Developing programs for African families, by African families: engaging African migrant families in Melbourne in health promotion interventions

Obesity is an emerging problem for African migrants in Australia, but few prevention programs incorporate their cultural beliefs and values. This study reports on the application of community capacity-building and empowerment principles in 4 workshops with Sudanese families in Australia. Workshop participants prioritized health behaviors, skill and knowledge gaps, and environments for change to identify culturally centered approaches to health promotion. The workshops highlighted a need for culturally and age-appropriate interventions that build whole-of-family skills and knowledge around the positive effects of physical activity and nutrition to improve health within communities while reducing intergenerational and gender role family conflicts.

Partnerships in action : what’s in it for us?

This paper presents an analysis of the role and experiences of the teacher practitioner within the partnership arrangement in the Bachelor of Learning Management (BLM) degree at the Rockhampton campus of Central Queensland University (CQU). The paper begins by discussing the concept of partnerships and the background to current pre-service teacher education programs in Australia. It then introduces the BLM, documenting the experiences of partner-teachers involved in the program and analysing this model of partnership. The paper concludes with some suggestions for improving teacher-lecturer partnerships.

Formative evaluation of baby makes 3

Baby Makes 3 was originally developed by Whitehorse Community Health Service and the City of Whitehorse as a program which seeks to prevent violence by promoting respect and equality between couples who have recently become parents for the first time. This is a significant but often stressful event in the life of families and it is not uncommon for couples to adopt ways of relating which reflect gendered norms and foster inequality.
By being offered as a program to all first-time parents by maternal and child health staff, the program in Whitehorse managed to engage with couples at this critical time, many of whom found the program enabled them to adopt greater equality in their relationships. As such, the initial Baby Makes 3 program has been found to be an effective and cost-efficient violence prevention strategy (Flynn, 2011).
The introduction of Baby Makes 3 to the Great South Coast Region is the first time this program has been implemented in a non-metropolitan setting. In addition to the original program aims, a number of additional aims and activities have been added, with the new project being known as Baby Makes 3 Plus.
Programs developed in urban contexts often face different challenges when implemented in rural and regional settings. Likewise, the factors for facilitating success may vary from those in an urban setting (Maidment and Bay, 2012). Hence, this formative evaluation aims to provide feedback on the initial implementation of the original Baby Makes 3 program in the Great South Coast Region with the expectation this will enable problems with implementation and/or opportunities for further enhancement of outcomes to be identified and appropriate action taken.

Redesigning learning through social media, Web 2.0 and F2F teaching : an action research study

The focus of this research was to explore how social and participatory media could be used to enhance the face-to-face teaching and learning process. Action research was used to design learning that valued the students’ own experiences and to encourage students to create, connect and form a partnership in the learning process: hence supporting students' strengths and abilities. To monitor and participate in the use of social media required an increase in the teacher's work time. As a partial counter-balance, it was found that the teacher/researcher successfully reduced her time spent on correction by implementing peer and self-assessment and by making more effective use of classroom observations. This led to a valuable triangulation of assessment data. Reviewing many of the screen clips collected in this study, one can see the diversity of roles and activities in which the students were engaged, and their development over time through the action research cycle. Combining Web 2.0, face-to-face teaching and social media, where students made online friends and used pseudonyms, provided students with more choices and flexibility when working, communicating and learning. This research may help curriculum developers interweave new technologies, new literacies and multimodal learning methods into day-to-day learning programs. The developed methods of learning and designs should also be transferable to other educational learning environments.

Exploring cultural inclusion: perspectives from a community arts organisation

Using focus group interviews and individual stories of participants from secondary data, we  illuminate the role of Multicultural Arts Victoria (MAV) in Australia in how it promotes cultural  inclusion through programs of social and civic service. Our findings confirm the significance of  cultural inclusion and the potentially useful role of arts in creating inclusive organisations and  communities. We further develop a framework of cultural inclusion in the workplace to provide  a holistic understanding of the cultural inclusion process that can lead to the development of  inclusive workplaces. As social inclusion is central to Australia’s national identity, this article helps  researchers and practitioners to understand how cultural inclusion and inclusive organisational  theories collide and complement each other to create inclusive organisations.

Community views on responding to a local asbestos disease epidemic : implications for policy and practice

The Latrobe Valley region of Victoria, Australia, has the highest rate of asbestos disease in the state due to extensive past use of asbestos in the power industry. Current responses to asbestos disease epidemics in Australia and internationally are dominated by medical, scientific, legal and government perspectives. The voices and perspectives of those most directly affected – exposed and diseased workers, their families and communities – are relatively rarely heard.A qualitative interview study was conducted to determine what people in the Latrobe Valley community think could or should be done following their own asbestos disease epidemic. Analysis identified several themes. Notably, these represent a sophisticated community understanding of issues that is largely consistent with state-of-the-art occupational health and public health knowledge.Some themes are well known already, eg the need for fair and timely compensation, adequate healthcare facilities and services, and more education. Others point to neglected possibilities, such as the need for reconciliation and social healing to complement the dominant individual medico-legal focus. Employer suppression of hazard information and denial of asbestos-related disease in past decades continues to have a profound effect on people's views in the present. Reconciliation in some form, eg acknowledgement of or apology for past wrongs, was identified as a necessary first step in developing new and better policy and practice responses; action in this regard has important implications for the implementation and effectiveness of other policy and practice interventions. Further, a need for substantive community participation in the development of policy and practice responses – currently lacking – was identified. Findings suggest that community is an under-recognised and under-utilised resource in responding to a local asbestos disease epidemic.The Latrobe Valley situation is a microcosm of the broader Australian and international story. It offers insights on the perspectives of those most affected by asbestos issues, how such people and their views can be used to strengthen current policy and practice responses, and how their participation is essential to building comprehensive public and social health responses to this global problem.

Community social capital and entrepreneurship : analyzing the links

This study examines the effects of community social capital on entrepreneurial intentions (EIs) in rural communities in a developing country. Entrepreneurship, in the form of business start-ups, is widely recognized as an integral component of local economic development programs designed to address poverty and limited livelihood opportunities, especially among poor and marginalized communities in rural areas in developing countries. Using a survey of 496 individuals residing in five rural communities in the Philippines, and drawing from the theory of planned behavior and social capital theory, we examine the direct and indirect effects of community social capital (CSC) on an individual’s EIs. The findings show that CSC largely influences EI by shaping an individual’s perceived self-efficacy (PSE) to engage in entrepreneurship, perceived desirability of entrepreneurship (PDE), and perceived social norms toward entrepreneurship (PSNE). High levels of PSE, PDE, and PSNE have a positive influence on an individual’s EI. These findings offer more nuanced explanations of how social capital within a community can facilitate entrepreneurship as a means of community economic development. Implications of the findings and areas for future research are discussed.

Backyard biodiversity: community and wildlife gardener attitudes and practices.

This thesis concludes that the level of community support for planting native vegetation and welcoming wildlife in yards warrants the encouragement of wildlife gardening to improve biodiversity. It presents strategies to increase the ability of wildlife gardening programs to recruit previously unengaged individuals, thereby maximising their ability to improve biodiversity.

Supporting healthy communities through sports and recreation programs

There is some evidence, in the form of critical descriptions of programs and systematic reviews, on the benefits to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities from participation in sport and recreational programs. These include some improvements in school retention, attitudes towards learning, social and cognitive skills, physical and mental health and wellbeing; increased social inclusion and cohesion; increased validation of and connection to culture; and crime reduction.Although the effects of sports and recreation programs can be powerful and transformative, these effects tend to be indirect. For example, using these programs to reduce juvenile antisocial behaviour largely work through diversion, providing alternative safe opportunities to risk taking, maintenance of social status, as wellas opportunities to build healthy relationships with Elders and links with culture.Although Indigenous Australians have lower rates of participation in sport than non-Indigenous people, surveys suggest that around one-third of Indigenous people participate in some sporting activity (ABS 2010). That makes sports a potentially powerful vehicle for encouraging Indigenous communities to look at challenging personal and community issues.Within Indigenous communities, a strong component of sport and recreation is the link with traditional culture. Cultural activities such as hunting are generally more accepted as a form of sport and recreation than traditional dance. Therefore sport and recreation are integral in understanding ‘culture’ within Indigenous communities, as well as highlighting the culture within which sport and recreation operate.

Proportionality in sentencing: the need to factor in community experience, not public opinion

This is the first book to address the question of what role public opinion should play in the way criminal offenders are punished.Should public opinion determine—or even influence—sentencing policy and practice? Should the punishment of criminal offenders reflect what the public regards as appropriate? These deceptively simple questions conceal complex theoretical and methodological challenges to the administration of punishment.In the West, politicians have often answered these questions in the affirmative; penal reforms have been justified with direct reference to the attitudes of the public. This is why the contention that politicians should bridge the gap between the public and criminal justice practice has widespread resonance. Criminal law scholars, for their part, have often been more reluctant to accept public input in penal practice, and some have even held that the idea of consulting public opinion constitutes a populist approach to punishment.The purpose of this book is to examine the moral significance of public opinion for penal theory and practice. For the first time in a single volume the editors, Jesper Ryberg and Julian V. Roberts, have assembled a number of respected criminologists, philosphers, and legal theorists to address the various aspects of why and how public opinion should be reflected in the way the criminal justice system deals with criminals. The chapters address the myriad complexities surrounding this issue by first weighing the justifications for incorporating public views into punishment practices and then considering the various ways this might be achieved through juries, prosecutors, restoratifve justice programs, and other means.

Adherence to therapeutic guidelines for patients with community-acquired pneumonia in Australian hospitals

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality, particularly in elderly patients, and is associated with a considerable economic burden on the healthcare system. The combination of high incidence and substantial financial costs necessitate accurate diagnosis and appropriate management of patients admitted with CAP. This article will discuss the rates of adherence to clinical guidelines, the use of severity scoring tools and the appropriateness of antimicrobial prescribing for patients diagnosed with CAP. The authors maintain that awareness of national and hospital guidelines is imperative to complement the physicians' clinical judgment with evidence-based recommendations. Increased use of pneumonia severity assessment tools and greater adherence to therapeutic guidelines will enhance concordant antimicrobial prescribing for patients with CAP. A robust and multifaceted educational intervention, in combination with antimicrobial stewardship programs, may enhance compliance of CAP guidelines in clinical practice in Australia.

An effective program design to support older workers with intellectual disability to participate individually in community groups

The foreshadowed increase of older people with intellectual disability has become a reality in many developed countries. As these adults age, improved quality of life can be achieved through applications of conjoint policy aims of inclusion and participation. A transition-to-retirement (TTR) program developed for employees of a large multisite disability employment service in Sydney, Australia, used these aims to effect successful partial retirement. The authors describe the program logic of the TTR, detailing its conceptual components as the first step to enabling it to be tested and replicated in other settings. The TTR program has three components: promoting the concept of retirement, laying the groundwork for inclusion of would-be retirees with intellectual disability in the community, and constructing the reality. The third component comprised five stages: planning, locating a group, mapping new routine, recruiting and training mentors, and monitoring and ongoing support. The project's participants were 24 older employees, who replaced 1 day a week of work with membership of a community group and were supported by mentors who facilitated involvement of the participants in their group. Data collected provided information on the implementation of the program, the time and costs expended, and challenges encountered. Key to the model was a coordinator, skilled in generic case management and specific disability interventions (such as active support), who collaborated with others to manage the program. The authors note that by detailing the program logic underpinning the TTR program, they have exposed the hidden work of supporting meaningful inclusion of people with intellectual disability in community groups and added to the limited stock of evidence-informed programs in this area. © 2014 International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Psychosocial predictors of antiracist bystander action toward indigenous Australians

Racism toward Indigenous people remains a social problem in Australian culture, and racial abuse is part of that social problem. In this research, we investigated whether internal and external motivations, being open-minded, and having racist attitudes predicted the intention to engage in bystander action in support of Indigenous Australians in situations deemed low- and high-risk to personal safety. A total of 168 non-Indigenous community participants completed an anonymous online survey in Perth, Western Australia. In the low-risk scenario, low levels of racism, high internal motivation, and openness predicted the intention to engage in bystander action. In the high-risk scenario, participants with lower levels of racism and being female were more likely to engage in bystander action in support of Indigenous Australians. Coupled with previous research in the field, our findings suggest that internalized values relating to antiracist sentiments are significant predictors of antiracist bystander action.