Parents as teachers project

SUMMARY

Individuals with interests in children and families, as well as in critically examining interventions and service systems may consider opportunities for evaluation research in Child Welfare. As the field increasingly adopts multi-level preventative interventions, positions may offer opportunities for motivated individuals with skills in articulating and examining phenomena at individual, family, community and organizational levels. The paper follows one pathway from graduate school to a position within an organizational context manifesting many of the major themes in contemporary community psychology, including capacity building and empowerment, community development and multi-level prevention interventions, consumer involvement and the stimulating role of program evaluation. The purposeful collection of practical experience is suggested as an important balance to rigorous academic preparation and creative exploration of different professional roles.     

Providing Financial Empowerment to Mothers on Welfare

SUMMARY

Three samples of urban Latina and African-American women in hospitality training programs were assessed on their perceived self-efficacy. In Sample 1, the typical Latina (n= 25) and African-American (n= 71) woman was a young, single, mother of three children who had received benefits for over six years and who, at the start of a two-week training program, reported low self-efficacy and moderate social desirability. Sample 2 participants were mostly single Latina (n= 25) or African-American (n= 49) mothers who received six weeks of training/internship, but reported no significant change in their level of self-efficacy, social desirability, or hopefulness from pre- to post-training. Sample 3 (16 Latinas, 36 African-Americans) was a subset of women from the first sample who were interviewed by telephone four months after completing the two-week training program and were now employed. These working women reported a significant increase in their level of self-efficacy compared to the start of training. Results suggest that some minority women may benefit from job skill training in terms of their sense of mastery over their life situation, although the impact of such training may not emerge until after they have been actively employed.     

Educational Services for Children in Foster Care

ABSTRACT

Most literature on the education of foster youth focuses on their individual outcomes and characteristics. A small body of literature documents a lack of collaboration between the child welfare and education systems. This study explores commonalities and differences in perspectives between child welfare and education system stakeholders. It draws on findings from a multi-county exploratory study on educational services for foster youth. The findings in this study identify several systemic barriers including placement instability within the child welfare system, limited financial resources of schools, and poor inter-agency communication. In addition, differences in the perceptions of school and child welfare agency personnel regarding the needs of foster children in school, problems encountered in enrolling children in school, and the role and motives of each agency in addressing these needs and problems are identified. These differences point to both the challenges involved in improving communications and collaboration between the two systems, as well as the opportunities to improve educational services to children in foster care.     

An Examination of Oversight and Review in the Child Welfare System

Abstract

Child welfare agencies are accountable to the community not only because they spend public dollars, but also, most critically, because they are charged with protecting vulnerable children. Over the past three decades multiple oversight processes have been initiated as part of an effort to improve accountability in public child welfare. In agencies around the country an array of advocates and monitors regularly review the performance of individual caseworkers. While caseloads grow in number and complexity the ranks of the workforce have not kept pace. The result is too many people watching too few workers serve too many vulnerable children and families.

This paper examines the cumulative effect of five groups of “watchers” that oversee child welfare services. It suggests that every group of watchers should be able to demonstrate that their activities contribute directly to the achievement of system goals.     

预防、惩戒与修复:环境侵害法律规制体系的重构

环境污染行为与环境破坏行为导致的损害都属于环境侵害,需要建立一个完善的系统加以法律规制,从预防、惩戒、修复三大环节入手,给生态环境提供有力的法治保障。预防体系着重环境风险的行政监管,为环境保护构筑第一道防线;惩戒体系强调刑罚与行政处罚在适用层面的可操作性,对环境侵害起到应有的震慑作用;修复体系则事关环境能否可持续发展,通过环境公益诉讼的渠道,让民事赔偿能在环境修复上产生良好效果。     

Retaining the Quota System in the South Korean Rice Market

On 30 December 2004, the Korean government reached an agreement to postpone tariffs on the rice market until 2014 in exchange for a gradual increase in the minimum market access quota (the access to the Korean market by others based on a percentage of Korea's total consumption of rice). However, economic reasoning shows that if the Korean government had decided to introduce the tariff system instead, the social welfare from the rice market would have increased considerably over the next ten years, even after taking into account the loss in the external value of rice farming. Thus, the 2004 choice of the quota in the rice market by the Korean government was a political decision. This article measures the social welfare in the rice market under the two alternative systems – tariff and quota – for the period 2005–15. It then explores the explanation for the 2004 decision by investigating three key variables: the characteristics of farmers' groups, their interaction with government executives and the legislature, and the trend in public opinion on rice market issues. In light of the organisational weakness of Korean agricultural interest groups, the focus is on farmers' tactics for achieving their goal, i.e. retaining the quota instead of introducing the tariff.     

Media Logic and Political Communication

Abstract

The election of 1952 saw the beginning of the age of telepolitics. In that year the medium of television played a decisive role in the nomination by the Republican Party of Dwight D. Eisenhower since it exposed convention proceedings to a national audience and gave that national audience, as well as representatives of the media, major influence over convention events. In the post‐convention period, Eisenhower's public relations advisors used television to soften the General's military image, reach Democrats and Independents, and increase the pro‐Eisenhower voter turnout. Whereas Stevenson never fully mastered the demands of television, Eisenhower was adept and skillful at using the medium as a major new campaign vehicle.     

Democratic transition and social spending: the case of Pakistan in the 1990s

The article assesses the social consequences of the democratic transition that began in Pakistan in 1988 and ended in 1999 by analysing public spending for health and education and changes in human development indicators. Available information indicates that the return to democracy did not lead to greater spending in these two sectors. It is argued that the key internal factors that hampered government commitment to social welfare were the pre-eminence among elected representatives of social groups unwilling to invest in the human capital of the majority and the dominance of the armed forces in the country's power politics.     

两种福利模式下的中西税权控制

西方发达国家的税权因应社会需求不断膨胀,从而引发了"福利法治国危机"。而中国在"单位型福利模式"的政策指引下,税权亦严重失范,但其问题更多地存在于公共支出柔性强、结构不合理等方面;因此,从宏观的比较视野观之,中西都面临着税权的有效规范与控制问题,但方法却是迥异的:西方欲通过控税实现"福利国"改造;中国则应以控税的方式探求适合自己的福利模式。     

欧盟动物源性食品安全法律问题研究

全球范围内恶性食源性动物传染病的频发推动了欧盟食品法的改革。本文介绍了欧盟动物源性食品安全的法律体系、管理机构和生产者责任,并在此基础上按照“从农场到餐桌”的整个食品链思路,进一步评析了欧盟动物源性食品安全管理中的可追溯性制度、危害分析和关键控制点制度、食品和饲料快速预警系统和食品标识制度,最后总结出了欧盟动物源性食品安全法律政策对我国的应有启示。