Physical therapist assistant cluster /

Agency partners: Illinois State Board of Education, Illinois Community College Board, Illinois Board of Higher Education, Illinois Dept. of Commerce and Community Affairs, Illinois Dept. of Employment Security.

Plastics molding cluster /

Project staff: Steven Kopinski, Ronald Engstrom, Louis Reifschneider.

Press operations cluster /

Agency partners: Illinois State Board of Education, Illinois Community College Board, Illinois Board of Higher Education, Illinois Dept. of Commerce and Community Affairs, Illinois Dept. of Employment Security.

Surgical technologist /

Agency partners: Illinois State Board of Education, Illinois Community College Board, Illinois Board of Higher Education, Illinois Dept. of Commerce and Community Affairs, Illinois Dept. of Employment Security.

Telecommunications technician cluster /

Project staff: Doug Dougherty, John Kopatz, Kris Kersey.

Welding cluster /

Project staff: Steven Kopinski, Ronald Engstrom, Rick Polanin.

Coping strategies against extreme weather events:a survey of SMEs in the UK

Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs); which generate more than one half of the employment and turnover, form an important sector of the UK economy. In fact, SMEs are considered as the backbone of the UK economy due to their significant economic and societal importance. Despite SMEs being the main drivers of the UK economy, they are also said to be the most vulnerable to the impacts from various disruptions such as Extreme Weather Events (EWEs). Consequently, increased intensity and frequency of weather extremes in the UK during the recent past has created a significant impact on the SME community. As the threat of EWEs is expected to further increase in future, the need for SMEs to implement effective coping mechanisms to manage the effects of EWEs is also increasing. This paper aims to identify and evaluate the current coping mechanisms implemented by SMEs to ensure their business continuity in the event of a weather extreme. The paper presents the findings of a questionnaire survey, conducted as part of "Community Resilience to Extreme Weather - CREW" research project, addressing this issue. It is identified that SMEs mostly rely on generic business continuity strategies as opposed to property level protection measures. The paper highlights the importance of raising the uptake of coping strategies by SMEs, as many were found without adequate coping strategies to deal with the risk of EWEs.

Impacts of flood hazards on small and medium companies:strategies for property level protection and business continuity

Worldwide floods have become one of the costliest weather-related hazards, causing large-scale human, economic, and environmental damage during the recent past. Recent years have seen a large number of such flood events around the globe, with Europe and the United Kingdom being no exception. Currently, about one in six properties in England is at risk of flooding (EA, 2009), and the risk is expected to further increase in the future (Evans et al., 2004). Although public spending on community-level flood protection has increased and some properties are protected by such protection schemes, many properties at risk of flooding may still be left without adequate protection. As far as businesses are concerned, this has led to an increased need for implementing strategies for property-level flood protection and business continuity, in order to improve their capacity to survive a flood hazard. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) constitute a significant portion of the UK business community. In the United Kingdom, more than 99% of private sector enterprises fall within the category of SMEs (BERR, 2008). They account for more than half of employment creation (59%) and turnover generation (52%) (BERR, 2008), and are thus considered the backbone of the UK economy. However, they are often affected disproportionately by natural hazards when compared with their larger counterparts (Tierney and Dahlhamer, 1996; Webb, Tierney, and Dahlhamer, 2000; Alesch et al., 2001) due to their increased vulnerability. Previous research reveals that small businesses are not adequately prepared to cope with the risk of natural hazards and to recover following such events (Tierney and Dahlhamer, 1996; Alesch et al., 2001; Yoshida and Deyle, 2005; Crichton, 2006; Dlugolecki, 2008). For instance, 90% of small businesses do not have adequate insurance coverage for their property (AXA Insurance UK, 2008) and only about 30% have a business continuity plan (Woodman, 2008). Not being adequately protected by community-level flood protection measures as well as property- and business-level protection measures threatens the survival of SMEs, especially those located in flood risk areas. This chapter discusses the potential effects of flood hazards on SMEs and the coping strategies that the SMEs can undertake to ensure the continuity of their business activities amid flood events. It contextualizes this discussion within a survey conducted under the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funded research project entitled “Community Resilience to Extreme Weather — CREW”.

Programa "Engajando famílias na escola": estratégias, possibilidades e desafios

Education and community are currently intertwined, so that social practices, situated problems and emancipation processes have, more and more, entered in the school environment. Considering this context, the expansion of studies focusing on family literacy becomes necessary for the mobilization of alternatives and actions in this area. This research forms part of the project "The habitus of study: builder of a new reality in metropolitan Natal" (CAPES/OBEDUC/UFRN) and the program "Literacies and public policies: the family at school" (MEC/PROEXT/UFRN). In view of the chosen object – family literacy – therefore, we try to: 1) discuss actions implemented in a family literacy program, with specific reference to create literacy resources to register, discuss material, events, texts, 2) actions and promote forms of interaction by the family in the school environment; 2develop bonding strategies between school and families; 3) point the impact of such experiences of family literacy. To achieve these objectives, we base the discussion on theoretical contributions of the New Literacy Studies (STREET, 1984; McLAREN, 1988; BARTON & HAMILTON, 1993; KLEIMAN, 1995, 2000), focusing on Family Literacy and Literacy Project issues. Regarding to the research paradigm, we consider the Applied Linguistics field of study and we take the qualitative model (ERICKSON, 1990; BORTONI-RICARDO, 2008), with ethnographic critical approach (MOITA LOPES, 1993; THOMAS, 1993; HEATH & STREET, 2008). We understand, through our analysis, that families have much to contribute to the reality of schools, and, having seen relevance and value, these collaborators participate and act in support of the actions and the student’s education, even in the midst of complex routine situations. Still, we have learned that dialogues and activities with the community are necessary, looking forward to having involvement, local knowledge and the construction of shared learning; following this path, the collaborative environment is produced and the collaboration is effective.

Programa "Engajando famílias na escola": estratégias, possibilidades e desafios

Education and community are currently intertwined, so that social practices, situated problems and emancipation processes have, more and more, entered in the school environment. Considering this context, the expansion of studies focusing on family literacy becomes necessary for the mobilization of alternatives and actions in this area. This research forms part of the project "The habitus of study: builder of a new reality in metropolitan Natal" (CAPES/OBEDUC/UFRN) and the program "Literacies and public policies: the family at school" (MEC/PROEXT/UFRN). In view of the chosen object – family literacy – therefore, we try to: 1) discuss actions implemented in a family literacy program, with specific reference to create literacy resources to register, discuss material, events, texts, 2) actions and promote forms of interaction by the family in the school environment; 2develop bonding strategies between school and families; 3) point the impact of such experiences of family literacy. To achieve these objectives, we base the discussion on theoretical contributions of the New Literacy Studies (STREET, 1984; McLAREN, 1988; BARTON & HAMILTON, 1993; KLEIMAN, 1995, 2000), focusing on Family Literacy and Literacy Project issues. Regarding to the research paradigm, we consider the Applied Linguistics field of study and we take the qualitative model (ERICKSON, 1990; BORTONI-RICARDO, 2008), with ethnographic critical approach (MOITA LOPES, 1993; THOMAS, 1993; HEATH & STREET, 2008). We understand, through our analysis, that families have much to contribute to the reality of schools, and, having seen relevance and value, these collaborators participate and act in support of the actions and the student’s education, even in the midst of complex routine situations. Still, we have learned that dialogues and activities with the community are necessary, looking forward to having involvement, local knowledge and the construction of shared learning; following this path, the collaborative environment is produced and the collaboration is effective.

Flooded with Information from Social Media: Effects of Disaster Information Source and Visuals on Viewers' Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Responses

While a variety of crisis types loom as real risks for organizations and communities, and the media landscape continues to evolve, research is needed to help explain and predict how people respond to various kinds of crisis and disaster information. For example, despite the rising prevalence of digital and mobile media centered on still and moving visuals, and stark increases in Americans’ use of visual-based platforms for seeking and sharing disaster information, relatively little is known about how the presence or absence of disaster visuals online might prompt or deter resilience-related feelings, thoughts, and/or behaviors. Yet, with such insights, governmental and other organizational entities as well as communities themselves may best help individuals and communities prepare for, cope with, and recover from adverse events. Thus, this work uses the theoretical lens of the social-mediated crisis communication model (SMCC) coupled with the limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing (LC4MP) to explore effects of disaster information source and visuals on viewers’ resilience-related responses to an extreme flooding scenario. Results from two experiments are reported. First a preliminary 2 (disaster information source: organization/US National Weather Service vs. news media/USA Today) x 2 (disaster visuals: no visual podcast vs. moving visual video) factorial between-subjects online experiment with a convenience sample of university students probes effects of crisis source and visuals on a variety of cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes. A second between-subjects online experiment manipulating still and moving visual pace in online videos (no visual vs. still, slow-pace visual vs. still, medium-pace visual vs. still, fast-pace visual vs. moving, slow-pace visual vs. moving, medium-pace visual vs. moving, fast-pace visual) with a convenience sample recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (mTurk) similarly probes a variety of potentially resilience-related cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes. The role of biological sex as a quasi-experimental variable is also investigated in both studies. Various implications for community resilience and recommendations for risk and disaster communicators are explored. Implications for theory building and future research are also examined. Resulting modifications of the SMCC model (i.e., removing “message strategy” and adding the new category of “message content elements” under organizational considerations) are proposed.

Control programme for cystic echinococcosis in Uruguay

Cystic echinococcosis is a highly endemic parasitic zoonosis that is present in the Southern Cone countries of America. For several decades, various prevention and control programmes have been implemented in different countries and regions, with varying results. In Uruguay, a new control programme was implemented in 2006 that employed new strategies for canine diagnosis and treatment, dog population control, diagnosis in humans, epidemiological surveillance, and health education, including community participation. The control programme in Uruguay addresses the control and surveillance of the disease from a holistic perspective based on Primary Health Care, which has strengthened the community’s participation in developing and coordinating activities in an interdisciplinary manner. Similarly, the control programme that is currently implemented is based on a risk-focused approach. The surveillance and control measures were focused on small villages and extremely poor urban areas. In this study, the strategies used and the results obtained from 2008-2013 are analysed and discussed.

A identificação dos saberes já detidos pelos alunos do meio rural decorrentes da atividade agrícola no campo sobre a perspectiva do conhecimento químico formal no curso técnico integrado em agropecuária

Dissertação de mestrado com vista à obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Educação Social e Intervenção Comunitária.

Catando vidas no lixo : o caso de uma cooperativa de trabalho de reciclagem em Santa Maria - DF

Dissertação apresentada para obtenção do grau de mestre no âmbito do Mestrado em Educação Social e Intervenção Comunitária da Escola Superior de Educação do Instituto Politécnico de Santarém.

A identificação dos saberes já detidos pelos alunos do meio rural decorrentes da atividade agrícola no campo sobre a perspectiva do conhecimento químico formal no curso técnico integrado em agropecuária

Dissertação de mestrado com vista à obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Educação Social e Intervenção Comunitária.