In: Journal of community practice: organizing, planning, development, and change sponsored by the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration (ACOSA), Band 30, Heft 3, S. 234-254
Youths have responded to the unprecedented socio-economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic through civic and political participation. However, knowledge gaps exist with documenting specific motivations and forms involved in participation, as well as the implications for subsequent engagement. Using public podcast episodes produced by the author during Singapore's nine-day election campaign held under lockdown, youth perspectives were analysed thematically to understand youth motivations, participation forms and how participation shapes future sociopolitical engagement. Findings suggest that Singaporean youth were motivated to build awareness and activism and take action between elections and during GE2020. Youth participation was a mix of conventional and non-conventional activities with seamless digital transitions. That any form of participation during the election resulted in youth resolve to continue or expand their engagement beyond GE2020, with awareness and activism and action perceived as mutually reinforcing motivations, has implications for future political behaviours and activities and issues in which youth are engaged.
Despite growing knowledge of intervention outcomes associated with Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, practitioner-centred processes of training and implementation, especially involving social workers of the same organisation in a non-Western, Asian setting, remain research gaps. Over 1 year, using in-depth qualitative interviews with Singaporean youth workers to understand individual and organisational experiences of training and implementation, findings indicated that, chronologically and cumulatively, the combination of a formative training experience, individual implementation, and organisational and team experiences led to personal and professional development. This study has implications for youth workers to better understand the therapy individually and organisationally, thereby improving its long-term impact.
Despite home visiting's established legacy, the potential influence of intersecting parental characteristics on parent–worker relationships is less understood. This study examines the main and interaction effects of parents' demographic characteristics on positive relationships with workers in home visiting and compares whether and how these effects differ between fathers and mothers. This study analyzed 130 mothers and 180 fathers who participated in home visiting services. Immigrant status was a significant predictor of positive worker relationships for mothers and fathers, whereas ethnicity was only significant for fathers. Interaction analyses indicated that U.S.-born Hispanic/Latinx fathers faced greater challenges in building positive worker relationships than their foreign-born counterparts. These findings highlight the importance of developing gender-specific and culturally responsive strategies to enhance parent–worker relationships.