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.

Female philanthropy was at the heart of transformative thinking about society and the role of individuals in the interwar period. In Britain, in the aftermath of the First World War, professionalization; the authority of the social sciences; mass democracy; internationalism; and new media sounded the future and, for many, the death knell of elite practices of benevolence. Eve Colpus tells a new story about a world in which female philanthropists reshaped personal models of charity for modern projects of social connectedness, and new forms of cultural and political encounter. Centering the stories of four remarkable British-born women - Evangeline Booth; Lettice Fisher; Emily Kinnaird; and Muriel Paget - Colpus recaptures the breadth of the social, cultural and political influence of women's philanthropy upon practices of social activism. Female Philanthropy in the Interwar World is not only a new history of women's civic agency in the interwar period, but also a study of how female philanthropists explored approaches to identification and cultural difference that emphasized friendship in relation to interwar modernity. Richly detailed, the book's perspective on women's social interventionism offers a new reading of the centrality of personal relationships to philanthropy that can inform alternative models of giving today.

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

Christmas 1975 and Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is riding high in the charts. In a residential street just outside Cardiff, a persistent knocking breaks the stillness of the evening …

When Rob Parsons, a young lawyer, opens his door he finds a man standing before him clutching a bag of belongings and a frozen chicken. Rob and his wife, Dianne, invite him into their home, cook his chicken and offer him shelter for the night. What happens next is an astonishing story of human kindness, self-learning, incredible pain, unbelievable hope and the sheer power of love to change a life.

A Knock at the Door is the true story of Ronnie Lockwood, a homeless man who entered the home of a young couple, became a dustman and lived as part of their family for over 45 years until his death. But this is not just Ronnie’s story – it is also that of Rob and his family. Outwardly the two men’s lives were worlds apart – as Ronnie emptied rubbish bins, Rob flew on Concorde – and yet, they discovered they had similar struggles. Then the day came, at the lowest moment of the couple’s lives, when they turned to the homeless man for help.

But there were also remarkable turnarounds. Ronnie spent much of his spare time volunteering, including at a homeless centre, and ended up having a £1.6 million well-being centre named after him. Rob left his law practice and he and Dianne began a charity that touches the lives of millions of people.

You will have never read a story like this before, but at its heart is a simple message: whether we are a lawyer or a dustman – tomorrow doesn’t always have to be like yesterday.

In the past decade, the emerging narratives about philanthropy in Africa are the capacities to give not only to help, but also to address the root causes of injustice, want, ignorance, and disease. The narratives are also about the questioning of the role and place of Africans in the world's philanthropic traditions, and what constitutes African specificities, as well as African differences and varieties. Giving to Help, Helping to Give deftly explores African philanthropic experiences - the varieties, the challenges, and the opportunities - while also documenting, investigating, analyzing, and reflecting on philanthropy in multifaceted Africa. This ground-breaking book rightly tackles the varied modes, forms, vehicles, and means in which philanthropy is expressed. It is a pioneering and ambitious effort in a field and community of practice that is new, both in terms of scholarship and in professional practice. Many of the chapters boldly engage the burden of reflections, questions, ambivalences, and ambiguities that one often finds in an emerging field, innovatively positing the outlines, concepts, frameworks, and theories of scholarship and practice for a field critical to development on the continent. *** "Overall this volume effectively represents the vibrancy and diversity of emerging institutions of philanthropy on the African continent. The contributions are clearly located in an emerging community of practice and scholarship and provide a wealth of new data on a rapidly changing philanthropic landscape." -- Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, August 2016 [Subject: African Studies, Development Studies, Sociology]A?A?

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.

Marginalised migrant groups face significant barriers in accessing services and becoming integrated in their communities. Mainstream services are failing to engage many marginalised migrant and refugee women and to respond effectively to their needs, raising serious questions as to how community development might respond and facilitate positive spaces and reduce isolation. Community Work with Migrant and Refugee Women: 'Insiders' and 'Outsiders' in Research and Practice outlines the implications for policy, practice and meaningful research with migrant and refugee women drawing on a three-year case study of a community-based organisation working with marginalised Muslim women in London. Arguing for a bottom-up approach that centres on needs as well as assets, Community Work with Migrant and Refugee Women highlights the importance of cultural relevance of services, and a holistic approach to integration that acknowledges the full range of needs and experiences migrant and refugee women face. Co-written by academic researchers and practitioner-researchers, this volume contributes to both academic and policy debates where there is a need for more research and policy that understands the experiences of migrant and refugee women as well as which interventions are effective.

In order to explore and address the long-standing issue of chronic stress, It's Time for a Change: A Therapeutic Lifestyle Approach to Health and Well-Being integrates research from modern Western science and the ancient teachings of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism to help readers make significant and therapeutic lifestyle changes. Featuring a holistic approach to well-being, the text covers evolutionary theory, neuroscience, the stress response, counseling and therapeutic intervention, and Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian approaches to eliminating chronic stress. Dedicated chapters address specific therapeutic practices, including meditation, cognitive restructuring and reframing, exercise, nutrition, sleep, the immune system, time management, and interpersonal relationships. Readers are provided with a blueprint for creating and applying a holistic and therapeutic lifestyle change approach that emphasizes self-care, self-learning, and healthy change through consistent practice. Unique in approach and imbued with meaningful content, It's Time for a Change is an ideal text for courses in psychology, counseling, stress management, and health and wellness. It is also an exemplary resource for any individual interested in implementing lifestyle changes to reduce chronic stress.