Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Young Women's Christian associations'

The basis for the thesis research was the examination of the extent to which YMCAs in the United States incorporate public relations skills and corporate mission statements into the training of their employees.A mail survey was sent to the total population of 913 corporate YMCAs which represent all 2,170 locations in the United States. The first of two mailings was sent on July 5, 1984. A total of 530 responses were received from forty-nine states representing 58 percent of the total population. Of the returned surveys, 514 were usable in all aspects of the study, or 56.2 percent of the total population.The findings show the typical YMCA is served by a male director with eighteen years of YMCA work experience who has been in his current position just less than ten years. He oversees the management of a YMCA serving an average of 6,700 individual members.Public relations duties are performed by an average of 2.5 persons in the responding YMCAs including the executive director himself. The training and preparation for handling these responsibilities most often comes in "learn-by-doing" situations. Workshops enhance on-the-job training in most cases. Fewer than 20 percent of the professional directors performing public relations functions have had university or college coursework in public relations.Approximately 70 percent of the responding YMCAs have made a specific attempt to determine how their organization is perceived by the community. Two-thirds of the associations which have attempted to measure community perception stated they used formal research methods to do so. Only 32 percent of the YMCAs responding have prepared a written statement of their mission with 28 percent having a formal action plan for achieving their goals and objectives.Just less than 60 percent of the 514 respondents budget public relations items as a planned expense at an average of 3 percent of the total operating budget.Three of the conclusions drawn from this research are:1. The lack of formal training of employees performing public relations functions, in the YMCAs responding, suggests some disparity between job preparation and the generally accepted guidelines for training public relations practitioners.2. The marked increase in the number of YMCAs which have formulated written mission statements and action plans since 1980 is one indication of an increased awareness of the need to operate these nonprofit organizations under traditional management principles.3. Not only must more YMCAs develop and implement formal action plans, but more employees at all job levels must be informed of these plans if their YMCA is to experience the degree of membership growth and the improved community image possible through a total organizational effort.

During the 1890s in the United States, Midwestern YMCA missionaries challenged the nexus of power between Northeastern Protestant denominations, industrialists, politicians, and the Association's International Committee. Under Kansas YMCA secretary George Fisher, this movement shook the Northeastern alliance's underpinnings, eventually establishing the Gospel Missionary Union. The YMCA and the GMU mutually defined foreign and domestic missionary work discursively. Whereas Fisher's pre-millennial movement promoted world conversion generally, the YMCA primarily reached out to college students in the United States and abroad. Moreover, the GMU challenged social and gender roles among Moroccan Berbers. Fisher's movements have not been historically analyzed since 1975. Missionary Millennium is a reanalysis and critical reading of religious fictions about GMU missionaries, following the organization to its current incarnation as Avant Ministries.

This research provides insights into three aspects of social capital: the factors that influence its variability; its two-dimensional nature; and the relationship between social capital and membership in a YMCA. These insights have implications for social capital theory, for public policy, for organizational management and for individual well-being. Most social capital research treats the construct as a causal variable and analyzes the implications of different levels of social capital for certain aspects of individual and community well-being. This treatment implies that levels of social capital vary. Little research has been done to analyze the factors that cause social capital variability and therefore the understanding of social capital variability lacks insight. Before social capital variability can be explored, an intermediate issue must be addressed. Social capital is usually conceived of as a single-dimension construct. In fact social capital has two dimensions: the attitudes of social capital and the behaviors of social capital. Unidimensionality is sufficient when social capital is used exogenously but it is insufficiently nuanced when used for the purpose of recommending policies to increase it. This research analyzes the two-dimensional nature of social capital. Finally, a number of social capital behaviors have been studied but membership in the YMCA is not one of them. This research examines the relationship, ceteris paribus, between membership in the Central Florida YMCA and individual social capital. A survey questionnaire was mailed to 10,000 YMCA members in Central Florida and 21,000 residents who were demographically similar. There were 1,881 completed responses. The results were analyzed using structural equation modeling and were guided by social capital theory and the theory of reasoned action. iv The results of the study indicate that the two most influential factors of social capital variability are personal educational attainment and the average educational attainment of the community. The study also confirms that social capital is a two-dimensional construct and the two dimensions are iterative. The study results also revealed that members of the Central Florida YMCA had higher levels of social capital ceteris paribus. This study is significant in four areas: social capital theory, public policy, management of social capital-generating organizations and for individuals. At the theoretical level, insight has been gained into both the causes of social capital variability and the two-dimensional nature of social capital. Regarding public policy, this research provides clear evidence that education provides a greater role in building a community than simply creating human capital; it also creates social capital. Both educational institutions and those organizations that create social capital should be supported. Furthermore, social capital promulgation through public policy should target both dimensions of social capital to be most effective. For managers of social capital-generating organizations social capital can be used as a metric for measuring organizational effectiveness and community impact. For individuals, there is now an evidence-based approach for developing a life plan for creating personal social capital. This research is unique because it simultaneously brings insights into four distinct spheres of social capital.
ID: 030646214; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Central Florida, 2011.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-125).
Ph.D.
Doctorate
Health and Public Affairs
Public Affairs

Dans cette thèse nous étudions, d’abord, le développement du Mouvement « universel » de la « jeunesse chrétienne » en tant que réseau transnational dans l’espace occidental au cours de la deuxième moitié du XIXe siècle. Nous y analysons ensuite l’interaction entre les agents de la branche américaine du Mouvement, la YMCA, et les représentants des élites politiques, économiques, religieuses et intellectuelles russes en Russie depuis la fin des années 1890, en Europe avec les émigrés russes dans l’entre-deux-guerres, ainsi que les tentatives faites par les agents de l’Association américaine pour se fixer en URSS dans les années 1920.Le Mouvement chrétien des jeunes était conçu comme un espace mondial dépassant les frontières nationales. Cette forme d’internationalisme avait pour ambition de surmonter les nombreuses barrières qui divisaient l’humanité en factions nationales, politiques, économiques, sociales, religieuses ou raciales. Il s’agissait d’un projet utopique construit sur la base du protestantisme évangélique. L’universalisme du Mouvement reposait sur l’idée de la « catholicité » de la « communauté chrétienne » et sur la logique des grandes religions de conversion. Les leaders du Mouvement propageaient le « christianisme vivant ». Réfutant une conception du religieux comme besoin mystique et du christianisme comme ensemble de croyances défini une fois pour toutes, centré sur un dogme rigide et sur un rite religieux, ils prônaient un activisme social des chrétiens et leur participation à la résolution de problèmes sociaux concrets. Initialement axé sur la mission d’évangélisation, ce projet universaliste était lui-même un résultat de la sécularisation à laquelle il devait faire face. Affirmant son « respect » vis-à-vis des structures ecclésiastiques « traditionnelles », le Mouvement était guidé par des laïcs. Manifestant une préoccupation relative aux moyens à utiliser pour soigner les malaises de la société industrielle moderne et pour assurer le progrès de l’humanité, ses leaders prétendaient élaborer un « modèle » de l’action chrétienne « moderne », « organisée », capable d’assurer le développement « intégral » (moral, intellectuel, physique et social) des individus, mettant un accent particulier sur la formation des élites. Dans une perspective de long terme, leur ambition était d’assurer une transformation sociale, politique et économique des sociétés humaines. Plusieurs problématiques sont explorées : 1. Le rapport entre, d’une part, les engagements « universalistes » et « nationaux » et, d’autre part, les facteurs qui influençaient les rapports de force entre des cultures nationales différentes et, donc, déterminaient les vecteurs de la circulation d’idées, d’expériences et de pratiques dans ce type de mouvance internationaliste ; 2. Le mécanisme de la pénétration de la YMCA américaine dans un autre pays, en l’occurrence en Russie, et les motifs invoqués pour le justifier ; 3. Le rapport entre la religion et la politique ; 4. Les relations entre les protestants et les chrétiens orthodoxes. L’étude de ces problématiques se décline en plusieurs dimensions structurées par quatre dichotomies principales : « universel » versus « national », « laïque » versus « religieux », « modernité » versus « tradition », « politique » versus « apolitique »
In this thesis we first investigate the creation of a transnational network by the advocates of the Young People’ Global Christian Movement in the West in the latter half of the 19th century. Secondly, we analyze the interaction between the agents of the American branch of the Movement, the American YMCA, and the representatives of the Russian political, economic, religious and intellectual elites in Russia from the end of the 1890s and in Europe with the Russian émigrés in the period between the two world wars. Attempts to implant the American Association in the USSR in the 1920s are also considered.The Young People’ Christian Movement was conceived as a global space transcending national boundaries. The ambition of the advocates of this form of internationalism was to break the barriers of nationalities, politics, economic and social inequalities, religion or race. This utopian project was founded on the values, beliefs and principles of Evangelical Protestantism. The Movement’s universalism was founded on the concept of Christian communities’ “catholicity” and was following the logic of religious conversion. Its leaders were propagating the Vital Christianity. Refuting the conception of religion as a mystic quest and that of Christianity as a set of beliefs defined once and for all and focused on the rigid dogma and on the performance of a religious belief, the leaders of the Global Christian Movement were calling for a social activism of Christians and propagating their capacity to engage in practical problem solving in their own communities. With an initial focus on the mission of evangelization, the Young Christians’ Movement should be a bulwark against the growing secularism of society. However this Universalist project was itself the result of the secularization. Affirming “respect” for the “traditional” ecclesiastical structures, the Movement was guided by laypersons. Demonstrating an active concern for the means to treat the ailments of the modern industrial societies and to assure the progress of humanity, the leaders of the Young Christians’ Movement had an ambition to elaborate a “model” of a “modern” and “organized” Christian action, capable of ensuring the “integral” (moral, intellectual, physical and social) development of the individuals, with a particular emphasis on the training of the elites. Set in a long-term perspective, the ambition of the leaders of the Movement was to assure a complete social, political and economic transformation of human societies. Several problematic issues were explored: 1. The relationship between the “globalist” and “national” commitments, and the factors affecting the power relations between the different national cultures and determining the direction of circulation of ideas, experiences and practices within this internationalist movement; 2. The mechanism of and the motives invoked to justify the penetration of the American YMCA in the other countries, i.e. in Russia; 3. The relationship between religion and politics; 4. The relationship between Protestants and Orthodox Christians. This study addresses four key dichotomies: “universal” versus “national”, “laic” versus “religious”, “modernity” versus “tradition”, “political” versus “apolitical”

This study examines the activities of the Young Women's Christian Association in Saskatoon from its organization in 1910 to the end of the Depression. The Association was organized to further the Travellers' Aid work that had been started in the city by Deaconess Millicent Simcox, but it soon encompassed much more. within two years a residence building was built, an Employment Bureau was in operation, and an educational program including classes and clubs was initiated. The women of the YWCA believed that young women living on their own in the city were vulnerable to the immoral influences found in the city. In order to combat these influences, the YWCA women believed that young women needed to be built up physically, intellectually, morally, and spiritually. This four-fold aim formed the purpose of the Association. All the services and activities of the Association were geared to draw young women to the Association building. Once there, the process of characterbuilding could be undertaken. Young women in 1910 may have needed the protective services offered by the YWCA, but their daughters should have been in less need. Twenty years after the organization of the Association, a greater number of young women were in the work force and the experiences of travelling alone and finding work in a city were no longer uncommon. Despite these changes, the women of the YWCA were unwavering in their belief in the purpose of the Association. Had it not been for the problems of the Depression, the YWCA might have found their protective services to be outdated.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2010.
Title from title screen (site viewed April 22, 2010). PDF text: 111 p. Publication: Dissertations, Theses, & Student Research, Department of History. Includes bibliographical references.

However, from a political view, the YWCA is underestimated because it failed to lead the Chinese women to the final liberation through a revolutionary way. This dissertation attempts to represent the YWCA history in Modern Chinese from a gender perspective and emphasize its meaning to Chinese women's development which is beyond the body liberation. In addition, it is hoped to present a case study that reveals the evaluation bias that women movement and women organizations have to face up today. Recognizing the obstruction and the shackles of male hierarchy should benefit the independent construction of women's development model.
The Young Women's Christian Association originated in England and the United States in the latter half of the nineteenth century was introduced into China in 1890. Via its various works, the YWCA took root in Chinese women of different ages, different nationalities, and different religious beliefs. Equipped with the advanced achievements of western women's movement, the YWCA also focused on the Chinese women's real needs and interests. Through its professional services, the organization helped Chinese women improve their survival capabilities and life skills, inspire them to shape the national consciousness and lead the public life. It provided Chinese women with the means to work out real conception of womanhood, which was of great significance to Chinese women's emancipation and the raise of social status.
曲宁宁.
Adviser: Ying Fuk-tsang.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-03, Section: A, page: .
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 180-201).
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstracts in Chinese and English.
Qu Ningning.

Yick, Man Kin.
"August 2011."
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves [193]-212).
Abstracts in English and Chinese; appendix includes Chinese.
Abstract in English --- p.iii
Abstract in Chinese --- p.v
Acknowledgement --- p.vii
Contents --- p.x
Abbreviations --- p.xiii
"Lists of Tables, figures and graph" --- p.xv
Chapter Section 1 --- Introduction --- p.1
Purpose of the study --- p.4
Chapter Section 2 --- Historical development of social welfare sector and YWCA --- p.5
Conceptualizing NGOs --- p.5
Early colonial period to WWII: Formation of charity organization under minimal welfare provision of the government --- p.7
Post-WWII to 1960s: Government in need of SSOs for relief work and against communism --- p.9
1960s to 1990s: Expansion of social welfare and state incorporation of SSOs --- p.10
From the 1990s: Towards a contractual relationship between SSOs and government in uncertain times --- p.12
YWCA has followed the footsteps of social service sector --- p.16
Chapter Section 3 --- Conceptualizing legitimacy repair --- p.18
Why legitimacy? --- p.18
Conceptualizing and defining legitimacy --- p.20
Typology of legitimacy --- p.22
Measurements of legitimacy --- p.25
Legitimacy repair --- p.25
Stakeholder and stakeholder politics --- p.28
Chapter Section 4 --- Analytical framework --- p.32
Determinants of degree of consistency of legitimacy repair strategies --- p.32
Chapter Section 5 --- Methodology --- p.35
A longitudinal single case study --- p.35
A qualitative research --- p.36
Why TO YWCA? --- p.36
Research method --- p.37
Field roles and field relations --- p.39
Informant selection --- p.40
A note on the role of media --- p.41
Ethical issues in this study --- p.42
Chapter Section 6 --- The setting: Tai 0 --- p.43
The administrative-political setting --- p.48
Local associations in Tai O --- p.51
Chapter Section 7 --- Legitimacy challenge on YWCA during 1988 District Board election --- p.53
Entry of YWCA --- p.53
Struggle in 1988 District Board election --- p.63
YWCA after the election: Formal complaint by TORC and its repair strategies --- p.73
Chapter Section 8 --- The River Crab Saga from 2008 to 2010 --- p.75
The two floodings in brief --- p.75
What were TORC's challenges to YWCA? --- p.76
Response of YWCA: Apology to TORC and adoption of a softer work strategy of community work --- p.85
A turn to expression of regret under public scrutiny --- p.88
The effect of the Saga on Tai O community: TO YWCA and pro-TOYWCA residents --- p.99
The effect of the Saga on YWCA --- p.100
Chapter Section 9 --- Discussion --- p.102
Differences of the two disputes in terms of stakeholder identification and analysis --- p.102
Explaining the difference of repair strategies of YWCA legitimacy between the two controversies --- p.114
What factors could link up pro-Beijing and rural forces since the 1990s? --- p.136
"Advantages of binding together: elections, mobilization, and interests" --- p.140
Chapter Section 10 --- Conclusion --- p.157
The case and argument revisited --- p.157
Theoretical input --- p.163
Significance of the study --- p.164
Research limitations --- p.168
Suggestions for further research --- p.169
Chapter Appendix 1 --- Informant characteristics and selection process --- p.172
Informant characteristics --- p.172
Informant selection process --- p.177
Chapter Appendix 2 --- Newspaper reports on 1988 DB election --- p.179
Chapter Appendix 3 --- Chronology of the 2008 River Crab Saga --- p.180
Chapter Appendix 4 --- Debates over disaster relief process in 2008 in detail --- p.183
Chapter Appendix 5 --- Letter of complaint to LegCo Redress System --- p.189
References --- p.193

Cette thèse lève en partie le voile sur l’histoire des sports féminins au Québec de 1919 à 1961, soit de l’âge d’or des sports féminins au Canada jusqu’à l’adoption de la Loi sur la condition physique et le sport amateur par le gouvernement fédéral. Elle montre comment les rapports de genre ont été re/produits dans les sports féminins en étudiant les discours et les pratiques, tout en portant une attention particulière à l’influence qu’exercent l’appartenance de classe, l’ethnicité et la religion sur les sports féminins. L’analyse se penche d’abord sur les discours des médecins, des professeurs d’éducation physique et des clercs de l’Église catholique pour étudier les prescriptions qu’ils ont formulées à l’égard de la participation sportive des femmes. Les idées de deux Montréalaises, Myrtle Cook et Cécile Grenier, sont ensuite examinées pour montrer comment elles contestent les discours dominants. Enfin, les pratiques sportives des femmes dans deux centres sportifs montréalais, soit la Palestre nationale et le Young Women’s Christian Association, ont été étudiées de manière détaillée afin de mettre en lumière les différences, mais aussi certaines similitudes, entre l’organisation des sports féminins dans les communautés francophones et anglophones de la ville. Cette thèse met en évidence les tensions qui découlent des rapports de genre, de classe, d’ethnicité et de l’appartenance religieuse, et qui sont présentes à la fois dans les discours et les pratiques. Comme ailleurs en Amérique du Nord et même ailleurs en Occident, les discours dominants au Québec ne sont pas univoques, alors que des vues divergentes les contestent et que les pratiques sont plurielles. Tout en s’inscrivant dans le mouvement plus large d’accès des femmes aux sports en Occident, les discours et les pratiques observables à Montréal s’en distinguent, notamment par la forte influence de l’Église catholique et par les tensions ethniques. Le Québec est donc un cas d’espèce tout indiqué pour mettre en lumière la complexité de la re/production des rapports de genre à travers l’analyse des sports féminins, l’étude de ce champ constituant en même temps une avenue de recherche fort stimulante pour mieux saisir l’entrée de la province dans la modernité.
This dissertation analyses women’s sports in Quebec from 1919 to 1961 from the golden age of women’s sport in Canada to the adoption of the Fitness and Amateur Sport Act by the federal government. It shows how gender relations have been re/produced in women’s sport by studying discourses and practices, while also considering the influence of class, ethnicity, and religion on women’s sport. The analysis studies first the way doctors, physical education teachers, and the Catholic Church conceived women’s participation in sport. The ideas of two active participants in women’s sport organization in Montreal, namely Myrtle Cook and Cécile Grenier, are then analyzed in order to see how they contested dominant discourses. Finally, women’s sports played at the Palestre and Young Women’s Christian Association, two sport centers of Montreal, are detailed in order to show the differences, but also some similarities, in sport organization in the Francophone and Anglophone communities. This dissertation highlights the tensions ensuing from gender, class, ethnicity, and religion, all of which were present in discourses and practices. As elsewhere in North America, and even in Occident, dominant discourses on women’s sport in Quebec were not homogeneous, as different points of view contested them, and practices were numerous and varied. While taking part in the larger movement of women’s access to sport in Occident, discourses and practice in Montreal had also their own particularities because of the Catholic Church influence and the ethnic tensions. The province of Quebec is thus an interesting case study to highlight the complexity of re/production of gender relations in women’s sport. Moreover, women’s sport is a greatly stimulating research avenue to better grasp the entry of the province in modernity.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
The narrative of the Fall Creek Parkway YMCA is central to the record of the historically black community northwest of downtown Indianapolis, which was established in the early 1900s, as well as reflective of the urban revitalization projects and demographic fluxes that changed this community beginning in the 1960s. This is because the conflict between administrators of the Fall Creek YMCA branch and Greater Indianapolis YMCA or Metropolitan YMCA over the viability of the branch at 10th Street and Indiana Avenue was a microcosm of the conflict between community and city leaders over the necessity of large-scale forces. This thesis specifically examines the large-scale forces of urban revitalization, defined in the study as the city’s implementation of construction projects in Indianapolis’ downtown area, and school desegregation, which was the focus of a federal court case that affected Indianapolis Public Schools. Delineating the contested visions held by Fall Creek and Metropolitan YMCA administrators about how the Fall Creek YMCA should have functioned within an environment changed by urban revitalization and school desegregation is crucial to understanding the controversies that surrounded major construction projects and desegregation measures that took place in the downtown area of Indianapolis during the late twentieth century. The study therefore understands the conflict between the Metropolitan and Fall Creek YMCAs over targeted membership groups and autonomy as a reflection of changes in the branch’s surrounding area. Moreover, the study utilizes such conflict as a lens to the larger conflict that took place in Indianapolis between the agents of citywide urban revitalization plans and community leaders who opposed the implementation of these plans, as well as school desegregation measures, at the expense of the historically black community located in the near-downtown area of the city. This thesis is informed and humanized, respectively, by archival research and oral history interviews with individuals who were involved in either the administration or advocacy of the Fall Creek YMCA between 1971 and 2003.