Community Service Organizations Research Articles

Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement by Lori A. Flores

Reviewed by: Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement by Lori A. Flores Carolina Ortega (bio) Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement By Lori A. Flores. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016. 304pp. isbn 978-0300196962 Eating fresh, local, and organic produce remains a top priority for people in today’s society, yet what might escape individuals’ minds is the labor that goes into the harvesting and production of fresh fruits and vegetables in the United States. In Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement, Lori A. Flores reminds readers of the hardships fieldworkers have faced and continue to face in order for consumers to enjoy a fresh salad. Flores focuses on the Salinas Valley on California’s central coast—popularly known as “Steinbeck Country” for John Steinbeck, a native of Salinas and author of Tortilla Flats, East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath—a region long “praised as a center of national food production and called the ‘Salad Bowl of the World’” (2). But the Salinas Valley also has a long history of farmworker mistreatment and anti-union suppression by California growers. Therefore, Grounds for Dreaming presents “A turbulent history of worker exploitation, racial segregation and discrimination, violence, and transnational suffering” (3). Flores examines the history of Mexican Americans, braceros, and undocumented Mexican immigrants within the Salinas Valley agricultural fields, and the tensions that arose between these three groups. The Bracero Program, a bilateral agreement between Mexico and the U.S., instituted as a temporary guest worker program during World War II to alleviate the labor shortages experienced during the war, brought millions of Mexican men to work under labor contracts throughout the U.S., including the Salinas Valley. The program ran from 1942 to 1964, but Flores shows that California growers continued to hire braceros as late as 1968, thereby adding to ongoing tensions between Mexican Americans and Mexican nationals. According to Flores, some Mexican Americans blamed Mexican nationals “for stealing jobs, impeding union organization, and exacerbating the public perceptions of all Mexican-origin people as foreign, undesirable, and criminal” (5). Tensions between what Flores calls the “Mexican American-bracero-‘wetback’ triad” and the efforts to end the Bracero Program, constitute the bulk of chapters two, three, and five. Arranged in chronological order, Chapter One explores race-making in California following the Mexican-American War and the Gold Rush. Furthermore, Flores shows the racialization of Asian and Mexican workers in the Salinas Valley, both groups seen as “naturally suited” for the stoop labor of the fields. The chapter also discusses the strikes conducted in the 1930s by Okies and Filipino agricultural workers, provoking a violent response by the growers and law enforcement. The violent response and anti-union sentiments of the growers during the 1930s would be seen again in the 1970s when Mexican-origin workers tried to unionize agricultural workers in Salinas. Chapter Two focuses on the World War II years and the conflicts that arose, not just between whites and Mexican Americans, but also between Mexican Americans and braceros. Chapter Three explores the “wetback era” of the late 1940s and early 1950s, and the sentiment of betrayal that Mexican American agricultural workers felt towards the state of California, “which created the Bracero Program and [the] immigration system that did not protect them as worker-citizens, but instead served at the pleasure of agribusiness” (8). Chapter Four analyzes the formation and lifespan of the Community Service Organization (CSO) in Salinas in 1954. The CSO was founded by a group of friends who mobilized a fight for a fair trial for a Mexican American youth accused of murdering an Italian peer. Flores examines the successes and failures of the CSO in Salinas and maintains that the CSO dissolved in the 1960s because it failed to create interracial alliances that involved the larger Mexican-origin community and because it did not want to risk “its cultivated image of respectability” (9). Chapter Five examines the death of more than two-dozen braceros at Chualar in 1963 after a train struck a bus transporting braceros...

Opening the Web of Learning: Students, Professors, and Community Partners Co-Creating Real-Life Learning Experiences

This article documents an example of a successful learning partnership for an activity called the Leadership Challenge (LC), an experiential learning design used by Royal Roads University (RRU) in its Master of Arts in Leadership Program. The LC is based on a co-learning model in which professors create the conditions for students’ learning; community-based organizations bring an authentic challenge as a scenario for learning to the students; and organizations, professors, and students all learn from one another throughout the process. We believe this experience is an example of how genuine partnerships between universities and community organizations can be created in which community partners are squarely placed in the center of the academic experience, rather than being treated as peripheral. Written from the perspective of representatives from both the university and the community service organization, this article also documents the limitations of this activity based on the short time frame allowed.

Which Type of Antismoking Advertisement Is Perceived as More Effective? An Experimental Study With a Sample of Australian Socially Disadvantaged Welfare Recipients.

Evaluate the perceived effectiveness of key antismoking messages among highly disadvantaged smokers and assess the impact of nicotine dependence and cessation cognitions on message processing. The experimental crossover trial, undertaken between March and December 2012, randomly exposed participants to two of three antismoking advertisements delivered via touchscreen computer. Welfare recipients were recruited from a community service organization in New South Wales, Australia. Subjects were 354 smokers (79% response rate). Participants resided in government rental housing (52%), earned less than AUD$400/wk (72%), and received their primary income from government welfare (95%). Three 30-second antismoking television advertisements representing common campaign themes: why to quit (graphic imagery), why to quit (personal testimonial), or how to quit. An 11-item scale assessed perceived effectiveness and message acceptance. An eight-item cessation cognitions index assessed motivations and readiness to quit, and the heaviness of smoking index was used to classify nicotine dependence. Descriptive statistics, generalized linear mixed models, and multiple linear regression analyses are reported. Why-to-quit advertisements were perceived as significantly more effective than the how-to-quit advertisement (all p < .0001). Smokers with positive cessation cognitions were more likely to accept antismoking messages (p = .0003) and perceive them as effective (p < .0001). Nicotine dependence level did not influence message acceptance (p = .7322) or effectiveness (p = .8872). Highly emotive advertisements providing good reasons to quit may be the most effective in promoting the antismoking message among groups with high smoking rates.

Process Evaluation Results From an Intergenerational Physical Activity Intervention for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren.

Grandparents and the grandchildren they raise may experience stress related to their caregiving relationship that negatively impacts their health. Thus, there is a need to develop intergenerational health promotion interventions for these kinship families. An 8-week intergenerational physical activity intervention for kinship families was developed and implemented. The specific goal was to understand the process of implementing the intervention. Content analysis of observational data provided an in-depth account of the intervention's process (ie, recruitment, dose delivered, dose received, fidelity, and context). Community and support service organizations referred more participants to the study than individual stakeholders. Most participants attended approximately 10 classes, and the grandparents were more engaged than the grandchildren during the classes. Intervention fidelity was confirmed with the fidelity checklist and observational notes. Health emerged as a barrier to participation, while the intergenerational nature of the intervention was a facilitator. Lastly, the context domain described how the grandparents' complex lives affected their ability to participate, while the dedication of the recreation staff helped the intervention to proceed efficiently. The distinct details gleaned from this study can provide guidance on how to develop and implement future intergenerational interventions.

Electronic Cigarettes: Awareness, Recent Use, and Attitudes Within a Sample of Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Australian Smokers.

Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) awareness, trial of e-cigarettes in the past 12 months, source and perceptions of safety and effectiveness was assessed within a disadvantaged sample of adult Australian smokers receiving welfare aid. A cross-sectional survey was administered to clients who smoke at two community service organizations in New South Wales, Australia from October 2013 to July 2014. E-cigarette awareness, trial in past 12 months, sources of e-cigarettes and perceptions of the safety and effectiveness of e-cigarettes to help people quit were assessed along with sociodemographic and smoking-related variables. In total, 369 participants completed the survey (77% response rate). Awareness and trial of e-cigarettes were reported by 77% (n = 283) and 35% (n = 103) of the sample, respectively. E-cigarettes were most commonly obtained from friends/strangers followed by tobacco shops (tobacconists). Trying e-cigarettes in the past 12 months was significantly associated with positive perceptions of their safety (odds ratio [OR] = 1.8, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1, 3.1) and effectiveness (OR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.1, 3.2). Motivation to quit tobacco smoking was also significantly positively associated with positive perceptions of e-cigarette safety (OR = 1.2, 95% CI = 1.1, 1.4) and effectiveness (OR = 1.2, 95% CI = 1.0, 1.3). Rates of awareness and trial of e-cigarettes within a disadvantaged sample of Australian smokers are comparable to rates found within representative samples of the general Australian population. Previously trying e-cigarettes and higher levels of motivation to quit were associated with more positive perceptions of e-cigarette safety and effectiveness. This study demonstrates that socioeconomically disadvantaged smokers are aware of and accessing e-cigarettes in a country with relatively high restrictions covering e-cigarette sale and use.

An investigation into the leadership practices of volunteer leaders

Purpose – While numerous studies of leadership have been conducted in the corporate and public sectors, there are lots of people leading in civic, social, and community service organizations and little is known about either how they lead or how their leadership practices are similar to or different from those leading in other sectors. The purpose of this paper is to fill that gap by examining leadership practices unique to leadership that occurs within organizations where both leaders and followers are volunteers. Design/methodology/approach – The sample involved surveying over 60 percent of the volunteer (n=569) leaders across a national youth sports organization based in the USA. Findings – Volunteer leaders engaged more frequently in leadership behaviors than did paid leaders. Some differences in leadership behaviors were found on the basis of respondent gender, age, educational level, and employment status. Leadership behaviors were systematically related to quality of respondents’ volunteer leadership experience. While objective measures of organizational effectiveness were unrelated to the leadership behaviors of the voluntary leaders, subjective assessments did impact how leaders behaved. Research limitations/implications – The research relied upon the self-reported leadership behaviors of respondents, and the organization’s measure of effectiveness was unrelated to respondent leadership behaviors. Future studies would benefit from leadership assessments provided by observers and constituents, samples involving different kinds of volunteer organizations (both settings and services) and more complex and nuanced empirical relationships. Practical implications – It is problematic that a volunteer organization cannot clearly define what it means to be an effective leader. Knowing the direct relationship between leadership behaviors and how favorably people feel about their voluntary leadership experience implies making certain that volunteer leaders actually have the opportunity to lead. Social implications – Because so many people volunteer and voluntary (and not-for-profit) organizations are vital to economic well-being it is important to know more about what effective leadership looks like within this domain. Originality/value – Few studies of volunteer leaders have been done, and none in this particular type of youth sports organization. Extends an understanding of leadership and what people do when they are leading others, especially in terms of settings involving volunteer participants rather than paid participants.

Comparing socially disadvantaged smokers who agree and decline to participate in a randomised smoking cessation trial

ObjectivesThis study examined sociodemographic, smoking and psychosocial characteristics associated with consent to participate in a smoking cessation trial for socially disadvantaged smokers.DesignBaseline data were collected prior to seeking consent for...

EPICS: Meeting Outcomes with Multidisciplinary Student Teams

Engineering Projects in Community Service— EPICS — is a service-learning program that wasdeveloped nearly twenty years ago at Purdue University.Under this program, undergraduate students inmultidisciplinary teams earn academic credit for longtermprojects that solve technology-based problems forlocal or global community service organizations. TheEPICS model has been implemented at 23 universities inNorth American and on other continents. With itsemphasis on the start-to-finish design of significantprojects that will be deployed by the communitycustomers, EPICS addresses many of the programoutcomes mandated by ABET and the CEAB and, morebroadly, to meet the Washington Accord graduateattributes. This paper describes the curricular andassessment procedures and documentation that have beendeveloped to enhance and evaluate the students' abilitiesto meet outcomes including functioning onmultidisciplinary teams; communicate effectively; andunderstand the impact of engineering solutions in aglobal and societal context.

Out of the Shadows: Using Value Pluralism to Make Explicit Economic Values in Not-for-Profit Business Strategies

In the last decade, Australian federal and state governments’ commitment to the economic rationalist imperatives of performance measures, accountability for outcomes, and value-for-money has driven significant change in the Australian not-for-profit community services sector. In an environment shaped by neoliberal-inspired government policies and a renewed government commitment to austerity, Australian not-for-profit community service organizations are now, more than ever, actively engaged in a variety of income-generating strategies to achieve and/or maintain economic sustainability. Central to this process is meeting the dual challenge of succeeding financially in a competitive environment and simultaneously serving mission. In this context, it is time to more closely examine the impact of these challenges, in particular the implications for the organizational values of not-for-profit community service providers themselves. This paper reports on a qualitative study of fourteen not-for-profit community service organizations, their core purposes, and their strategies for economic sustainability. In addition to the new data presented here, this paper contributes to the broader theoretical framework—the lens of value pluralism, which, we argue, provides a sharper focus on the relationship between mission and margin.

Upstream Disaster Management to Support People Experiencing Homelessness.

The unique context of day-to-day living for people who are chronically homeless or living with housing insecurity puts them at high risk during community disasters. The impacts of extreme events, such as flooding, storms, riots, and other sources of community disruption, underscore the importance of preparedness efforts and fostering community resilience. This study is part of larger initiative focused on enhancing resilience and preparedness among high risk populations. The purpose of this study was to explore critical issues and strategies to promote resilience and disaster preparedness among people who are homeless in Canada. A sample of interviews (n=21) from key informants across Canada was analyzed to explore existing programs and supports for homeless populations. The data was selected from a larger sample of (n=43) interviews focused on programs and supports for people who are at heightened risk for negative impacts during disasters. Qualitative content analysis was used to extract emergent themes and develop a model of multi-level collaboration to support disaster resilience among people who are homeless. The results indicate there is a need for more upstream continuity planning, collaboration and communication between the emergency management sector and community service organizations that support people who are homeless. Prioritization and investment in the social determinants of health and community supports is necessary to promote resilience among this high-risk population. The findings from this study highlight the importance of acknowledging community support organizations as assets in disaster preparedness. Day-to-day resilience is an ongoing theme for people who are chronically homeless or living with housing insecurity. Upstream investment to build adaptive capacity and collaborate with community organizations is an important strategy to enhance community resilience.

Bridges of Reform: Interracial Civil Rights Activism in Twentieth-Century Los Angeles by Bernstein, Shana (review)

Reviewed by: Bridges of Reform: Interracial Civil Rights Activism in Twentieth-Century Los Angeles by Bernstein, Shana Andrew Needham (bio) Bernstein, Shana. Bridges of Reform: Interracial Civil Rights Activism in Twentieth-Century Los Angeles. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. xiii + 339. Writing in the Christian Science Monitor in 1947, Mary Hornaday explained the dilemmas facing postwar Los Angeles. The war had brought unprecedented numbers of African Americans, Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants, and Jewish Americans to the city. Following the war, many Japanese Americans had returned to Los Angeles from years of internment. The multiethnic population of Los Angeles resided in a city governed by racially restrictive home covenants, a city where racist and anti-Semitic sentiment had been commonplace in the press and the private sectors during the wartime and prewar years, and a city home to an increasingly rabid anti-Communist movement. Los Angeles possessed, Hornaday wrote, “the racial problems of most American cities put together” (137). Bridges of Reform explains how a series of multiracial coalitions sought to challenge discrimination in Los Angeles and argues that those efforts helped birth a vision of color blind anti-discrimination that shaped the course of postwar liberalism. Bernstein’s narrative begins with the New Deal, which she characterizes as “an inherently multiracial arena” in its ability to both politicize ethnic and racial groups and bring them together in the Democratic Party, newly empowered labor unions, and the Communist Party, which formed the left wing of the Popular Front (29). That new common ground formed the basis for building bridges both between local concerns and the federal government and between organizations representing differing ethnic groups. During the 1930s and 1940s, the rise of global fascism also helped spur efforts at inter-racial activism, as groups formed coalitions to portray events like the Sleepy Lagoon murder case and the Zoot Suit riots as examples of local discrimination that endangered the nation in its war against fascism. The most provocative and original section of Bernstein’s book focuses on the postwar years. In most tellings, anti-Communism neutered the broad coalitions of the Popular Front. As groups like the NAACP and the Jewish-led Community Relations Committee (CRC) expelled suspected Communists and fellow travelers, most historians have argued such groups retreated from aggressive challenges to discrimination in [End Page 103] favor of careful measured efforts at reform. Bernstein, however, argues that anti-Communism actually strengthened the determination of those who remained to pursue meaningful civil rights work. Through a close reading of the proceedings of innumerable organizations and a detailed case study of the Mexican American-led Community Service Organization (CSO), she demonstrates that fighting Communism created meaningful bonds among liberal groups whose interracialism was central to their successes, including their ability to tap into and support other reform communities. It was the breadth of such coalitions, reaching across the spectrum of multi-racial Los Angeles, that enabled them to have political power. While the atmosphere of the Cold War and their own liberalism led members of such organizations away from tactics of direct confrontation, they maintained a deep commitment to civil rights despite their commitments to both anti-Communism and moderate change. In making this argument, Bernstein challenges portrayals of racial liberals as unable to accomplish very much and “as sellouts by radicals and by historians sympathetic to the radical perspective” (13). Indeed, Bernstein argues that Los Angeles’s interracial civil rights coalition helped give rise to figures who would become leaders, such as Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, and to the court cases that undergirded the civil rights movement, such as Shelly v. Kramer and Mendez v. Westminster, vital precedents for Brown v. Board of Education. Of particular interest to this journal’s readers, Bernstein details the key role of Jewish organizations in forging interracial coalitions. Formed in the early 1930s and dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism, organizations of Jewish professionals like the CRC represented the longest standing and most established anti-discrimination groups in Los Angeles. They thus represented targets of outreach for other groups seeking support for civil rights interracialism. In Bernstein’s telling, there was little collaboration between Jewish and Mexican American communities until the formation of...

Healthy Minds: Improving Access, Integration and Efficiency in Primary Mental Health Care

In early 2013, the North Coast NSW Medicare Local (NCML) initiated a process for redesign of the delivery of its mental health services, including the Access To Allied Psychological Services (ATAPS) Program. The Australian Primary Mental Health Care system has two key components: ATAPS and Better Access. Both are Commonwealth funded and accessed via General Practice. Healthy Minds aims to provide mental health services to some of the most vulnerable members of the North Coast NSW community who have complex social needs and who are less likely to visit a GP, or are less likely to recognise the need for help. Healthy Minds breaks historical separations and disconnections. It combines Better Access and ATAPS funding and co‐locates private providers within Community Service Organisations (CSOs) and public services to deliver psychological support. Healthy Minds improves access by: 1) Providing services within organisations which are already being accessed by vulnerable groups, reducing the need for further transport, or orientation to new services; 2) Providing a ‘soft’ entry to mental health services by delivering them within less stigmatising organisations, such as employment agencies, family support services or neighbourhood centres; and 3) Partnering with organisations who are able to assist vulnerable groups to access a GP in order to receive their initial referral (e.g. by providing transport, making appointment, issuing reminders) and are able to provide the same support to enhance attendance rates with the Private Practitioner. Healthy Minds improves integration by: 1) Placing Private Practitioners within CSOs, community and public health services which are meeting the social needs of the person, allowing for greater connection of the services, communication, and integration; and 2) Using ATAPS to fund Private Practitioners to attend Case Conferencing within those organisations. Some of the types of CSOs in which Private Practitioners have been co-located include employment agencies, women’s shelters, Aboriginal Medical Services, family support services, homelessness services, youth services, neighbourhood centres and disability services Healthy Minds improves value by: 1) Identifying clinical space with organisations which can be used by Private Practitioners free of charge, reducing overhead expenses; 2) Reducing the ATAPS remuneration to match the Better Access item numbers so that there is no disincentive to bulk-bill – allowing Better Access funding to be used when ATAPS funding is exhausted; 3) Minimising the travel costs to the consumer by providing services within a setting they are already World Congress on Integrated Care 2014, Sydney, November 23-26, 2014. International Journal of Integrated Care – Volume 14, 8 December – URN:NBN:NL:UI:10-1-116613– http://www.ijic.org/ accessing; and 4) Potentially reducing ‘Did Not Attends’ as clients are familiar with, and familiar to the organisations. Initial estimates and observations indicate that this approach has more than doubled the number of access points for psychological services across the North Coast of NSW. The six months to December 2013 has seen a 42% increase in the number of ATAPS sessions delivered, compared to the previous year. This has been accompanied with a 61% reduction in the average cost per session for the North Coast NSW Medicare Local.

HIV/AIDS Care: Engaging in Integrated Care Before it Became a Buzz Term

HIV/AIDS Care: Engaging in Integrated Care Before it Became a Buzz Term

HIV/AIDS Histories: Community Service Organizations and the Direct-Action AIDS Movement in Documentary Film

HIV/AIDS Histories: Community Service Organizations and the Direct-Action AIDS Movement in Documentary Film Richard A. McKay We Were Here( Peccadillo Pictures, 2011). Directed and produced by David Weissman. 89 minutes. United in Anger: A History of ACT UP( United in Anger, Inc., 2012). Directed by Jim Hubbard. Produced by Sarah Schulman. 93 minutes. How to Survive a Plague( Network Releasing, 2012). Directed by David France. Produced by Howard Gertler and David France. 105 minutes. With releases timed to accompany the thirtieth anniversary of the recognition in 1981 of a syndrome that would become known as AIDS, and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the formation of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP)—the best-known direct-action AIDS protest group—three new documentary films offer compelling and contrasting accounts of the worst years of the American HIV/ AIDS epidemic. Covering the fifteen-year period before the development of effective combination antiretroviral therapy in 1996, the films chart the initiatives that emerged from the nation’s lesbian and gay communities in response to the deaths of tens of thousands amidst widespread social apathy and governmental neglect. We Were Herefocuses on the changes wrought by the arrival of HIV in San Francisco, in particular the creation of a remarkably successful and diverse patchwork of community-based AIDS service organizations in the 1980s. By contrast, United in Angerand How to Survive a Plaguefocus predominantly on New York, and on the political activism, media savvy, and emotional dynamics of ACT UP from 1987 onward as this group fought for more effective and more widely available HIV treatment, prevention, and support for people living with AIDS. David Weissman’s We Were Herefeatures five San Francisco residents—Paul, a political activist and community organizer; Guy, a flower seller on Castro Street; Eileen, a nurse with a background in the women’s movement; Ed, an educator and caregiver; and Daniel, an artist and entrepreneur. It follows them from their arrival in the Bay Area during the 1970s and through their life-changing encounters with the disease that silently established itself in the city at about the same time. With their on-camera testimonies providing a narrative frame for a rich montage of archival photographs, documents, and film footage, the documentary unfolds more or less chronologically. It explores the community’s gradual realization of the scale of the medical disaster, the support and rejection of patients by family and friends, the constant obituaries in local newspapers, hospital treatment and experimental drug trials, and the network of volunteer organizations that sprang up to care for those who were sick and dying. Weissman and his editor and co-director, Bill Weber, set up a slow, elegiac pace for the film, regularly fading to black and employing skilful dissolves to forge powerful associations between still images, a technique that is most evident when depicting the ravages of HIV and [End Page 734]its opportunistic infections on young gay men. While such visual representations of the syndrome were at one time strongly protested by AIDS activists, it struck me that—in an era when late-stage HIV disease is much less visible in North America—a visual reminder of the infection’s devastating power might be timely for a new generation of viewers. The film’s narrators are engaging, with two moments in particular resonating with my own experience of interviewing survivors of the epidemic. One was the heart-wrenching immediacy and raw emotions captured when Daniel recalls the “avalanche” of deaths he endured in rapid succession; in addition to many friends dying, the epidemic claimed the lives of two successive lovers while he was struggling with his own HIV infection. Another striking moment was Ed’s powerful description of how the epidemic created openings in the gay community for caregiving to come to the fore. These changes allowed people like him to find and carve out places for themselves that had hitherto not been possible; thus, opportunities may be present in even the bleakest of moments. While the film’s coverage includes candlelight marches, the rise of a more confrontational AIDS activism, and the eventual development of effective antiretroviral therapy, the film’s main...

Community and Measured Militancy

The Ventura County Community Service Organization (CSO) formed in 1958 to empower the Mexican-origin community. This article traces the strategies the organization employed to build community solidarity and political engagement. The CSO established a significant voice in local, state, and national issues.

Socioeconomically disadvantaged smokers’ ratings of plain and branded cigarette packaging: an experimental study

ObjectivesThis study aimed to test the potential impact of plain packaging for cigarettes on brand appeal among highly socioeconomically disadvantaged smokers using the new design for cigarettes implemented in Australia,...

Paying the price: A cross‐sectional survey of Australian socioeconomically disadvantaged smokers' responses to hypothetical cigarette price rises

Increases in tobacco taxation can lead to reductions in tobacco consumption and prevalence of use across social groups. However, use of price-minimisation strategies to manage current and future tobacco use and the role of financial stress is less understood. This study aimed to measure the effect of cigarette price increases on price-minimisation strategy endorsement and financial stress among socioeconomically disadvantaged smokers. Community service organisation welfare recipients in NSW, Australia completed a touchscreen survey. Smoking history, financial stress, highest price to quit and responses to hypothetical cigarette price increases were assessed. Participants were 354 smokers (response rate = 79%). Most participants received income from a government pension (95%), earned <A$300/week (55%), had not completed secondary schooling (64%), were moderately or heavily nicotine-dependent (60%), reported high financial stress (66%) and spent A$56/week on tobacco. In response to 10% and 20% hypothetical price rises, significantly more participants endorsed trying to quit in response to the larger increase scenario (P < 0.001), and fewer selected no change to their smoking (P < 0.001). Numerous price-minimisation strategies (e.g. switching to cheaper brands/products) were endorsed, but remained constant across hypothetical scenarios; level of financial stress appeared to have little influence. Smokers indicating they would not change their smoking in response to price rises had higher levels of nicotine dependence. Socially disadvantaged smokers endorsed numerous price-minimising strategies to maintain smoking at hypothetically increased costs. Larger cigarette price rises motivated more smokers to consider quitting, while price-resistant smokers appeared to have a more entrenched smoker status.

Charity performance reporting: comparing board and executive roles

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to compare the use of performance information by board members and executives of a large Australian community service organization in order to ascertain what they focused on and how they worked together in effecting organizational governance. Design/methodology/approach – Field based case study using stewardship theory. Findings – While board members and executives worked closely together within a mutually agreed organizational space, there was a clear bifurcation of focus with the board concerned more with the financial performance and the executive more with service performance. Further differentiation of role with respect to financial performance was observed such that the board's attention was directed most to issues that presented the greatest risk to the organization. The study found that board members and executives “cut across” traditionally assigned roles, thus demonstrating a joint mode of organizational governance that was underpinned by organizational policies, processes and structures. Research limitations/implications – This paper provides rich empirical evidence in relation to matters that have been subject to high levels of theorisation; by answering recent calls from scholars for in-depth research on governance processes; and by identifying the common threads that link research on not-for-profit governance with stewardship theory and the extended concepts of accountability. It contributes to practice by providing a comprehensive explanation of a contemporary governance arrangement. It contributes to the public policy debate since a key issue currently under review in Australia, and New Zealand, to name just two jurisdictions, is the attribution of responsibilities by key decision makers in charities, in particular, the vexed question of management involvement in governance processes. Originality/value – The paper provides rich empirical data about an issue of ongoing importance to third sector organizations.

An educative intervention: assisting in the self-assessment of archival practice in 12 community service organisations

There is a need for systemic improvement in the management of care records in Australia. This has been highlighted by government inquiries, media coverage and research literature relating to the significance of records for those who experience out-of-home care. The Who Am I? project – an interdisciplinary collaboration between historians, social workers and archivists – sought to address this concern and support positive change in 12 participating community service organisations (CSOs) in Victoria. To provide a framework for practice improvement, research archivists on the Who Am I? team designed the Self-Assessment Tool for Archives. Based on an action research methodology and influenced by the Records Continuum, this was an ‘educative intervention’ for the CSOs, as well as the participating archivists.

P5.059 Development of a Small-Media Intervention to Boost Healthcare Providers’ Knowledge and Awareness of Syphilis in an Urban US Community

BackgroundSt. Louis, Missouri remains a high-morbidity syphilis community. Implementation of a small-media intervention in 2005 to improve provider knowledge and awareness of syphilis led to transient declines in infectious syphilis,...