Community in Focus
Asynchronous Session
Advocating for Community Gardens in Marginalized Communities View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Arla Bernstein
This case study is based on the Advocating Ecocultural Values of Urban Community Gardens in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Historic District project. It is an experiential-learning project undertaken by an undergraduate, senior capstone class with research support from Dr. Bernstein, Dr. Stapleton, and the Community Partner--The Historic District Development Corporation, a non-profit organization specifically dedicated to equitable urban revitalization in Atlanta. Community gardens can provide both a food source for communities vulnerable to food injustices and spaces for social transformation. They differ from most large-scale farms in that they are focused on generating community, both social and more-than-human, and on applying permaculture approaches in local, small-scale, diverse, and urban contexts. The case study includes both ecocultural values and attributes of community gardens. Ecocultural values include sustainability, education, and cross-cultural engagement. Ecocultural attributes include both ecological systems and cultural assessment. Results of this project can be expanded to future projects with a "just sustainability" focus.
Participatory Health Promotion through Empowered Nurses for Marginalized and Vulnerable Communities
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Sujin Horwitz
As the largest occupation within healthcare, nurses play a key role in health promotion (WHO, 2020a). The importance of nurses is even more critical in global health crises, as recently witnessed by the COVID-19 pandemic, as they are deeply embedded in communities and uniquely positioned to implement and promote health initiatives and prevention in tandem with communities (Coster, Watkins, & Norman, 2018). Indeed, nurses have been instrumental in educating the public and involving affected communities in disease prevention and treatment during health crises. However, power inequity and conflict still exist among healthcare providers, creating barriers to meaningful collaboration and participation essential for patient care (The Institute for Safe Medication Practices, 2005). This paper examines how hierarchical structures within care providers create power imbalances leading to intra- and inter-group conflicts with a particular focus on dysfunctional interactions between nurses, primary caregivers in health crises, and other healthcare providers. For instance, some physicians have been reported to engage in disrespectful, disruptive, and confrontational behavior with nurses, deterring their full participation in patient care (Rosenstein & O’Daniel, 2005). To alleviate such destructive conflict, To ameliorate such destructive conflict, this paper reviews Lipsky’s (1981; 2010) seminal work on Street-Level Bureaucracy (SLB) and proposes that nurses as front-line health professionals should be empowered with professional discretion to address and resolve inter- and intra-group conflict. Additionally, ideological currency (Bunderson, 2001), defined as the amount by which the organization promotes the philosophical values and beliefs held by the professional, is proposed to strengthen collaboration among various stakeholders.
