This book is about the invaluable contribution of charities and humanitarians in our world, the benevolence of the majority, and the atrocities of a (very small) minority. Mankind's difficulties often stem from natural disasters, including terrible weather conditions creating human misery. The tsunami and the famine in Ethiopia are typical examples. The other difficulties that have beset humanity from time immemorial are man-made, like wars, slavery, and pogroms. We also have dictatorships, pariah states, and police states, which do not seek to serve their people and alienate the international community. The people in these places become outcasts, despite genuine and determined efforts by others to bring them into the fold. In any society, we see the destructive effects of misunderstanding, greed, envy, hatred, and discrimination. Senseless acts of individual barbarism also pose a problem. Governments, democratic or otherwise, are installed with all the natural and human resources, as well as the goodwill of the global community, to serve and, where necessary, manage the difficulties of the people. History and current affairs indicate that no government is capable of delivering utopia to its people - even those unhampered by ideology, political sensitivities, self-interest, and retribution. Mankind's difficulties are ever so complex. Invariably, the void left has to be managed for mankind to have a life worth living. "Nature abhors a vacuum," so says the adage. Political stalwarts like Abraham Lincoln and courageous clergymen William Wilberforce rise to the fore. This pious hegemony is ably supported by charities, humanitarians, and ordinary individuals who have shown courage and compassion and the willingness to save and improve lives. Charities continue to make the difference. The courage and compassion of Lincoln, Wilberforce, Nightingale, and Mother Teresa may be unsurpassed, but Providence will continue to provide heroes and heroines for humanity.

Life on the Malecon is a narrative ethnography of the lives of street children and youth living in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and the non-governmental organizations that provide social services for them. Writing from the perspective of an anthropologist working as a street educator with a child welfare organization, Jon M. Wolseth follows the intersecting lives of children, the institutions they come into contact with, and the relationships they have with each other, their families, and organization workers. Often socioeconomic conditions push these children to move from their homes to the streets, but sometimes they themselves may choose the allure of the perceived freedoms and opportunities that street life has to offer. What they find, instead, is violence, disease, and exploitation-the daily reality through which they learn to maneuver and survive. Wolseth describes the stresses, rewards, and failures of the organizations and educators who devote their resources to working with this population. The portrait of Santo Domingo's street children and youth population that emerges is of a diverse community with variations that may be partly related to skin color, gender, and class. The conditions for these youth are changing as the economy of the Dominican Republic changes. Although the children at the core of this book live and sleep on avenues and plazas and in abandoned city buildings, they are not necessarily glue- and solvent-sniffing beggars or petty thieves on the margins of society. Instead, they hold a key position in the service sector of an economy centered on tourism. Life on the Malecon offers a window into the complex relationships children and youth construct in the course of mapping out their social environment. Using a child-centered approach, Wolseth focuses on the social lives of the children by relating the stories that they themselves tell as well as the activities he observes.

Silence is like a burglar alarm that won't turn off. Grief must like silence; the mere whisper of a cry or hint of a tear and Grief makes its presence known. Silence is a megaphone for Grief. A constant that is a deafening reminder of what I am missing. Yet, I find at times it also promotes a quietness with my Lord. Somehow I need to find a way to cherish the solitude in a positive way.

"Proving once again that God's light is brightest when our hour is darkest, Walking through the Valley of Tears is one man's surprising discovery of unending grace at his time of greatest grief. This is a must read for anyone experiencing loss or needing affirmation of God's limitless love."
-Rosemary Clair, author of Heir of Earth

"When your body is exhausted and your soul is parched, you can find unexpected comfort, nurture, rest, and renewal in the darkness of the valley. Buddy McElhannon reminds us that resources are abundant in the valley as the living water pours forth through tears and grief gives way to the riches only heartache can cultivate. Heartwarming, honest, and hopeful, Buddy gently invites us all to journey together with Christ through the depths of the valley and introduces us to good soil, calm water, and the protected canopy that God provides so we can once again shout with joy from the mountaintop. I promise that Buddy will be a helpful guide as you find strength in weakness, hope in despair, and joy in journey while Walking through the Valley of Tears."
-Reverend Catherine Boothe, United Methodist minister and former hospital chaplain

This innovative text utilizes Kohlberg's stages of moral development, demonstrating how they can be effectively applied to couple and marriage therapy. Facilitating moral stage development has been found to improve couples' ability to relate to one another, enhancing trust, transparency, communication, and intimacy. Based on empirical research and Kohlberg's classic stages of development, the book showcases the Conceptual Template, a tool for therapists to guide their clients in thinking more objectively about the reality being experienced, their own subjectivity, and how to work together as a couple to mindfully solve problems. With an extensive Instructional Manual as well as a transcript of the author teaching the Conceptual Template process to a therapist, Moral Development in Couple Therapy illustrates a highly practical approach to counseling that helps couples achieve a more rational level of moral judgment and reasoning. Filled with practical case studies and written in an accessible manner, this text is an indispensable resource for couple therapists and other mental health professionals working with couples to resolve conflict. .

In this book, the authors outline how policymakers in advanced countries have moved away from exclusive reliance on the public sector in social service delivery, towards a more multi-faceted approach that seeks to combine the strengths of public agencies, private firms and voluntary organizations. This development raises interesting and complex questions concerning the comparative advantages of these respective groups in the delivery of goods and services. The Political Economy of the Voluntary Sector adopts a comparative institutions approach to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the government, market and voluntary sectors as alternative instruments for implementing social and economic policies. The authors examine existing market failure, government failure and supply-side models of non-profit organizations before proposing a new leadership theory of the voluntary sector. They then explore the interface between the voluntary sector and the development of social capital. The book culminates in an investigation of appropriate public policy approaches towards the voluntary sector. This book will be warmly welcomed by academics, students, and researchers working on alternative methods of public policy program delivery, primarily from the disciplines of economics, political science and public administration. Practitioners drawn from the public and voluntary sectors, as well as public policymakers in governments from around the world, will also find this accessible book of great interest.

In the early morning hours of December 31, 2010, Dr. Cornelius H. Evans and his wife received a terrible phone call: their son, Bryant, had been shot and killed. The agonizing days that followed brought Evans face-to-face with the realization that evil had touched his family's life, sending him on a quest to try to understand the role evil plays in our world.

Deeply emotional and heartfelt, Surviving Evil in a Depraved Society offers insight into how Evans dealt with the loss of his son by analyzing the root of violence in America-evil. He examines various theories on evil and its origin, its effects on mankind, and how, according to the Christian belief, evil will remain a part of our society until Christ returns.

Evans also challenges ideologies, philosophical beliefs, and theologies on whether one can avoid evil elements. He demonstrates that we can be on our guard against inviting evil into our lives by spiritually guarding ourselves and raising our children with a strong moral foundation.

An eye-opening look at the face of evil, Surviving Evil in a Depraved Society offers hope for living in today's world.

This volume provides an extensive overview of the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence for the Sustainable Development Goals. The authors are experts contributing with perspectives from different fields. The comprehensive collection of chapters illustrates the pressing governance problems related to using AI for the SDGs, and case studies describing how AI is advancing and can advance the achievement of the Goals. Students, scholars, and practitioners working on AI for SDGs, the ethical governance of AI, sustainability, and the fourth revolution can find this book a helpful reference.

The service-learning field is 50 years old in the United States. Much has been developed over that time in the fields of K-12 schooling, higher education, and community organizations. People who have been involved in the movement have worked individually and collaboratively to include servicelearning as an effective pedagogy and program in educational settings. They have created opportunities for students, teachers, faculty, and community members to learn about academic content and personal commitment to serving others for social change and community impact. In this book we hear from individuals who have been involved in the effort for more than 30 or 40 years about what they have learned from their experiences and what wisdom they can share with others who will be involved for the next several decades. Their experience, insight, and understanding will hopefully help younger people to improve and expand on the movement and place service-learning and community engagement as a regular part of American education.

The Nonprofit Sector in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia (EERCA), edited by David Horton Smith, Alisa V. Moldavanova, and Svitlana Krasynska, uniquely provides a research overview of the nonprofit sector and nonprofit organizations in eleven former Soviet republics, with each central chapter written by local experts. Such chapters, with our editorial introductions, present up-to-date versions of works previously published in EERCA native languages. With a Foreword by Susan Rose-Ackerman (Yale University), introductory and concluding chapters also explain the editors' theoretical approach, setting the whole volume in several, relevant, larger intellectual contexts, and summarize briefly the gist of the book. The many post-Soviet countries show much variety in their current situation, ranging from democratic to totalitarian regimes.