feedback on the quality of the journal, with readers appreciating the timely topics, comprehensive reviews and excellent production standards. However, owing to the unfortunate timing of the launch of Pediatric Health, it has felt the full impact of reduced academic library budgets and, in spite of critical acclaim, we have been unable to make publication of the journal sustainable.

Analysis of the impact of treatment setting on outcomes from methadone treatment

How methadone setting, duration of drug career, and dose impact on treatment are assessed. Two hundred fifteen participants were recruited. Analysis revealed significant reductions in drug use at 1 year within all settings, but the pattern varied. Proportions using heroin reduced in all settings, unprescribed benzodiazepines reduced in community, and general practitioner settings and cocaine use reduced in community and Government health board settings. A logistic model controlling for intake methadone dose, setting, previous treatments, and intake heroin use revealed that setting was a significant factor in predicting heroin use at 1 year but was not significant in predicting changes in health. Findings illustrate that drug outcomes improved across all settings, and health did not improve in any setting. For optimum outcomes to be achieved, opiate users must be directed to settings that best match their needs and that the “one-stop-shop for methadone” is not the most effective solution.

Erratum: Neighborhood Context and the Development of Aggression in Boys and Girls

In the April 2010 issue of the Journal of Community Psychology (Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 329–349), the article, “Neighborhood Context and the Development of Aggression in Boys and Girls” by Beth Vanfossen, C. Hendricks Brown, Sheppard Kellam, Natalie Sokoloff, and Susan Doering went to press without an acknowledgments section having been submitted. Please note the following for this article: This work was funded by the National Science Foundation (BCS-9978453), the William T. Grant Foundation (Grant 2045), the National Institute of Mental Health (Grants R01 MH42968, P50 MH38725, R01 MH40859 with supplements from the National Institute on Drug Abuse) and Towson University. The authors wish to thank Bengt Muthén and Linda Muthén for advice and assistance in the data analyses. We also appreciate the helpful comments and insights of Margaret Ensminger, Carolyn Giordano, Nicholas Ialongo, Jackie King, Jeanne Poduska, Frances Rothstein, Virginia Thompson, and several anonymous reviewers of earlier drafts of the manuscript. The authors remain responsible for the content. We thank the Baltimore Police Department and Keith Harries for access to the data on crimes in Baltimore. We acknowledge our partners—the students, parents, teachers, and administrators of the Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS)—who have contributed to this body of research for over 20 years. We thank the members of the Community and Institution Board that provided guidance, community support, and oversight during the young adult follow-up, and extend specific thanks to Dr. Patricia Welch, who was Chair of the BCPSS Board of School Commissioners at the time of the follow-up. We are grateful to the Prevention Science Methodology Group, who offered thoughtful feedback on the analytic strategy employed in this paper.

Chapter 5: Law and regulation

Chapter 5: Law and regulation

Planning in Neighborhoods with Multiple Publics: Opportunities and Challenges for Community-Based Nonprofit Organizations

New York City is the quintessential immigrant gateway, and its transformation to a majority “minority” city is evident in the complex demography of its numerous neighborhoods. Based on detailed case studies of two neighborhoods undergoing significant development pressures that pose a dramatic reshaping of community life, this article examines whether New York City community boards serve as a “pivotal” public arena to mitigate racial tensions and meaningfully engage diverse stakeholders including immigrants in neighborhood planning. The case studies of Sunset Park, Brooklyn and Flushing, Queens demonstrate that community boards do not necessarily engage all stakeholders in meaningful or sustained ways and are limited in advancing race relations in a challenging socioeconomic context. This article substantiates how community-based nonprofit organizations are essential to the institutional landscape of immigrant neighborhoods by engaging multiple publics in community planning.

Building budgets and trust through the alchemy of superintendent leadership

Superintendents have the burden and the opportunity to exert leadership through the budget-building process. This article details a dozen tenets which can be implemented by practicing superintendents. Doing so increases the chances of building trust among the stakeholders of administrators, staff, community, and school board members. The district superintendent of schools occupies the only positional office in the organization capable of orchestrating this process.

<i>Canyon Cinema: The Life and Times of an Independent Film Distributor</i> (review)

Reviewed by: Canyon Cinema: The Life and Times of an Independent Film Distributor Lindy Leong (bio) Canyon Cinema: The Life and Times of an Independent Film Distributor; Scott MacDonald; University of California Press, 2008 Following his accounting of the nation's first film societies, Cinema 16: Documents Towards a History of the Film Society (2002) and Art in Cinema: Documents Towards a History of the Film Society (2006), film historian Scott MacDonald's latest contribution to a cinema history other than that of the Hollywood narrative tradition shifts from the East Coast focus of his earlier books to profile Canyon Cinema and its influential role in pioneering and streamlining a communal and efficient model for independent film distribution and exhibition in San Francisco and the West Coast during a time of turbulent transition in American film. Buoyed by the counterculture and in reaction to the overall repressive climate of the postwar period, Canyon Cinema's "birth" in the Bay Area brought life both literally and figuratively into a burgeoning local scene of filmmakers, artists, and multimedia enthusiasts whose work reflected a commitment to experimentation and to the greater, still unnamed American avant-garde movement. Whether they became major players or remained in relative obscurity, these West Coast–based filmmakers and their contributions to the art, in MacDonald's view, deserve historical recognition for their roles in rounding out an accurate history of "critical cinema," MacDonald's preferred term for avantgarde and experimental forms of media making. Moreover, as has been the case in his numerous publications, including his editorship of the book series Critical Cinema: Interviews with Independent Filmmakers, the power of institutions to influence and shape the historical record serve as the foundation of his intellectual inquiries and explorations. MacDonald makes transparent and straightforward his preference for using primary materials—the reproduction of original documents, illustrations, and correspondence—to tell the "stories" of an institution, with support from his interviews with key individuals and witnesses who can comment directly and, hopefully, "fill in the gaps" or at least offer context. In Canyon Cinema: The Life and Times of an Independent Film Distributor, MacDonald structures a chronological compilation of the organization's documents into five chapters, each reflecting a particular period in its history. Each chapter begins with his analysis and interpretation of that period drawn from information revealed in documents reprinted in the following portfolio section. The bulk of each chapter, these documents are a potpourri of reportage from the organization's membership and affiliates at large on events and happenings related to the burgeoning independent film movement in the United States and abroad—film festivals, profiles of film artists, and general "community board" postings from the membership—from the early days to, later on, polemics and dialogues between filmmakers and members on [End Page 181] the state of the field. Between MacDonald's intervention and each portfolio he assembles, he features a key contemporary interview as further evidence toward accurately reconstructing the organizational "narrative" at that moment. MacDonald's rationale for such a framework reflects his scholarly commitment to privilege the "voices" of those who lived the history. In his salient Introduction, he discusses both the necessity and context of this latest addition to a growing scholarship on independent film and media making and its audience. Canyon, modeled initially after the New York Filmmakers' Co-op, represented "a three-pronged attack on the conventional film scene."One could say this was a formidable mission on part of this once nomadic, communal artists' forum that originated out of the northern Californian living spaces of filmmakers and multimedia artists Bruce Baillie, Chick Strand, and Film Quarterly editor Ernest Callenbach. However, MacDonald makes the case for Canyon's forward-looking goals even at its inception. He observes that the "establishment of an artist-run distribution organization in San Francisco that could serve Bay Area independent filmmakers and, later, filmmakers from across the country and across the globe created a lasting model for those who are committed to alternatives to commercial culture." He notes the seeds of this zeitgeist had been implanted much earlier, with more independent media histories being taught in universities and art schools, the proliferation of film culture through...

Reducing barriers to ethics in neuroscience

Ethics is a growing interest for neuroscientists, but rather than signifying a commitment to the protection of human subjects, care of animals, and public understanding to which the professional community is engaged in a fundamental way, interest has been consumed by administrative overhead and the mission creep of institutional ethics reviews. Faculty, trainees, and staff (n = 605) in North America whose work involves brain imaging and brain stimulation completed an online survey about ethics in their research. Using factor analysis and linear regression, we found significant effects for invasiveness of imaging technique, professional position, gender, and local presence of bioethics centers. We propose strategies for improving communication between the neuroscience community and ethics review boards, collaborations between neuroscientists and biomedical ethicists, and ethics training in graduate neuroscience programs to revitalize mutual goals and interests.

Harnessing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to Enable Community-Oriented Primary Care

Despite growing acceptance and implementation of geographic information systems (GIS) in the public health arena, its utility for clinical population management and coordination by leaders in a primary care clinical health setting has been neither fully realized nor evaluated. In a primary care network of clinics charged with caring for vulnerable urban communities, we used GIS to (1) integrate and analyze clinical (practice management) data and population (census) data and (2) generate distribution, service area, and population penetration maps of those clinics. We then conducted qualitative evaluation of the responses of primary care clinic leaders, administrators, and community board members to analytic mapping of their clinic and regional population data. Practice management data were extracted, geocoded, and mapped to reveal variation between actual clinical service areas and the medically underserved areas for which these clinics received funding, which was surprising to center leaders. In addition, population penetration analyses were performed to depict patterns of utilization. Qualitative assessments of staff response to the process of mapping clinical and population data revealed enthusiastic engagement in the process, which led to enhanced community comprehension, new ideas about data use, and an array of applications to improve their clinical revenue. However, they also revealed barriers to further adoption, including time, expense, and technical expertise, which could limit the use of GIS and mapping unless economies of scale across clinics, the use of web technology, and the availability of dynamic mapping tools could be realized. Analytic mapping was enthusiastically received and practically applied in the primary care setting, and was readily comprehended by clinic leaders for innovative purposes. This is a tool of particular relevance amid primary care safety-net expansion and increased funding of health information technology diffusion in these settings, particularly if the hurdles of cost and technological expertise are overcome by harnessing new advances in web-based mapping technology.

The AACC Leadership Competencies: Parallel Views from the Top

This study examined how a group of community college presidents and board of trustee chairpersons from New York and Florida viewed the competencies, characteristics, and professional skills identified by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) (2005) as important for effective community college leadership. In addition, the presidents were asked to identify those activities and experiences that they found helpful in developing the AACC leadership competencies. The results from this study suggest that community college presidents and board of trustee chairpersons converge in their views of the AACC leadership competencies. Their views reveal high expectations for community college presidents and highlight experiences related to the development of these competencies. Practice implications for hiring and developing community college leaders are offered.

Latina Mothers' Views of a Parent-to-Parent Support Group in the Special Education System

Parent–professional partnership literature continues to emphasize the importance of including the parent voice. Spanish-speaking families are often excluded from such studies because of the language barrier. This article presents a qualitative interview study of eight Latina mothers of children with severe disabilities. All participants were members of a parent-to-parent support group available through a local community board. Data analysis revealed that the mothers identified three major benefits of the parent-to-parent support group, including (a) feeling like a family, (b) having a source of information, and (c) receiving emotional support. Findings indicated that information and assistance the parents were missing from the school system were offered through their group. Implications for educational providers and future research will be presented and discussed.

Using an Online Community Board for End-of-life Care Teaching, Learning, and Student Engagement

Author Affiliation: Associate Professor, Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, Hunter College, City University of New York.Vidette Todaro-FranceschiCorrespondence: 425 East 25th St, New York, NY 10010 ([email protected]). This article is based, in part, on presentations given at the 2007 AACN Baccalaureate Conference, New Orleans, and the 2008 Global Alliance on Nursing Education and Scholarship (GANES) Conference (Toronto, Ontario, Canada).