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Purpose: Paper-based artifacts hold significant cultural and social values. However, paper is intrinsically fragile to microorganisms, such as mold, due to its cellulose composition, which can serve as a microorganisms' nutrient source. Mold not only can damage papers' structural integrity and pose significant challenges to conservation works but also may subject individuals attending the contaminated artifacts to health risks. Current approaches for strain identification usually require extensive training, prolonged time for analysis, expensive operation costs, and higher risks of secondary damage due to sampling. Thus, in current conservation practices with mold-contaminated artifacts, little pre-screening or strain identification was performed before mold removal, and the cleaning techniques are usually broad-spectrum rather than strain-specific. With deep learning showing promising applications across various domains, this study investigated the feasibility of using a convolutional neural network (CNN) for fast in-situ recognition and classification of mold on paper. Methods: Molds were first non-invasively sampled from ancient Xuan Paper-based Chinese books from the Qing and Ming dynasties. Strains were identified using molecular biology methods and the four most prevalent strains were inoculated on Xuan paper to create mockups for image collection. Microscopic images of the molds as well as their stains situated on paper were collected using a compound microscope and commercial microscope lens for cell phone cameras, which were then used for training CNN models with a transfer learning scheme to perform the classification of mold. To enable involvement and contribution from the research community, a web interface that actuates the process while providing interactive features for users to learn about the information of the classified strain was constructed. Moreover, a feedback functionality in the web interface was embedded for catching potential classification errors, adding additional training images, or introducing new strains, all to refine the generalizability and robustness of the model. Results & Conclusion: In the study, we have constructed a suite of high-confidence classification CNN models for the diagnostic process for mold contamination in conservation. At the same time, a web interface was constructed that allows recurrently refining the model with human feedback through engaging the research community. Overall, the proposed framework opens new avenues for effective and timely identification of mold, thus enabling proactive and targeted mold remediation strategies in conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how public education can ensure equity and diversity by clarifying the "democratic aspects" that can be captured through school-community collaborative activities in Japan and the U.S. As a result of comparison and analysis, it is indicated that in both Japan and the U.S., these activities are conducted in the context of streamlining educational administration. In addition, the participation in school management of diverse people such as local residents, parents, and children is promoted in order to grasp their needs and achieve deliberation on an equal footing. In contrast to Japan, however, these activities in the U.S. put importance on providing health and educational services to disadvantaged families and children. Furthermore, they aim to change not only schools but also communities. Therefore, this paper suggests that "democratic aspects" encompassed by collaborative activities have multiple layers: (1) "compensatory-type" (status-quo satisfaction -oriented democratic aspects), (2) "participatory-type" (deliberation-oriented democratic aspects), and (3) "transformative-type" (status-quo change-oriented democratic aspects). In order to guarantee equity of education that ensures fairness and inclusion to all children, this paper clarifies the importance of having both activities that distribute educational and welfare services on a curve to disadvantaged children and families (compensatory-type) and activities that involve children themselves in the practice, leading to the transformation and creation of the world (participatory and transformative type). The types of activities described above do not necessarily set the transformative-type as the ultimate goal. The three types interact together and pave the way toward a democratic and equitable education that is open to all and respects the voices of minorities.

Background: Global evidence on psychosis is dominated by studies conducted in Western, high-income countries. The objectives of the Study of Context Of Psychoses to improve outcomes in Ethiopia (SCOPE) are (1) to generate rigorous evidence of psychosis experience, epidemiology and impacts in Ethiopia that will illuminate aetiological understanding and (2) inform development and testing of interventions for earlier identification and improved first contact care that are scalable, inclusive of difficult-to-reach populations and optimise recovery. Methods: The setting is sub-cities of Addis Ababa and rural districts in south-central Ethiopia covering 1.1 million people and including rural, urban and homeless populations. SCOPE comprises (1) formative work to understand care pathways and community resources (resource mapping); examine family context and communication (ethnography); develop valid measures of family communication and personal recovery; and establish platforms for community engagement and involvement of people with lived experience; (2a) a population-based incidence study, (2b) a case-control study and (2c) a cohort study with 12 months follow-up involving 440 people with psychosis (390 rural/Addis Ababa; 50 who are homeless), 390 relatives and 390 controls. We will test hypotheses about incidence rates in rural vs. urban populations and men vs. women; potential aetiological role of khat (a commonly chewed plant with amphetamine-like properties) and traumatic exposures in psychosis; determine profiles of needs at first contact and predictors of outcome; (3) participatory workshops to develop programme theory and inform co-development of interventions, and (4) evaluation of the impact of early identification strategies on engagement with care (interrupted time series study). Findings will inform development of (5) a protocol for (5a) a feasibility cluster randomised controlled trial of interventions for people with recent-onset psychosis in rural settings and (5b) two uncontrolled pilot studies to test acceptability, feasibility of co-developed interventions in urban and homeless populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global pandemic was traumatic for everyone, and it revealed the vast inequity in public services to which people have access. Fortunately, community schools had been coordinating services to meet the needs of their families prior to the pandemic, and when schools closed in 2020, they kicked into high gear to provide for those needs. This paper reports on interviews with 15 community school coordinators in Baltimore conducted at the end of the pandemic period to find out how they went about meeting community needs. Findings indicate that coordinators played a crucial role in getting families' basic needs (i.e. food, shelter, clothing) met, but they also built trusting relationships, generating social capital in their neighborhoods set in racially segregated neighborhoods as a result of decades of redlining and policies meant to isolate Black communities. In the end, this paper argues that community school coordinators need more support to convert the social capital into further advocacy alongside the families with whom they work.

Unsafe and violent schools are a widespread problem in South Africa. This paper argues that Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) contribute to this phenomenon. While various individual and community-level interventions to address ACEs have been reported on, the contribution of safe parks towards preventing school violence has not yet been explored. To support schools in dealing with violence, the Adopt-a-School Foundation introduced a pilot project at eight schools in Botshabelo in the Free State Province. The programme included psychosocial support services, establishing safe parks, and ensuring community involvement. The goal was to improve school communities by creating environments that are empowering, academically effective, gender sensitive and free from violence. Although there are safe parks in communities around South Africa, they are an uncommon sight at schools. This paper reports on the quantitative study conducted on safe parks' contribution to making schools safer and less violent. Results show that safe park activities improve community well-being, including reduced gangsterism, enhanced learner safety, and decreased disciplinary problems. It is recommended that safe parks continue to provide psychosocial services to children at schools and that their programmes be expanded to include more services.

This paper highlights the transformative potential of place-based community organizing as a theory and practice of progressive social change and as a critical approach to the social purpose of community engagement in Higher Education Institutions. The aim is to expose power asymmetries and civic renewal "from below" through a focus on community engaged learning, specifically community organizing on the curriculum for geography undergraduates. The empirical focus is an English university, but the issues and observations are widespread. Around the world, students are coping with disruptions following a global pandemic, austerity, and loss of trust in local democracy -- participating in climate emergency and racial justice movements. This paper advances community organising and community engaged learning as a mutually co-constitutive challenge to conventional notions of the student as a passive consumer of recruitment, learning, and individualised notions of civic responsibility. Methods of community organising are based on the theory that if you want change, you need power: change ultimately traces a motivational journey from anger to agitation and action. Empirical vignettes explore the transformative role of emotionally stirring "political theatre" and direct action, while exposing tensions that arise due to the transitory status of students in place and time.

Purpose: The literature review explores how multidisciplinary approaches based on critical pedagogy and participatory research can provide frameworks for equitable partnerships and genuine participation in educational design and research practices. Additionally, the essay aims to expand understandings of equitable engagement within educational research and design based on principles from critical pedagogy. Design/methodology/approach: The essay draws from diverse literature in the learning sciences, health informatics, industrial design, disability studies, ethnic studies, rehabilitation science, and to a lesser extent HCI research to understand how critical pedagogy and participatory research methods can provide useful frameworks for disabled peoples' equitable engagement and genuine participation in educational research and design. The literature reviewed in the paper concern topics such as participatory approaches to community development with disabled adults, the implementation of university-initiated community partnerships, participatory research with students and disabled people, and the importance of culturally-responsive research practices. The design literature in this review explores various arenas such as the co-design of assistive technologies with disabled children and adults and the design of curricula for students with and without disabilities. This review focuses on research practices that engender disabled peoples' participation in educational research and design, with focus on developing multidisciplinary frameworks for such research. Findings: The literature review concludes that participatory research methods and critical pedagogy provide useful frameworks for disabled peoples' participation in educational design and research practices. Critical pedagogy and participatory design allow for the genuine participation of disabled people in the research process. Social implications: Emphases on collaboration and collective knowledge-building in social transformation are present in scholarship concerning critical pedagogy, participatory research, and disability studies. However, these connections have been routinely underexplored in the literature. This paper aims to underscore these integral connections as a means to build solidarity between disabled and other marginalized people. Originality/value: The connections between participatory research methods, critical pedagogy, and disability studies have been previously underexplored. The literature review proposes a combined approach, which has the potential to radically transform multiple realms of research beyond the learning and information sciences.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explicate the links between public pedagogy, ethics of care and storying as a methodology and method in Oceania. Design/methodology/approach: This paper explores the role of extended families as First Teachers in iTaukei and Indo-Fijian Early Childhood contexts in Fiji. Using storying as methodology, the authors, three Australian and four Fijian academics, present three portraits to make visible the pedagogical entanglements of public pedagogy research in diverse community contexts. These portraits reveal the intersection and integration of extended family with the authors' community-family-child-informed pedagogical approaches, and the advantages of culturally located standpoints when working with iTaukei and Indo-Fijian communities. This article's unique contribution lies in its demonstration of the importance of an ethics of care approach in site-specific and contextually emerging pedagogical encounters. Findings: The findings demonstrate the traditional role of First Teachers and carers in iTaukei and Indo-Fijian Early Childhood contexts in Fiji who use arts-based approaches to teaching and learning within a public pedagogical framework. Research limitations/implications: The implications of the research highlight the need to address policy interventions that disrupt the value of First Teachers in community context and their role in values formations for young people in community. Practical implications: The implications of the research can be addressed at the policy and international level where considerations of educational arrangements need to be understood. Social implications: The social implications of this publication are the value of iTaukei and Indo-Fijian Early Childhood educators in Fiji, and their voices being heard and understood via a published academic journal. Originality/value: This work is original and is a collaborative paper written between Australian and iTaukei and Indo-Fijian Early Childhood educators.

This paper investigates the preparation of Australian undergraduate university arts students for a life challenging arts-teaching and creative experience in Timor-Leste. It explores university teaching practice and how we may achieve better student experiences in preparation for their futures as teaching artists. This narrative inquiry research hears the voices of the students through their individual, personal stories. The emerging teaching artists articulate challenges, identify shifts in beliefs and values, and confirm skills that are transferable to cultural arts teaching contexts in the future. In all, the research has resulted in 46 recommendations, some minor, and some requiring more significant structural changes that affect course delivery. For the purposes of this paper, we reflect on and discuss three of the major findings and recommendations in the pedagogical, cultural, and artistic areas of the project implementation. As such, this paper represents a reflective analysis of some of the findings regarding curriculum design within this project.

Background: Limited work has been done to integrate ethical leadership and anti-racist school leadership practice. Through narrative ethics, this paper links caring with race-consciousness to form a foundation for critical praxis. Purpose: The authors address the limitations of caring leadership by arguing for a race-conscious narrative ethics that promotes communal responsibility for students, with specific attention to racialized and marginalized students. Research Design: This conceptual paper draws on caring theory, feminism, womanism, and culturally responsive leadership. The paper considers racism within a United States context, drawing from theory developed in additional contexts. Analysis: The paper builds from the limitations of caring theory and seeks alternative caring ethics from critiques and African-American historical struggles for sustainable and anti-racist praxis. Results: The authors argue that predispositions toward caring among teachers and school leaders are insufficient for the project of anti-racist education because of uncritical assumptions of sameness, misplaced empathy, and the evasion of race and racism. The resulting impersonal caring reproduces racist power relations and reinforces standardized and competitive notions of responsibility for children, forestalling opportunities for collective action. Conclusions: As an alternative to impersonal caring, the authors explore the possibilities of deepening leaders' engagement in race-conscious caring through the significance of experience, the quality of caring relations, and the value of narrative ethics. A key implication is that race-conscious caring is necessary but insufficient for the work of anti-racism unless it informs changed practices, structures, and systems.

As educational systems design and build new spaces aimed for learning in the digital age, small group configurations around large screens have become a highly popular spatial feature in classrooms and libraries. In this paper, we introduce the idea of intermediate indexing as occurring in the space between the knot of intertwined resources at the fine-grained level of interactions and the public knowledge building effort at the community level. Arguing that these intermediate processes occur in these configurations, we explored a classroom community that studied within a learning space designed to support knowledge building between individuals, small groups, and the community. In this paper, we report on our interaction analysis of a small group of students around a large screen as they negotiate a set of ideas that they want to make public to their community. The results of this study elucidate how collective monitoring of artifacts and documents, inclusive participation structures, and fluid turn-taking transitions in these configurations ultimately contribute to the knowledge building effort.

Purpose: This paper aims to propose a conceptual framework for integrating information and communication technologies (ICT) into teaching practices for educators in rural Ghana lacking computer and internet access. Bridging the rural-urban digital divide is critical for equitable quality education. This research identifies distinct infrastructure, financial, human, and socio-cultural challenges of ICT adoption in underserved Ghanaian schools through an exhaustive literature review. The framework provides tailored strategies to empower teachers to leverage ICT for innovative pedagogy despite limitations. Ultimately, the goal is to offer pragmatic, evidence-based solutions to advance ICT-enabled instruction and digital equity in marginalized settings. Design/methodology/approach: This study utilizes a qualitative literature review methodology to develop a conceptual framework for ICT teaching techniques tailored to the rural Ghanaian context. Published empirical studies, theoretical papers, and reports focused on ICT education in developing countries, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, were systematically reviewed across multidisciplinary databases. Relevant theories and models, like TPACK and SAMR, were analyzed to determine appropriate modifications for the framework design. The proposed strategies emphasize affordable technologies, teacher training, localized content, and culturally relevant pedagogies selected based on evidence from literature to address the unique barriers and needs of the rural setting. Findings: The literature review revealed profound infrastructure, financial, human, and socio-cultural barriers to ICT adoption in rural Ghanaian schools. These include lack of electricity, internet, hardware, and software alongside inadequate teacher training and support. The proposed conceptual framework offers solutions including leveraging low-cost technologies like mobile devices, prioritizing teacher professional development, developing localized digitally-enabled resources, and fostering community participation. Culturally relevant pedagogies are also emphasized. This tailored, evidence-based approach holds promise for enhancing ICT-enabled instruction and bridging digital divides to promote equitable quality education. Further findings will emerge through framework implementation and evaluation. Research limitations/implications: This conceptual framework requires implementation and evaluation to truly determine its impact and effectiveness in the intended rural Ghanaian context. As a literature review, primary data collection was not undertaken. Practical application of the framework in schools can yield direct insights through surveys, interviews, observations, and analysis of key educational outcomes pre and post-implementation. Comparisons with control groups may further illuminate its efficacy. Monitoring and adaptation over time is also essential. Ultimately, this research sets the foundation for praxis-oriented work transforming ICT integration in marginalized communities to advance digital equity and inclusion. Practical implications: This research provides an evidence-based, context-aware framework with pragmatic solutions to enhance ICT-enabled teaching and learning in underserved rural Ghanaian schools. It offers guidance to teachers, administrators, and policymakers on integrating technology despite infrastructure and resource constraints. The emphasis on cost-effective innovations, educator training, localized content, and community participation can inform planning and investments in ICT education. Broader applications include adapting the framework for other developing country contexts facing comparable challenges. Overall, this work promotes digital equity and quality education access, catalyzing social development and aligning with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Social implications: This research highlights the urgent need to address digital divides exacerbating educational inequalities between rural and urban communities in Ghana. Lack of technology access and utilization in rural schools threatens to widen gaps in skills, capabilities, and opportunities for students. Strategic integration of ICT can promote social inclusion, cultivate digital literacy, and equip youth to participate in the global digital economy, thereby enhancing prospects. More broadly, advancing digital equity and ICT-enabled education empowers marginalized groups, fosters community empowerment, and drives progressive social change. This work underscores that localized, context-appropriate solutions are pivotal for promoting development and social justice. Originality/value: This research fills a crucial gap by proposing a conceptual framework tailored specifically for integrating ICT in teaching practices in rural Ghanaian schools lacking digital access, responding to context-specific barriers and needs. While extensive literature examines ICT education models globally, few studies offer localized strategies for resource-constrained environments. This framework adapts established models based on a systematic literature review, emphasizing affordability, capacity building, and cultural relevance. By synthesizing evidence-based, pragmatic solutions to advance ICT-enabled instruction in marginalized settings, this work provides a valuable foundation for praxis transforming rural education. The localization approach could inform frameworks for other developing regions.

Extractive knowledge is prevalent in higher education community engagement. It is a type of epistemic injustice that is harmful to the historically and systemically minoritized communities and community nonprofits that many universities, particularly predominately white institutions, seek to engage. Extractive knowledge results from what we can think of as transactional relationships with community members or community nonprofits. These are largely superficial but impactful relationships perpetuating injustice in higher education spaces that imagine themselves working to create greater justice. In this article, we make two primary arguments: a.) Extractive knowledge is an epistemic injustice prevalent in community-engaged higher education, and b.) The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's model for transformative community engagement and the Fitz Center for Leadership in Community's Practice Principles provide strategies and models for more epistemically just approaches to community engagement that shape knowledge in epistemically responsible ways, in partnership with communities and alignment with communities' goals and outcomes, this paper finishes with the Fitz Center's Health Equity Program and a community-led partnership as examples of these Practice Principles that lead toward reciprocal, responsible, community-driven, and transformational community engagement.

This paper presents the process of conducting a community-wide needs assessment that initially focused on soliciting information about childcare needs of families with school-aged children. The researchers were interested in understanding whether the method designed to conduct the needs assessment helped to foster collaboration, trust, and increased participation amongst multiple levels of stakeholders and subcommunities. Utilizing community-based participatory research principles, the authors will present a 3-phase approach to gaining community support through multiple levels of stakeholder engagement. While initially the needs assessment was focused on childcare, the scope broadened to learning about other needs that families with school-aged children faced. The strategic use of Survey Ambassadors throughout the community who could access families that were typically underrepresented and could provide feedback to the researchers in real time regarding modifications to the process was vital. Lessons learned included the need for further investigation into strategic methods for gaining family voices in underrepresented populations.

Multilevel interventions (MLIs) are appropriate to reduce health disparities among Indigenous peoples because of their ability to address these communities' diverse histories, dynamics, cultures, politics, and environments. Intervention science has highlighted the importance of context-sensitive MLIs in Indigenous communities that can prioritize Indigenous and local knowledge systems and emphasize the collective versus the individual. This paradigm shift away from individual-level focus interventions to community-level focus interventions underscores the need for community engagement and diverse partnerships in MLI design, implementation, and evaluation. In this paper, we discuss three case studies addressing how Indigenous partners collaborated with researchers in each stage of the design, implementation, and evaluation of MLIs to reduce health disparities impacting their communities. We highlight the following: (1) collaborations with multiple, diverse tribal partners to carry out MLIs which require iterative, consistent conversations over time; (2) inclusion of qualitative and Indigenous research methods in MLIs as a way to honor Indigenous and local knowledge systems as well as a way to understand a health disparity phenomenon in a community; and (3) relationship building, maintenance, and mutual respect among MLI partners to reconcile past research abuses, prevent extractive research practices, decolonize research processes, and generate co-created knowledge between Indigenous and academic communities.

A sustainable transdisciplinary research network was established through a research practice partnership (RPP) between an urban farm, faculty and staff from a Historically Black College (HBC), and researchers at a medium-sized private university. We investigate student-worker resilience at this urban farm situated on the HBC campus, drawing on literature that explores tensions between informal learning environments and formal spaces, equitable food systems and farming systems, as well as the resilience of farm work, and which is grounded critical food systems education theory. Utilizing a participatory design approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews and deductively analyzed the data. The research questions guiding this paper are: (1) What topics of discussion are most important to the student-workers and staff working on an urban farm, (2) How do student-workers and college staff members perceive and experience resilience on an urban farm? We found that what participants on an urban farm discuss, relating to their experiences, include (1) how participants were eager to "engage" with the local community, (2) how participants demonstrated "resilience" while working on the urban farm, (3) how "power dynamics" played a pivotal role informing the direction of the urban farm, (4) how participants consider community "access" to healthy foods an important mission for the farm, (5) how the college acted as a power wielding entity, perpetuating its "privilege" over the farmers and the farm operations. These findings have the potential to enable community organizing spaces to promote resilience for their volunteers and workers, and for urban farms top partner with their community to promote the mission of increasing access to healthy and affordable food options.

For many years, activists in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) have called for the sector to engage closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities. However, less is documented on how mainstream services might achieve authentic, sustained engagement at a local service level. This paper showcases educators who connect with local Aboriginal community members/Elders as a central plank of their ECEC practice. In sharing their account, we examine what engagement looks like and what makes it possible. We have used Indigenous methodologies and the Theory of Practice Architecture (TPA) as theoretical lenses for exploring the policy, and organisational arrangements that sustained their engagement practices. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the research.

This paper describes key discoveries and lessons learned about the practice of reciprocity in community-engaged learning (CEL). We draw from an example of a multi-partner, multi-year CEL project that addresses a community-identified priority to access jargon-free research findings about their community. Our project benefits community members in an over-researched, equity-deserving inner-city neighborhood without requiring the direct presence of large numbers of university students in the community. In this collaboration, first-year undergraduate students in introductory academic writing courses at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada create publicly accessible infographic summaries of research articles arising from studies that have taken place in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighborhood. First-year students, in their position as novice scholars, bring helpful perspectives to the task of knowledge translation. As apprentice researchers not yet immersed in disciplinary languages, they are cognizant that the specialized types of discourse used in research writing are often not accessible to readers outside the academy. Pairing students with community-engaged researchers leads to multi-directional benefits: students develop their knowledge translation skills in an authentic research writing situation; researchers benefit from the publication of supervised, student-authored infographics of their scholarship; and over-researched communities gain access to relevant research findings. A community-embedded institutional unit is crucial to the project's success, providing the resources, relationships, and boundary-spanning expertise required to ensure this project is successful from the perspective of the community and the university.

School principals must play a vital role in facilitating homeplace and Black joy by promoting, modeling, and holding educators responsible for their roles in contributing to homeplace. We argue that principals can enact homeplace by embodying the tenets of culturally responsive school leadership (CSRL). The purpose of this paper is to make meaning of the concept of homeplace, conceptualized by bell hooks, through storytelling and explanation of an acrostic. Homeplace creates "H"olistic "O"pportunities for "M"eaning, "E"xpectations on high, "P"urpose, "L"ove, "A"chievement, and "C"ommunity "E"ngagement. We explain each construct by including: (1) a story that connects to one of our personal experiences; (2) a general overview of how we make sense of the construct; (3) how we connect the construct to extant research about homeplace, joy, and CRSL; and (4) possibilities for application of the construct by school principals.

Applied theatre extends beyond traditional performance and entertainment, using theatrical techniques to address social issues and engage communities. In this paper, we emphasise the importance of a socially and politically engaged approach to Applied Theatre (AT) using Paulo Freire's and Augusto Boal's works as primary references to support transformational change and bring about social resistance. A small-scale case study was carried out with participants and collaborators of "Estopô Balaio," a collective theatre group in Brazil that has worked for over a decade with a community in a deprived peripheral neighbourhood, Jardim Romano, in São Paulo. Key findings highlight the concept of feasibility in AT, where the collective's efforts overflowed with possibilities for change and empowerment by embracing its residents as collaborators and agents of change in their realities, being thinkers, makers, and citizens through continuous work instead of isolated actions.

Autism evaluation processes are often fragmented and lead to delays in accurate identification and services. These inefficient processes also lead to substantial burden on families when navigating the autism diagnostic odyssey that often requires information-sharing across providers and settings. Collaboration across schools, clinical settings, and communities can facilitate equitable and efficient access to autism evaluation services. Children and families from minoritized and marginalized backgrounds are particularly positioned to benefit from school-clinic collaboration. This paper: (1) highlights the current state of autism identification and systems inefficiencies and inequities along racial/ethnic/socioeconomic lines; (2) compares the processes, benefits, and challenges between educational identification and clinical diagnosis of autism; (3) describes how school-clinic collaboration processes can address these systems inefficiencies and inequities; (4) presents examples of models that use school-clinic collaboration; and (5) offers specific recommendations for providers.

Quantitative Critical Race Theory (QuantCrit) is a burgeoning field of study seeking to challenge and improve the use of statistical data in social research. It pulls lessons and insights from Critical Race Theory and applies them to understanding social challenges. In this paper, we aim to improve the quality of quantitative research produced by showing examples of how pioneers in this field are effectively enacting QuantCrit. We conducted a systematic review of the literature to include all empirical education studies published since 2010 through 2022. Twenty-seven studies fit the criteria. Our data shows there is room for innovation, experimentation, and exploration. However, the study highlights exemplars of authors who embody QuantCrit principles through their professional and personal positionality statements, cognizance of community, robust racial/ethnic categories, intentionality on not centering whiteness, use of atypical methods, new measurement tools centering Black and Brown students, and innovative interpretations of findings.

A primary community prevention approach in Iceland was associated with strong reductions of substance use in adolescents. Two years into the implementation of this prevention model in Chile, the aim of this study was to assess changes in the prevalence of adolescent alcohol and cannabis use and to discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the substance use outcomes. In 2018, six municipalities in Greater Santiago, Chile, implemented the Icelandic prevention model, including structured assessments of prevalence and risk factors of substance use in tenth grade high school students every 2 years. The survey allows municipalities and schools to work on prevention with prevalence data from their own community. The survey was modified from an on-site paper format in 2018 to an on-line digital format in a shortened version in 2020. Comparisons between the cross-sectional surveys in the years 2018 and 2020 were performed with multilevel logistic regressions. Totally, 7538 participants were surveyed in 2018 and 5528 in 2020, nested in 125 schools from the six municipalities. Lifetime alcohol use decreased from 79.8% in 2018 to 70.0% in 2020 (X[superscript 2] = 139.3, p < 0.01), past-month alcohol use decreased from 45.5 to 33.4% (X[superscript 2] = 171.2, p < 0.01), and lifetime cannabis use decrease from 27.9 to 18.8% (X[superscript 2] = 127.4, p < 0.01). Several risk factors improved between 2018 and 2020: staying out of home after 10 p.m. (X[superscript 2] = 105.6, p < 0.01), alcohol use in friends (X[superscript 2] = 31.8, p < 0.01), drunkenness in friends (X[superscript 2] = 251.4, p < 0.01), and cannabis use in friends (X[superscript 2] = 217.7, p < 0.01). However, other factors deteriorated in 2020: perceived parenting (X[superscript 2] = 63.8, p < 0.01), depression and anxiety symptoms (X[superscript 2] = 23.5, p < 0.01), and low parental rejection of alcohol use (X[superscript 2] = 24.9, p < 0.01). The interaction between alcohol use in friends and year was significant for lifetime alcohol use ([beta] = 0.29, p < 0.01) and past-month alcohol use ([beta]= 0.24, p < 0.01), and the interaction between depression and anxiety symptoms and year was significant for lifetime alcohol use ([beta] = 0.34, p < 0.01), past-month alcohol use ([beta] = 0.33, p < 0.01), and lifetime cannabis use ([beta] = 0.26, p = 0.016). The decrease of substance use prevalence in adolescents was attributable at least in part to a reduction of alcohol use in friends. This could be related to social distancing policies, curfews, and homeschooling during the pandemic in Chile that implied less physical interactions between adolescents. The increase of depression and anxiety symptoms may also be related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The factors rather attributable to the prevention intervention did not show substantial changes (i.e., sports activities, parenting, and extracurricular activities).

The main goals of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) are to achieve primary education for all school children aged 6-14; reduce gender, regional and social spaces, and complete 100% retention of school children. Although, some obstacles and lacunas are pointed out here and there. Therefore, this paper attempted to analyze infrastructure facilities, academic facilities, community participation, and co-curricular activities from the stakeholders in the primary schools of Mahaboobnagar, Nalgonda, and Ranga Reddy under the Jurisdiction of Telangana state. The survey found that 70% of Heads of Institutions agree with SSA plans.

Members of the Interactive Online Network of Inorganic Chemists (IONiC) report the development and sustained efforts to provide virtual professional development sessions: Supporting Learning with Interactive Teaching: a Hosted, Engaging Roundtable (SLiThEr). SLiThEr's emerged from a community need at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic; since then, SLiThEr's have become a standard event for the IONiC community. SLiThEr's are real- time virtual community events, after which a recording of the SLiThEr is posted on the IONiC YouTube channel. In this paper, an overview of the structure, format, and emergence of SLiThEr's is reported, followed by evaluation of SLiThEr offerings, a plan for future SLiThEr offerings, and a discussion of how SLiThEr's impact teaching practice.

The paper explored the community involvement in education provision for indigenous pastoral community girls in Tanzania. It answered the questions on the way pastoral community is involved in education provision, the roles community leaders play in educating girls, and the challenges the community encounter in their involvement. Postcolonial theory guides the theoretical understanding of the study. The study adopted a qualitative approach, using a case study design. Data was collected using interviews, focus group discussions and observations, and analysed thematically. Findings reveal that the pastoral community is involved in education provision in various ways including attending to various meetings and through labour and financial contributions. Their involvement however is limited. Findings further reveal that although community leaders have vital role in educating girls, their involvement is limited. The study concludes that community involvement is still an important strategy for educating girls. Thus, sensitisation is required among members to enable them participate in effective provision of education for girls.

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Within the past few years, pandemics like HIV/AIDS, influenza, and SARS-CoV-2 have become common worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic, which broke out recently, profoundly impacted the world. As part of containing this pandemic, lockdowns which put a moratorium on human mobility and associational life became a dominant measure. Yet these mobilities and associational life are the lifeblood of migrants and diaspora belonging. This paper examines the impacts of bans on associational life on migrants and, further, what migrants did to continue living in the absence of these associations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper is based on a case study of Lydiate informal settlement in Zimbabwe, where Malawian migrants have established an ethnic enclave to shield themselves from the precarity and injustices of foreign lands. Through convivial and digital ethnographic fieldwork, the paper revealed that bans on associational life disrupted community engagements and binding religious associational life, increased targeted violence and "othering," and perpetuated stigma and discrimination and loss of ties with family and fictive kin. However, migrants restructured their associational life by adopting agile and new forms of belonging to get by, including relocating religious shrines to more secretive places or conducting religious ceremonies in the dark, drinking beer within the perimeter of the settlement, using of WhatsApp and instant messaging and WhatsApp groups for important community updates, and collective resistance. I termed these strategies "nimble forms of sociality and belonging," meaning there are lithe mechanisms that migrants employ to further their sociality even when they are restricted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The halfway point for the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was marked in 2023, as set forth in the 2030 Agenda. Geospatial technologies have proven indispensable in assessing and tracking fundamental components of each of the 17 SDGs, including climatological and ecological trends, and changes and humanitarian crises and socio-economic impacts. However, gaps remain in the capacity for geospatial and related digital technologies, like AI, to provide a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of the complex and multi-factorial challenges delineated in the SDGs. Lack of progress toward these goals, and the immense implementation challenges that remain, call for inclusive and holistic approaches, coupled with transformative uses of digital technologies. This paper reviews transdisciplinary, holistic, and participatory approaches to address gaps in ethics and diversity in geospatial and related technologies and to meet the pressing need for bottom-up, community-driven initiatives. Small-scale, community-based initiatives are known to have a systemic and aggregate effect toward macro-economic and global environmental goals. Cybernetic systems thinking approaches are the conceptual framework investigated in this study, as these approaches suggest that a decentralized, polycentric system—for example, each community acting as one node in a larger, global system—has the resilience and capacity to create and sustain positive change, even if it is counter to top-down decisions and mechanisms. Thus, this paper will discuss how holistic systems thinking—societal, political, environmental, and economic choices considered in an interrelated context—may be central to building true resilience to climate change and creating sustainable development pathways. Traditional and Indigenous knowledge (IK) systems around the world hold holistic awareness of human-ecological interactions—practicable, reciprocal relationships developed over time as a cultural approach. This cultural holistic approach is also known as Systemic Literacy, which considers how systems function beyond "mechanical" aspects and include political, philosophical, psychological, emotional, relational, anthropological, and ecological dimensions. When Indigenous-led, these dimensions can be unified into participatory, community-centered conservation practices that support long-term human and environmental well-being. There is a growing recognition of the criticality of Indigenous leadership in sustainability practices, as well as that partnerships with Indigenous peoples and weaving knowledge systems, as a missing link to approaching global ecological crises. This review investigates the inequality in technological systems—the "digital divide" that further inhibits participation by communities and groups that retain knowledge of "place" and may offer the most transformative solutions. Following the review and synthesis, this study presents cybernetics as a bridge of understanding to Indigenous systems thinking. As non-Indigenous scholars, we hope that this study serves to foster informed, productive, and respectful dialogues so that the strength of diverse knowledges might offer whole-systems approaches to decision making that tackle wicked problems. Lastly, we discuss use cases of community-based processes and co-developed geospatial technologies, along with ethical considerations, as avenues toward enhancing equity and making advances in democratizing and decolonizing technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How can philosophers incorporate the Digital Humanities into their classrooms? And why should they? In this paper, I explore answers to these questions as I detail what I have dubbed "The Monuments Project" and describe how this project engages with Digital Humanities and teaches students to connect theoretical philosophical concepts with their lives. Briefly, the Monuments Project asks students to apply concepts discussed in our philosophy class (in my case, a Global Aesthetics class) with a monument in their environment. Instead of a traditional paper, students upload MP3s of their observations, pictures and/or drawings of the monument, and text-based responses. The goal of the Monument Project is twofold: to get students to connect what they have learned to a sense of place=the place where they live, and to introduce them to the Digital Humanities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generosity and selflessness from the host community in Cox's Bazar were deemed to be instrumental in supporting Rohingyas who sought refuge in Bangladesh in 2017. Thousands of Rohingyas had to flee from their own country to save lives due to state-supported military violence. Initially, Bangladeshi media and civil society were largely supportive of the Rohingyas. However, the initial sympathy later withered away and may have turned into frustration and hostility. Based on 39 in-depth interviews with hot community members and humanitarian professionals, this paper argues that protraction of the crisis, inability to access natural resources due to the refugee camps, some Rohingyas' involvement in various unlawful activities, a perceived sense of neglect from the international community, and disruption in local labour market/trade affecting cost of living conditions for low-income people seem to have played important roles in creating widespread tensions between the host community and Rohingya refugees. We contend that findings of this study will add to the critical scholarship of humanitarian development in deepening the understanding of host and refugee communities' relationships. This paper will also have a positive impact on future policies toward harmonious coexistence between host communities and displaced refugees and potential sustainable solutions to the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The present Prime Minister of India Launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) on 2 October 2014, the largest program on sanitation by the Government of India till date. SBA aims to make India Open Defection Free (ODF) through construction of individual, cluster and community toilets, to keep the villages clean, with solid and liquid waste management through Gram Panchayat." (Sinha & Sinha, 2016). Launched by the Indian government in 2014, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) is a massive endeavour to address the nation's long-standing waste management concerns. The effectiveness, difficulties, and room for development of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan's impact on India's waste management system are the main topics of this review paper's critical analysis. By means of an extensive examination of extant literature, official reports, and empirical studies, the purpose of this review is to offer an understanding of the successes and constraints of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in terms of revolutionizing waste management methods across the country. The campaign's effects on public health, environmental sustainability, socioeconomic development, and waste collection, segregation, recycling, and disposal are important topics of research. Inadequate infrastructure, financial limitations, behavioural hurdles, and the requirement for more robust regulatory frameworks are among the issues covered in the review. It also suggests ways to improve the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan's efficacy and sustainability, like as capacity-building programs, technological advancements, community involvement, and regulatory changes. This review paper adds to a better understanding of the intricate dynamics of waste management in India by synthesizing previous research and empirical data. It also offers insightful information to practitioners, policymakers, and researchers who are working to address the urgent environmental and public health problems related to waste management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study assesses the impact of community participation on rural development programs at the grassroots as a means for minimizing the crisis of rural development issues. Community participation is a key element in successful rural development initiatives although it has its own set of challenges that hinder their overall development and it is often characterized by social, economic and infrastructure problems. Involving the local community in the planning and decision-making process can lead to more effective and sustainable development. This paper employs a qualitative methodology. Furthermore, the paper contends that community participation in rural development issues remains a challenge. However, the study uncover various factors and strategies that can be employed to augment community participation in rural development initiatives. The study concludes that effective community participation will reduce problems associated with rural development within communities. Problems such as unsustainable use of resources, inadequate access to socio-economic and cultural infrastructure, and lack of access to development initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current approaches to the provision of shelter, largely driven by national governments and/or the commercial private sector, continue to fall short of what is needed to reduce housing deficits. The number of people without access to adequate housing continues to grow, especially in cities of the Global South. Increasing attention is being paid to alternative models for organizing land and housing delivery, such as those led by, or at least including, civil society. In this paper, we consider two national land and housing programs—the 20,000 Plots Project in Tanzania, and Basic Services for the Urban Poor (BSUP) in India—alongside community-led housing initiatives from each country. We explore the extent to which community participation in housing delivery can have social and environmental advantages when compared to 'business as usual' methods and find that, given appropriate state support, community-based, and civil society actors (including organizations of the urban poor) have significant potential to contribute to acquiring land, building homes and improving the quality of life of vulnerable segments of the population. This paper echoes calls for community-led housing to become a recognized part of formal housing policy whilst emphasizing the need for theoretical refinement of the process so as to prevent it from being captured by prevailing market-led narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of the article is to explore essential aspects of mountain governance, with a particular emphasis on the principles of Good Governance. This includes emphasizing soft skills, knowledge, innovative solutions, and the allocation of necessary resources. The core concept centres on adopting a community-focused governance model, which establishes a structure for proactive stakeholder engagement and sustainable conflict resolution. The primary audience includes practitioners, communities, businesses, and others, providing them with potential strategies to enhance their involvement in the decision-making process. The paper aims to offer pertinent insights into effective practices within European mountain governance. The goal is to extract distinct experiences and glean valuable lessons, evaluating both the potential and constraints for their applicability in varied geographical contexts. The methodology used includes identifying comparative study cases - studying good and bad lessons to be learned - from Europe, and their analysis based on how much the community the contributed to build governance. Commencing with detailed contextual backgrounds, objectives, and developmental trajectories, these practices undergo comprehensive analysis, considering the essential elements outlined earlier. It was observed a large variety of governance models, and there were examined in details 6 of them (2 from Romania, 1 from Spain, 1 from Bulgaria, 1 from Ireland and 1 from Portugal). The results emphasised that the specificity of each mountain is of a major importance for a resilient governance, and the replicability of each governance is possible only on certain conditions, including a real bottom-up and participatory approach, flexibility and local adaptability, but, also, conserving the traditions and landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the view that community participation can be defined as the continuous trans-local mobility and localisation of not only organisations and individuals but also various nonhuman elements such as information and events, this paper explores how the community participation of Hong Kong in the conservation of Pokfulam Village is understood as socially extrospective and introspective processes. This paper is aimed to reveal how the knowledge of Treasure Hill in Taipei has been adapted (or not) to the community participation of Hong Kong's Pokfulam Village's heritage conservation. This provides insights into how the global flow of people, information, discourse, and technology has influenced the community participation in heritage conservation, especially across the Pacific Rim cities. Finally, the research discusses how local community can play a role in the dynamic local social structure of conserving their heritage, as well as 'whose heritage' in the mobility of global knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper presents results from a participatory action research study with 46 LGBTQIA+ community leaders and 60 library workers who participated in four community forums at public libraries across the US. The forums identified barriers to LGBTQIA+ communities addressing their health questions and concerns and explored strategies for public libraries to tackle them. Design/methodology/approach: Forums followed the World Café format to facilitate collaborative knowledge development and promote participant-led change. Data sources included collaborative notes taken by participants and observational researcher notes. Data analysis consisted of emic/etic qualitative coding. Findings: Results revealed that barriers experienced by LGBTQIA+ communities are structurally and socially entrenched and require systematic changes. Public libraries must expand their strategies beyond collection development and one-off programming to meet these requirements. Suggested strategies include outreach and community engagement and mutual aid initiatives characterized by explicit advocacy for LGBTQIA+ communities and community organizing approaches. Research limitations/implications: Limitations include the sample's lack of racial diversity and the gap in the data collection period between forums due to COVID-19. Public libraries can readily adopt strategies overviewed in this paper for LGBTQIA+ health promotion. Originality/value: This research used a unique methodology within the Library and Information Science (LIS) field to engage LGBTQIA+ community leaders and library workers in conversations about how public libraries can contribute to LGBTQIA+ health promotion. Prior research has often captured these perspectives separately. Uniting the groups facilitated understanding of each other's strengths and challenges, identifying strategies more relevant than asking either group alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper surveys the energy literature and systematically reviews the path to an inclusive and sustainable energy transition by exploring factors that drive the current energy transitions, countries with advanced energy transition programs, and the roles of energy literacy and justice in energy transition. Utilizing an exhaustive literature search from 2001 to 2023 via the Scopus database, the study identifies strong policy frameworks, technological advancements, economic incentives, and international collaborations as pivotal factors in successful energy transitions. Case studies from the Nordic countries, Germany, and Poland highlight diverse approaches and significant progress, revealing valuable lessons for global application. Although energy literacy emerges as crucial for public acceptance and participation, fostering informed decision-making and supportive behaviors toward renewable energy initiatives, energy justice ensures equitable access to the benefits of energy transitions, addressing socio-economic impacts on marginalized communities. The study identifies a scarcity of research that articulates and integrates energy literacy and justice concurrently within the purview of energy transition. The paper recommends the adoption, integration, and institutionalization of frameworks that concurrently propagate energy literacy and guide fair and equitable energy transitions. The frameworks should encourage active community involvement, promote community ownership of renewable energy projects, ensure transparency and inclusivity, implement measures for equitable economic benefits, protect livelihoods, address historical distrust, and leverage social media to promote energy literacy and justice. Finally, the continuous monitoring and evaluation of energy transition initiatives are crucial to ensure that they meet evolving societal needs and environmental goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research provides a complete bibliometric analysis of scholarly publications on civic engagement in public decision-making between 2014 and 2024. Using the PRISMA methodology, the study reduced a corpus of 208 papers to 136 for further examination. The study examines how educational research enables citizens to participate in public decision-making. The data demonstrate an increasing trend in research that focuses on incorporating civic engagement activities into educational curricula. One major finding emphasizes the positive impact of civic engagements initiatives on instilling civic duty and decision-making in pupils. This increases the chance of future community involvement and informed voting. The study also identifies a gap in research on effective strategies for reaching underserved communities. The findings can be used to create curricula that provides students with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to actively shape their communities. Policymakers can use this knowledge to create educational initiatives that promote a culture of informed citizenship. Researchers acquire a platform for future research into bridging the equity gap in civic engagement education. Finally, this research emphasizes the critical importance of education in fostering a dynamic democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the potential of chatbots, powered by large language models, as a tool for fostering community participation in architectural and urban design. By taking a hybrid approach to community participation in a real-world mixed-use building project, in which we integrated remote chatbot engagements with face-to-face workshops, we explored the potential for a hybrid approach to scaling up the reach of participation while ensuring that such participation is meaningful, genuine, and empowering. Our findings suggest that a hybrid approach amplified the strengths and mitigated the shortcomings of the two methods. The chatbot was effective in sustaining the length of participation, broadening the reach of participation, and creating a personalized environment for introspection. Meanwhile, the face-to-face workshops still played a crucial role in bolstering community ties and trust. This research contributes to understanding chatbots' strengths and weaknesses in participatory processes, both within spatial design and beyond. In addition, it informs future explorations of participatory processes that span different spatial-temporal configurations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, the concept of heritage has been significantly broadened, with an increasing number of scholars viewing it not as a set of static objects with fixed meanings but as a social process consciously endowed with commemorative functions through human creation. This research illustrates and empirically supports this perspective through a case study. Initially, the paper reviews the development of the heritage concept through the literature review and elaborates on the idea of "heritage as process". Subsequently, it examines Singapore's enriching exploration and successful implementation of heritage conservation, particularly since 2000, when the local government shifted from preserving historical buildings to a comprehensive conservation strategy that embraces a sense of place, identity, and memory and encourages a bottom-up participatory approach. Finally, this paper takes the transformation of the century-old townhouse at 141 Neil Road in Singapore as its focus. After being renovated into an urban architectural heritage conservation laboratory, the house has gradually become a place of heritage on Neil Road by training professionals' construction skills, transforming its function, introducing technological explorations, and enhancing public interaction. This process has developed the abilities of heritage conservation professionals in desktop research, reuse design, and practical construction skills while simultaneously promoting community participation and heightening awareness of heritage conservation among local residents. Through daily practices, this historical townhouse gradually became a place of heritage on Neil Road, exemplifying the research theme that "heritage is a comprehensive and dynamic practice encompassing social, cultural, and technological dimensions". From being preserved for renovation in 2020 to being approved as a "Heritage Show House" by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) in 2023, the case of 141 Neil Road offers a new perspective in the heritage conservation field that "heritage is always in the process of becoming, rather than a constant given". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People with innate variations of sex characteristics (also known as intersex traits or disorders or differences of sex development) have any of a wide range of innate physical traits that differ from medical and social norms for female and male bodies. Responses to these physical differences create experiences and risks of stigmatisation, discrimination, violence, and harmful medical practices intended to promote social and familial integration and conformity with gender stereotypes. As is evident globally, the Australian policy response to the existence and needs of people with innate variations of sex characteristics has been largely incoherent, variously framing the population as having disordered sex development in need of "fixing", and a third sex/gender identity group in need of recognition, with only recent engagement by intersex community-controlled civil society organisations. This paper presents an overview of the context and goals of the intersex human rights movement in Australia. Australian intersex community organisations have sought to apply human rights norms and develop new infrastructure to address key health and human rights issues, and necessitating new ways of resolving policy incoherence. Together with human rights, mental health, and public health institutions, they have called for significant changes to medical models of care and reform to research and classification systems. Intersex community organising and resourcing have made a tangible difference. The Australian Capital Territory is the first jurisdiction in the country to move ahead with reforms to clinical practice, including a legislative prohibition of certain practices without personal informed consent, oversight of clinical decision-making, and investment in psychosocial support. A national community-controlled psychosocial support service has also commenced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This project (named Reinvent) aimed to promote Public Involvement (PI) in health research. Academics worked with a community group, the Eloquent Praise & Empowerment Dance Company, to develop a community partnership with young people from Black African, Asian and Caribbean heritage communities. The goal of this paper is to evaluate the Reinvent project for key learnings on how to engage and build partnerships with young people from Black African, Asian and Caribbean heritage communities. Methods: Reinvent developed a steering group which consisted of five young people, one academic, a Race Equality Ambassador and the Director of Eloquent. The steering group co-produced an agenda for two workshops and the evaluation tools used. The content of the workshops included drama exercises, discussions on physical and mental health, nutrition and school-life, short introductions to the concepts of research and PI, and group work to critique and improve a video currently used to promote PI in health research to young people. The evaluation tools included using the 'Cube' evaluation framework, video-blogging and collecting anonymous feedback. Findings The responses to the 'Cube' evaluation framework were positive across all four domains (agenda, voice, contribute change) in both workshops. A few of the young people described having a better understanding of the meaning and practice of PI in a video-blog. The anonymous feedback suggested that the workshops had increased young people's confidence in sharing their thoughts and opinions about health and PI. Conclusion: Reinvent has shown that academic institutions and young people from an under-served community can partner to co-design workshops and apply evaluation tools. Working with young people in an environment in which they were comfortable, and by researchers joining in with the activities that the young people enjoyed (such as dance), enabled more informal and open conversations to develop. More work is needed to build upon this project so that young people can feel confident and supported to get involved in PI activities relating to research. Plain English summary: What were the aims of this project? This project (named Reinvent) involved researchers working with the Eloquent Praise & Empowerment Dance Company to develop a partnership with young people from Black African, Asian and Caribbean heritage communities. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the Reinvent project for key learnings on how to engage with young people from Black African, Asian and Caribbean heritage communities in public involvement activities for research. How did we do this project? To plan the project we had a steering group with membership from young people from the dance company working alongside researchers. The steering group worked together to plan two workshops and agreed the tools to evaluate them. The content of the workshops included drama exercises, discussions on health, nutrition and school-life, short introductions to research and Public Involvement (PI) and group work to consider and improve a video promoting PI. The evaluation tools included answering four questions, video-blogging and collecting anonymous feedback using a post-box. What did we learn? The responses to the 'Cube' evaluation framework were positive across all four domains (agenda, voice, contribute change). A few of the young people described having a better understanding of the meaning and practice of PI in a video-blog. The anonymous feedback suggested that the workshops had increased young people's confidence in sharing their thoughts and opinions about health and PI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, accounts and speculations on the emergence of digitally-augmented environments have suggested utopian, and dystopian, visions of increased spatial fluidities - doing anything from anywhere - in which the role of specific places could become redundant. The emergence of smart urbanism, through technocratic visions of central, algorithmic control, could materialize such centrifugal detachment from place and local context, as it operates a shift of agency from space and community to code. Are, therefore, the hyper-local scale, and neighbourhoods, relevant entities in our increasingly digital urban environments? This paper makes a case for the smart neighbourhood not as a plain, pre-determined, functional sub-unit of a centrally controlled and automated smart metropolis, but as a radically divergent - yet necessarily complementary - dimension of it. The discussion looks at the scales of the locale - and of the hyper-local - as the enablers of a re-combined and re-energized spatial and digital agency. It discusses the importance of local appropriation and contextualization of technology - as opposed to the 'off-the-shelf' adoption of civic infrastructural systems and management software, and of enabling significant social innovation and community involvement and participation. However, once the importance of re-combining space, community and technology at the local scale has been explored, the paper discusses how the point is not opposing the smart neighbourhood to the smart city through a simplistic bott om-up vs top-down dualist vision, but rather reflecting on how these dimensions should work together. Design and development strategies that aim to conjugate the very bespoke and pilot with the scalable, and the qualitative with the quantitative, while enabling local innovation and experimentation, are needed to envisage a grounded, sustainable, and effective smart city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The paper reviews existing literature on South Asian ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (DRR) and identifies how community participation can be used to plan and implement ecosystem-based DRR approaches. Design/methodology/approach: The literature review methodology involved several stages. Firstly, the research objective was determined. Secondly keywords for the literature search were determined. Scopus, Google Scholar, JSTOR and AUT online library were utilized for the literature search. After the search, the literature was screened. The study design, methodology, results and limitations were identified and documented. After data extraction, the literature was analyzed. The patterns, trends and inconsistencies in the literature were identified based on the research question. Later the gaps, controversies and future research needs were identified. Then, a comprehensive and structured literature review that summarizes the relevant literature, synthesizes the findings and provides a critical evaluation of the literature was documented. After writing the document, it was reviewed and edited to ensure its clarity, accuracy and coherence. Findings: The paper identifies four different themes recurrently emerging in literature on the importance of community participation in ecosystem-based DRR in South Asia. The themes are local community participation in ecosystem-based DRR governance, knowledge production, livelihood enhancement and increased public acceptance. Originality/value: The paper also illustrates the challenges in integrating community participation with the dominant physical scientific approaches ecosystem-based DRR and proposes a five-element framework to facilitate the integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unsafe and violent schools are a widespread problem in South Africa. This paper argues that Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) contribute to this phenomenon. While various individual and community-level interventions to address ACEs have been reported on, the contribution of safe parks towards preventing school violence has not yet been explored. To support schools in dealing with violence, the Adopt-a-School Foundation introduced a pilot project at eight schools in Botshabelo in the Free State Province. The programme included psychosocial support services, establishing safe parks, and ensuring community involvement. The goal was to improve school communities by creating environments that are empowering, academically effective, gender sensitive and free from violence. Although there are safe parks in communities around South Africa, they are an uncommon sight at schools. This paper reports on the quantitative study conducted on safe parks' contribution to making schools safer and less violent. Results show that safe park activities improve community well-being, including reduced gangsterism, enhanced learner safety, and decreased disciplinary problems. It is recommended that safe parks continue to provide psychosocial services to children at schools and that their programmes be expanded to include more services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]