Communities in Transitions: Reflection on the Impact of the Outbreak of COVID-19 on Urban China

"Community”, as a basic category of urban socio-space, has undergone evolution within academic, policy, and day-to-day life contexts in China. Through years of transitions, a kind of dual community emerged in Chinese cities before the epidemic. It encompassed a "conceptual community” based on the concept of (social) co-governance and an "experiential community” based on citizens' daily living. The disparity between the two had given rise to a paradoxical situation in local community governance practices. The outbreak of COVID-19 brought fundamental changes to the transition process. Through the analysis of 21 recording reports during the outbreak period, we found that to contain the pandemic, the community epidemic prevention measures necessitated both these communities to overlap within a brief time frame. This led to reinforced community boundaries, the coexistence of multiple actors, the reconstruction of a sense of security-based belongingness, and the reformulation of the governance symbolic system that temporarily resolved the paradoxical governance practices. What happened under the preface of co-governance logic during the outbreak period was the coverage and shaping of the conceptual community over the experiential community, which may continue during the post-epidemic era. This study offers a relatively new approach and valuable insights into examining the long-lasting impact of the epidemic on urban social space and sustainable development in the post-epidemic era.

Volunteer community service providers during the COVID‐19 crisis response in China: What are their personal needs and how to respond?

The needs of volunteer community service providers (VCSPs), who are the main responders to community crises, have received significantly less attention for the contributions they have been making during the COVID‐19 crisis. A mixed‐method research framework was used in this study, which involved semi‐structured interviews with 13 NGOs and questionnaire responses from 430 VCSPs in Hubei, China to assess the VCSPs' personal needs based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs. It was found that the VCSPs had safety, love, belonging, self‐esteem, and self‐actualization personal needs, all of which were closely related to family, partners, organizations, society and the government. The discussions revealed that the more experienced VCSPs needed special attention and family support was extremely significant for VCSPs in crisis. Several recommendations to meet VCSPs' personal needs are proposed that could have valuable reference value for emergency managers when organizing and supporting VCSPs in contingencies. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Contingencies & Crisis Management is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Exploring information and assistance calls during covid-19

Area Agencies on Aging (AAA) developed the service of Information and Assistance Calls to help older adults during COVID-19. This study examined how well AAA managed this service. We used the random effect model on panel data of California 33 Planning and Service Area's (PSA) calls across 49 weeks. We examined the association between calls (either inbound or outbound calls as the dependent variable) with COVID-19 cases, deaths, and PSA characteristics (independent variables). We observed a positive relationship between the number of calls (either inbound or outbound) with COVID-19 deaths and older adults living alone, i.e. the number of calls and the number of COVID-19 deaths and older adults living alone are positively correlated. We also observed a negative relationship between the number of calls and COVID-19 cases, i.e. the number of calls and COVID-19 cases are negatively correlated. These findings might result from volunteer and social worker shortages, encouraging AAA to provide more preventative and beneficial services to older people. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Governance Model for Higher Education in Indonesia Post-Pandemic of Covid-19 Towards a New Normal Era

The Higher Education management consists ofautonomy in the academic field, including the establishment of norms, operational policies, research, and community service under the regulations. In carrying out the roles of the higher education institutions in the higher education organization, there are work units/functions or units at different levels or groups, either because of the duties, responsibilities, and positions, as well as the origins of the employees. In addition, the status of the Covid-19 was officially declared a pandemic by the WHO on Thursday, March 12, 2020, and it has changed the entire order of people 's lives, including the implementation and management of education, significantly higher education. This condition needs to be bridged with the consistent of a management that is expected to function as an organizational link so that the objectives of Higher Education can be achieved. In responding to the challenges faced, universities must create an integrated management model to ensure the fulfillment of the quality of graduates with strategic policies to outline the institution 's future journey.

Potential Improvement in a Portable Health Clinic for Community Health Service to Control Non-Communicable Diseases in Indonesia

The COVID-19 pandemic has limited routine community health services, including screening for non-communicable diseases (NCDs). An adaptive and innovative digital approach is needed in the health technology ecosystem. A portable health clinic (PHC) is a community-based mobile health service equipped with telemonitoring and teleconsultation using portable medical devices and an Android application. The aim of this study was to assess the challenges and potential improvement in PHC implementation in Indonesia. This study was conducted in February–April 2021 in three primary health centers, Mlati II in Sleman District, Samigaluh II in Kulon Progo, and Kalikotes in Klaten. In-depth interviews were conducted with 11 health workers and community health workers. At the baseline, 268 patients were examined, and 214 patients were successfully followed-up until the third month. A proportion of 32% of the patients required teleconsultations based on automatic triage. Implementation challenges included technical constraints such as complexity of applications;unstable networks;and non-technical constraints, such as the effectivity of training, the availability of doctors, and the workload at the primary health center. PHCs were perceived as an added value in addition to existing community-based health services. The successful implementation of PHCs should not only be considered with respect to technology but also in terms of human impact, organization, and legality. © 2023 by the authors.

The One-stop Intelligent Environmental Protection Community based on Image Processing Techniques

In view of the spread of COVID-19 epidemic and many problems existing in the community, such as potential safety hazards, diluted interpersonal relationships, and out-of-place management, a system of one-stop intelligent environmental protection communities based on the Internet was proposed. It not only improves the ability of community staff, provides great convenience for residents and community workers, cares for vulnerable groups, and promotes a happy and harmonious neighborhood life, but also scores residents and staff while monitoring the community environment for safety with the technology application of thermal imaging recognition, PaddleHub-based face and mask recognition. This new system design is easy to implement at low cost and has a simple structure with many functions. The technologies for face and mask recognition proposed in this paper are based on PaddleHub. Experiments on MaskedFace-Net provided by Haute-Alsace University and the pretrained parameters loaded by PaddleHub showed that the accuracy rate with mask recognition was 94.3290 percent using this method. © 2022 ACM.

Evaluation of a brief carer support intervention

There is international evidence that informal or unpaid carers have poorer mental health and experience higher levels of isolation and stress than others in the population. Identifying approaches that promote carer well-being is critical to supporting this essential role in the community. This study presents the findings of the evaluation of a brief carer intervention designed to improve carers' well-being delivered by a community service organisation. The manualised programme provided information and psycho-education to adult carers in five regional locations in Victoria, Australia. Positive change was noted in carers' knowledge of good mental health and well-being, supports, and social connectedness.

Seated push-up tests: Reliable and valid measures for older individuals when used by primary healthcare providers.

BACKGROUND: Body composition decline, lower limb impairments, and mobility deficits affect independence of older people. The exploration for a practical measure involving upper extremities may offer an alternative tool to be used by primary healthcare (PHC) providers for these individuals. OBJECTIVE: To explore reliability and validity of seated push-up tests (SPUTs) among older participants when used by PHC providers. METHODS: Older participants (n= 146) with an average age of > 70 years were cross-sectionally assessed using various demanding forms of SPUTs and standard measures to assess validity of the SPUTs. Reliability of the SPUTs were assessed in nine PHC raters, including an expert, health professionals, village health volunteers, and care givers. RESULTS: The SPUTs demonstrated very good agreement, with excellent rater and test-retest reliability (kappa values > 0.87 and ICCs > 0.93, p< 0.001). Moreover, the SPUT outcomes significantly correlated with lean body mass, bone mineral contents, muscle strength and mobility of older participants (r, rp⁢b=-0.270 to 0.758, p< 0.05). CONCLUSION: SPUTs are reliable and valid for older adults when used by PHC members. The incorporation of such practical measures is particularly important during this COVID-19 pandemic with limited people's hospital access.

Community Services and Social Involvement in COVID-19 Governance: Evidence from China.

This study explores how the services provided by different types of Chinese communities varied in their impact on the social involvement of residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. The literature revealed problems caused by travel restrictions, including using oversimplified measures for grassroots governance, which might result in decreased residents' social involvement during COVID-19. We argue that the services provided by "smart communities" in China not only adhered to the COVID-19 pandemic governance, but also promoted the social involvement of residents. Using a case study approach of the smart community Fang Xing and the traditional community Qili Tang, both of which are located in China, this article compared the traditional and smart community services based on 122 interviews with residents and frontline community staff members. The findings suggest that while the traditional community decreased the residents' social involvement by restricting certain services during the pandemic, the smart community was able to apply COVID-19 governance measures, considerably increasing the residents' social involvement. It offered an attractive option for residents to act as community service managers, and it prepared them for local-level pandemic governance. This study provides an understanding of the relationship between the community services and the residents' social involvement in terms of the community services. The smart community model can act as a reference for international community development during pandemic governance.

Preliminary evaluation of a multicomponent youth development program for siblings separated by foster care: pandemic related impacts to service delivery and youth well-being

A preliminary evaluation of a multicomponent youth development program for siblings in foster care was conducted prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pretest posttest measures of youth well-being were collected from sixteen youth, caregivers, and caseworkers over a six-month period. Caregivers reported increased internalizing and externalizing behaviors, sibling relationship difficulties, prosocial behavior, and resilience during the study period. Youth reported reduced school engagement, increased resilience, and prosocial behavior. In-person sibling programming was associated with increased prosocial behavior. Virtual sibling programming was associated with lower hyperactivity, increased prosocial behavior, and increased emotional problems. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

The Healthy Communities Initiative: Gathering Community Input During COVID-19

The Louisiana Healthy Communities Initiative, led by the LSU AgCenter, guides SNAP-Ed policy, systems, and environmental change efforts. Prior to COVID19, agents held in-person community forums to gather input and community priorities for interventions. COVID19 spurred innovation in this process. Although many states have used videoconferencing services to host meetings, lack of functional internet access posed a barrier for many communities in Louisiana.To gather broad community input through Qualtrics surveys in order to assess needs and assets, guide project prioritization, and gather feedback on previous projects.Qualtrics surveys were distributed via email to community members, stakeholders, and partners serving low-income audiences. Three surveys solicited feedback for existing Healthy Communities coalitions (n = 45), 1 survey gathered initial input for a newly formed Healthy Communities coalition (n = 63). The overall response rate across all surveys was 23.6%.Survey responses to community health and engagement questions were separated by counties and analyzed through qualitative content analysis. The research team worked with Extension agents to conduct member checking through discussing survey results with participants.One hundred and eight responses were received from 4 communities. Extension agents reported high satisfaction with the process. Surveys provided action items and potential new coalition members. Across all 4 communities, common themes included acknowledging racial health disparities, a need for greater community involvement in coalition efforts, and a lack of healthy food options.Qualtrics surveys were an effective way to gather community input and allowed wider participation than would have been possible with a virtual meeting. Post-COVID, agents plan to continue to solicit community input through Qualtrics surveys, in addition to face-to-face forums. This method is a valuable tool for lower-income and rural communities. Results reflected an awareness of low community engagement, racial health disparities and limited healthy food access.

Comparison of attitudes toward the medical student-led community health education service to support chronic disease self-management among students, faculty and patients.

BACKGROUND: Shortage of health professionals is one of the most important barriers for community health centers to provide quality primary care for chronic disease patients especially after the outbreak of COVID-19. Under such condition, medical students have been well-accepted as a force multiplier for community-based health service. Community service learning (CSL) based on medical student-led community health education service to support chronic disease self-management might be a valuable interactive learning tool in medical education. This study compared the attitudes toward medical student-led community health education service to support chronic disease self-management among three stakeholder roles in CSL, including medical students, faculty and patients. METHODS: This cross-sectional comparative survey was conducted using a self-developed questionnaire among the convenience samples of undergraduate students and faculty members from the Medical College, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, as well as patient volunteers with chronic diseases recruited from a free on-site clinic offered by a community health center. Attitudes toward medical student-led community health education service to support chronic disease self-management were compared among students, faculty and patients. RESULTS: A total of 515 valid questionnaires were obtained (342 were collected from medical students, 54 from faculty respondents, and 119 from patients). Overall positive attitudes toward medical student-led community health education service to support chronic disease self-management were positive. Among the three stakeholder roles, faculty and patients were more supportive of the current inadequate level of primary care provision within the community. However, patient respondents showed more negative attitudes towards using resources in higher medical education system to provide support for primary care practice, and participating in the medical student-led community health education service to support chronic disease self-management, and were most skeptical about the medical students' competency in supporting chronic disease self-management with their professional knowledge and skills. The educational value of CSL for medical undergraduates and the role of faculty instructors were most appreciated by faculty respondents. Additionally, > 62 years old and > 2 kinds of chronic diseases per patient exhibited significant correlations with positive patients' attitudes. CONCLUSIONS: Medical students, faculty and patients had overall positive attitudes towards CSL based on medical student-led community health education service to support chronic disease self-management. However, more should be done to create higher expectations and enthusiasm of patients about CSL.

WHAT MOTIVATES TEACHERS TO WORK FOR THE SOCIETY DURING THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK? A CASE OF VEFA SOCIAL SUPPORT GROUPS

The present study explored the motives of teachers who voluntarily participated in social work in the Vefa Support Groups, which was established to meet the needs of citizens aged 65 and over and those with chronic diseases who were restricted by the nationwide curfews as part of COVID-19 measures. The findings of the research designed as a multiple case study showed that some intrinsic motives and personal characteristics encouraged teachers to participate voluntarily in pro-community activities. Parallel with the related literature, “willingness to help others,” “pro-social values,” “patriotism, loyalty to the country,” “developing the community spirit, strengthening the community image, and setting a role model,” and “enjoying being involved” are the most frequently observed motives. © 2022. Milli Egitim.All Rights Reserved

How to Save Chinatown: Preserving affordability and community service through ethnic retail

Chinatowns in North America have been especially hit hard by COVID-19, a reality of anti-Asian racist and xenophobic sentiment exacerbated by the global pandemic. The factors contributing to increased business closures, commercial vacancy, and gentrification in Chinatowns have existed before the pandemic and have only been exacerbated. In order to preserve Chinatowns, municipalities have enacted historic preservation and small business support measures, such as historic designations, technical assistance for businesses, increased permit scrutiny, and legacy business programs. This study investigates the difference in retail changes across three Chinatowns in Vancouver, San Francisco and Los Angeles both prior and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Concurrently, this study also examines the impact of retaining a legacy business program and other preservation measures on the retail landscape. Interviews with city officials, organizers, community institutions, and members of the business community were conducted along with an analysis of existing local programs, policies and reports. This study finds that measures taken through historic preservation, small business support, and pandemic relief have not significantly addressed core needs within Chinatown communities. The most effective forms of relief and preservation was affordable housing, community-ownership of commercial businesses, and direct assistance for commercial rent. This study also acknowledges that some Chinatowns are faring better than others due to the ability of the Chinese community to fight against to historic discriminatory planning practices such as urban renewal, slum clearance, and highway building. The impact of these histories is deeply intertwined with the survivability of ethnic retail within each distinct Chinatown, and depending on the strength of existing community ties that remain will inform how preservation policies should be enacted.

EFFECTS ON INTERNSHIPS AND VOLUNTEERISM - COMMUNITY OUTREACH IN TIMES OF A PANDEMIC

Community outreach has an extremely positive influence on a human being's life and helps to shape young minds into more productive members of society. Whether involved in internships for college credit or volunteerism within the local area, exposing students to diverse ways and means in which other people live and work will not only open students' eyes, but also open many doors to unlimited opportunities for future growth within the students' field of interest. Implementing community service into the collegiate academic curriculum enhances the educational background and better prepares the graduating undergraduates for the outside 'real ' world. With an uncontrollable environment such as a Pandemic, how have prospects for college students been affected and to what extend are trainee experiences being compromised?

The Effect of Transformational Leaders, Academic Culture on the Lecturer of University Performances in the Corona Virus Era

The research plans to find out and investigate the impact of transformational leader and academic culture on the performance of Indonesian university lecturers amid the Corona Virus (COVID-19) time. This research utilizes a quantitative exploration strategy with a survey procedure to give response to the hypotheses of test planned. The respondents consist of 150 lecturers employing cluster random sampling technique. The product-moment correlation validated the instruments for lecturers' performance, academic lecture, and transformational leader, the Alpha Cronbach estimated the reliability, and testing the hypothesis used path analysis. The path analysis results uncovered that (1) there was an impact of transformational leader on the performance of lecturers, (2) there was a direct impact of academic culture on the performance of lecturers, and (3) there was a direct impact of transformational leader on the academic culture of lecturers. This research implies for efforts to enhance the performance of lecturers, the effectiveness of transformational leaders, and the effectiveness of academic culture.

Volunteer community service providers during the COVID-19 crisis response in China: What are their personal needs and how to respond?

The needs of volunteer community service providers (VCSPs), who are the main responders to community crises, have received significantly less attention for the contributions they have been making during the COVID-19 crisis. A mixed-method research framework was used in this study, which involved semi-structured interviews with 13 NGOs and questionnaire responses from 430 VCSPs in Hubei, China to assess the VCSPs' personal needs based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs. It was found that the VCSPs had safety, love, belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization personal needs, all of which were closely related to family, partners, organizations, society and the government. The discussions revealed that the more experienced VCSPs needed special attention and family support was extremely significant for VCSPs in crisis. Several recommendations to meet VCSPs' personal needs are proposed that could have valuable reference value for emergency managers when organizing and supporting VCSPs in contingencies.

Preparing Vulnerable Populations for Science Literacy and Young Adults for Global Citizenship through Service Learning

The establishment of links between the University and the community in which it is embedded is a permanent challenge. Exploring new ways to open university doors to vulnerable populations is a means of developing young adults’ civic responsibility and global citizenship. This relationship of enrichment and mutual benefit does not only crystallize through the transfer of knowledge but also through service. When, within the community, this service is aimed at students with specific needs of educational support (SNES), we enter fully into the field of inclusive education, developing competencies and reaching sustainable development goals, which go far beyond those of mere knowledge-sharing. This paper presents service-learning (SL) projects carried out in English class by undergraduate Engineering and Education students at a Special Education Center for adults. The main goal was to develop a basic linguistic competence in English so that SNES students could understand science texts and technological instructions to handle ICTs with some autonomy. Face-to-face versus online modality use, forced by the pandemic, are contrasted and results are compared over a three-year period. University students’ perceptions on how this pedagogical approach of service learning contributes to their personal growth and consolidation of global citizenship are presented.

The Potential of Service Learning in Rural Schools: The Case of the Working Together Project

Rural school districts face unique challenges such as smaller staffing, collegial isolation, reliance on uncertified teachers, and a lack of resources to implement federal mandates (Barley, 2009;Belansky et al., 2009;Eppley, 2009;Schafft, 2016;Yettick et al., 2014) while being charged to implement "national education policies [that] often do not fit with the needs and material circumstances" (Gallo & Beckman, 2016, p. 1) of rural schools (see Bryant, 2010). [...]of service learning, students may also experience stronger connection to their communities, have a more critical understanding of their role in them, and experience community efficacy. During the first step, Assess, students evaluate the status of their school, examining survey data, what students think, and what adults think related to seven health problems: 1) unhealthy eating;2) physical inactivity;3) alcohol, tobacco and other drug use;4) high risk sexual behavior;5) poor mental health;6) bullying and other social issues;7) checking out of school. [...]in Make it Happen, students survey the status of promising and evidence-based practices in their school related to the health problem, take ownership over student-led changes, and advocate to adults for other changes to the school environment and policies to address the health problem.

Educational Gardens and Climate Change Education: An Analysis of Spanish Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions

Educational gardens are powerful outdoor learning environments to address the subject of climate change and foster climate action. Using an online questionnaire, this study examines the influence of the main sociodemographic and academic factors, and the role of connectedness to nature, on the perception of educational gardens as contexts of climate change education (CCE) among Spanish preservice teachers (PSTs). The sample consisted of 889 PSTs enrolled in 9 university campuses of Spain. The statistical analyses performed evidenced that women are more likely to use educational gardens than men and that there is a progressive decrease in the positive perception of PSTs about the usefulness of gardens for CCE as the educational level at which they are being trained increases. Statistics also revealed that the variable connectedness to nature and the rating of the importance of educational gardens in CCE are not significantly related. Nevertheless, the Mann–Whitney U test indicated that PSTs who scored higher on connection to nature wished to broaden their knowledge of sustainable agriculture and, thus, connectedness to nature could be considered a predictor of environmental attitudes, each influencing the other. Based on these findings, recommendations for PSTs’ training in the CCE context are provided.