The story of Reggie Kelsey

The story of Reggie Kelsey Problem Background While reading the true story of Reggie Kelsey it appeared that there were many psychological, biological, and social aspects that lead to his final outcome, death by suicide. This paper will focus on the sociological aspect of what led Reggie to decline in society, was simply that Reggie aged out of foster care. Three and a half months after he aged out of foster care Reggie was found dead in Des Moines River. Foster care, though a temporary placement for youths, until they reach eighteen years old was the one conclusive factor that kept Reggie alive. Foster care, a social agency, was involved in providing social services that were to ultimately prepare Reggie for transition into dependency; these transactions should be viewed as a macro systems problem. Reggie was pushed out into the world without possessing the skills that would have kept him alive because there was a time allotment on how long he could use the services of foster care. Though Reggie had a helping network it was weak, and he lacked several resources that would have kept him from being homeless and from death. Though youths who age out of foster care are seen as regular teens, most of them lack the stability of family, food, and shelter that a normal teenager would have. In stage five of Eriksons psychosocial development, which involves the transition period from childhood to adolescence where they establish their identity; it is clear that Reggies inability to integrate his role into his new environment after aging out, suffered and left him uncertain about his identity. Aging out of foster care when not developmentally ready left Reggie without power, coping skills to adapt, structure, and strict supervision needed for survival, especially for a person with an IQ l evel that considered him to be mentally delayed. Literature Review Imagine one day having a strong, well connected supportive network that kept you living and the next day that system abandons you. According to Atkinson (2008) approximately 20,000 youth age out of and exit foster care each year, and the majority of them face challenges because they have been abandoned by the only support system they know (p. 187). Avery and Freundlich (2009) reported that many youth lack social support, economic resources, and independent living skills which cause them to be less inclined to become successful adults. Avery and Freundlich further noted that foster care support, which provides housing, financial support, and a range of health, education and other needed services, typically ends when youth are developmentally unprepared to assume full adult roles and responsibilities (p. 248). Youth like Reggie Kelsey who age out foster care because of some type of neglect or abuse are more likely to have problems forming positive interpersonal relationships, reduced e ducational attainment, increased delinquent behavior, and engage in high-risk behavior (Atkinson, 2008, p. 183). They simply find it difficult transitioning from one social environment to another, with significant problems impeding their way to becoming successful adults. When aging out of foster care, youth experience challenges such as homelessness, unemployment, and lack a support system. All the challenges from aging out of foster care generated Reggies symptoms that led him to become suicidal. Atkinson (2008) explained that maintaining successful housing presents a significant barrier for youths after emancipation from foster care placing them on an often irreversible path to failure (p. 188). Since Reggie did not have stable housing when he aged out of foster care, he was not under a constant supervision that could have kept him alive. Being homeless is not an ideal situation for any persons, but for adolescents particularly it leads to having identity diffusion, where they suffer from a serious lack of direction and ability to make sound decision. Chronic stress has been found to negatively impact learning, memory, and executive functioning (Avery and Freundlich, 2009, p. 251). Homelessness can also viewed as great stressor and coupled with psychological variables are aspects that lead to suicide in adolescence. Unemployment plagues youths that age out of foster care significantly to where they end up involved in criminal activity, in poverty, or on public assistance. Being unemployed can be a blow to an adolescence ego because they are not able to support themselves they result to criminal activity to take care of themselves, or feel like life is not worth living. Living more independently was the most common living situation for young people who remained in the foster care system after age eighteen years. According to Atkinson (2008) Close to two-thirds of adults in their twenties receives economic support from their parents (Atkinson, 2008, p. 193). In the case of Reggie, he had no support financial support from parents, he was on his own, and with little to no employment skills it would shows that the odds were truly stacked against him. Avery and Freundlich believed independent living is simply not a feasible option for the majority of youth in foster care who lack the social scaffolding of stable family and community networks (p. 253). Reggie may have had a helping network that worked within the social service system but he lacked the connections that a state based system provides. In the absence of a distinct social network for foster youth aging out of care decisively infer unacceptable subsequent foster care outcomes. Youth that age out of foster care already feel sense of powerlessness, and hopelessness, and as they move towards independence they still need a social environment to fall back on; they can not do it all by themselves especially at eighteen. Discussion 1- Ethics Though aging out foster care youths when they are not independently developed violates several NASW codes of ethics, the two that principally led to Reggies demise are sections 1.14 and 1.16. In section 1.14 it states when social workers act on behalf of clients who lack the capacity to make informed decisions, social workers should take reasonable steps to safeguard the interests and rights of those clients. By aging out Reggie, who was mentally disabled, the foster care system took away his basic right to thrive. The process of aging out foster care youths who are unable to make sound decisions without providing extensive care after is unethical. In section 1.16 it categorizes when it is acceptable to terminate services for a client. There is one significant factor that correlates to all youth aging out of foster care, and in this factor, b, it states that social workers should take steps to avoid abandoning services, withdraw only under unusual circumstances, and carefully consider all factors making sure to minimize adverse effects. With this statement it can be visualized that when deciding to age out a youth there is no consideration taken to counteract any of these factors. The fatal determinant that youth face when aged out is that the youth have to face several adverse factors. In Reggies situation there could be minimal responsibility placed on him resulting in his final outcome, but only if someone was trying to advert attention from their unethical mistakes. In section 1.14 vehemently relates to Reggie and sets aside those minimal mistakes, because as a mentally disabled child he relied heavily on the states decisions to safeguard his life. In the end the state aged Reggie out at eighteen which is not unusual; this is not an age that necessarily attest to the fact that a person is ready for all that accompanies adulthood. Discussion 2- Practice A 2007 article in the journal, Child Adolescent Social Work, examines the practice issues for teenagers aging out of foster care (Scannapieco, Connell-Carrick, Painter, 2007). The foster youth stated, foster youth and sub-systems involved with foster youth after they age out discussed three very important practice themes that should be addressed. The first theme was to have a youth focused practice; here foster youth thought the change needed was that they wanted to be involved in the decision-making. They expressed how they thought it was disrespectful to them because they were not asked what they thought they were just told; unlike an adult who has the ultimate say in their own lives. The next theme that youth expressed was a challenge was communication and collaboration. There is a break down in communication when it came to the sub-systems, with missing important information and lack of accurate knowledge about supports and services available. Everyone identified a solution of a need for one individual responsible for facilitating the coordination of planning amongst the sub-systems. The last important theme suggested was the need for more skill building opportunities. The youth focus group felt they were unprepared for independent living and what training they got they were unable to practice them before being aged out. They wanted better understanding of their own health and mental health needs, also advocacy for better educational setting. Recommendations There were many different actions the foster care system could have taken to prevent Reggie Kelseys outcome. The actions that would have helped Reggie even if they still aged him out would have been intense independent living training, strict follow up meetings with caseworker and a monitor, or buddy-system release could have been incorporated. For an adolescent like Reggie with a mild level of mental disability training is important; there needs to be practice of everyday situations so issues that arise are not uncommon to him. This action helps because if he gets into a situation that he has had training he will know the best option, but depending on the situation he could be overpowered or influenced by another component. A second action of follow up meetings and a monitor could have helped because the caseworker could have been in tuned to the needs of Reggie. A weekly schedule, then bi-weekly, then monthly, up until he was stable would have been best. Also the monitor anklet, or bracelet would give the caseworker a constant notation of where Reggie was. This the best plan of action for a person like Reggie even though they may feel like they are on probation it keeps them under strict supervision and needs are easily accessed. The last option of a buddy-system where foster youth are age out in pairs is a good option, each person is has a peer to relate and talk with. This would be helpful though the two are in the same boat and neither is a professional, and one may abandon the other. References Atkinson, M. (2008). Aging out of foster care: Towards a universal safety net for former foster care youth. Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, 43(1), 183-212. doi: Article. Avery, R. J., Freundlich, M. (2009). Youre all grown up now: Termination of foster care support at age 18. Journal of Adolescence, 32(2), 247-257. doi: doi: DOI: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2008.03.009. Code of Ethics (English and Spanish). (n.d.). . Retrieved November 2, 2009, from http://www.socialworkers.org/pubs/code/code.asp. Scannapieco, M., Connell-Carrick, K., Painter, K. (2007). In their own words: challenges facing youth aging out of foster care. Child Adolescent Social Work Journal, 24(5), 423-435. doi: Article.

Employment of elderly people in Hong Kong

Employment of elderly people in Hong Kong In the past decades, the discussion of work and aging has aroused widely public and professional thinking. In this paper, I would begin with the analysis of the current Hong Kong situations and characteristics of older workers, among which I pay most of attention to the low participation rate of elderly workers and try to demonstrate the reason accounting for that. The second part can be seen as a brief summary of the productivity and limitations of old workers in Hong Kong today. Finally, I would come up with several suggestions on how to encourage labor force participation. Keywords: employment of elderly, productivity, functional limitation, old worker Employment of elderly people Situations of the employment of elderly in Hong Kong With the baby boomer generations entering into their old years, the employment of older people has brought about wide public concern. According to the sources from Census and Statistics Department, at the middle of 2010, there are more than 1.78 million Hong Kong people over the age of 55, 51.46 percent of whom are age 65 and above, and 25.76 percent of whom are age 75 and above. Many of these people are working or have had work experience and, many of retired persons work at least part time after they leave their permanent job. Among all the features of older workers in Hong Kong today, we would focus on several main characteristics to help us understand the situation. Labor force participation rates In Hong Kong 2009, the labor force participation rates, which refer to the proportion of economically active population (that is the labor force) in the total population aged 15 and above was 26.5 percent for the age 55 and above. Among that, we can find that the labor force participation rate for this age group was apparently higher for males (37.6 percent) than for females (15.9 percent). Nevertheless, nearly ten years ago, the labor force participation rates of the age 55 or over was 56 percent, which is almost twice the number of today. The employed and unemployed population The unemployment rate of older worker is relatively lower than that of young workers. In 2009, the unemployment rate for age group of 60 or above was 3.1 percent, which substantially lower than its counterpart aged 20-29 group of 7.3 percent. There are a few reasons accounting for that, but the most important one would be that older people can retire as an alternative choice. On the other hand, people over the age of 50 are still employed for a number of reasons. Thomas Leavitt once mentions that, the majority of people at ages 50-62 would still choose to work mostly because they enjoy the satisfaction and useful feeling brought by working, which followed by the need to make money. However, at the age of 62 or over, the requirement for money becomes their major concern. Low labor force participation rate among older persons The downward trend in labor force participation rates among elderly is considered by many people. First of all, many would agree that the current social security policy carried out by the government is encouraging the increased employment rate for young people by removing the old workers in the labor force. Turner claims that: for any given employee at any given time, the alternative of retiring on a pension is more attractive than to keep working for a salary. (Turner, 1993) The social security and medical care of old people do protect them from low income, but is also reduces the employment rate. The productivity and functional limitations of older workers Most of us would agree that productive activity plays a significant role in successful aging and higher self-related happiness. Older people who remain high level of productivity accomplish better physical functioning and are less likely to die six years after self-report. Therefore, we would like to ask: how elderly Hong Kong people will take part in economic and social activities? The assumption that age and job performance are closely related has been confirmed by a variety of aging researches (McEvoy and Cascio, 1989). On one hand, many reported that older workers are more productive than younger workers for that they tend to be more dependable, careful and responsible. Certainly, no evidence shows that learning capacities will significantly fall with the aging process. Therefore, it is important to find out aged related decline causes so that we can extend work-life for elderly by providing protections, services and benefits. On investigating the effects of the potential of aging have on the productivity of older worker, I pay attention to the following factors: Age-related physical changes and limitations There are many indications imply that the strength of people declines with the aging process. Many people at age of 60 report that physically demanding job is hard and strenuous for them to carry on, so they tend to leave the work that is highly physical in nature. Apart from changes in strength, old people also experience the physical loss of endurance and balance and, an increase of reaction time as a result of peripheral nervous system gradually slows down. With regard to health and rehabilitation, it is well-accepted that the measures of functional capacity can reflect the extent to which elderly are able to work. However, the functional capacity does not merely mean an absence of disease. There are conditions which are directly related to aging, such as heart disease, cancer and stroke. While for those conditions such as hearing and visual impairment, they are not necessarily the functional limitations preventing people from work. Annis and colleagues (Annis et al. 1991) also conclude that weight gains are regarded as the fifth decade of life, followed by declines. They mentions in their research on anthropometric changes with age: the individuals body dimensions change also, characterized by increases in the size of the stomach and hips. Moreover, some old workers admit that they have difficulties to perform tasks involving highly repetitive manual actions, the use of small hand tools or using force (Tayyari Sohrabi, 1990). Age-related cognitive changes and limitations The traditional discussion about changes in cognitive ability of old people focuses on intelligence, memory, and learning and so on. According to medical findings, brain loses weight as a result of shrinking neuron size in cerebral cortex and some mental problems such as depression and dementia occur with aging. Yet in order to perceive the complicated relationship between cognitive change and working ability, I refer to some mental models of cognitive sciences to help us understand the situation in which old people gain knowledge, skills and experience through aging while loss perceptual capacity and motor speed. When assessing the changes in intelligence, major longitudinal studies (Schaie, 1985) claim that most individuals can maintain the stable intellectual level well into their seventies and over and that modifiability in brain function continue well into late adulthood. But findings also suggest that people tend to less efficiently process complex information with increase of age. Overall, there is no obvious evidence show that old peoples performance is unsatisfactory under the daily and ordinary job situations. Even if there are changes in problem-solving ability of older people, they can use job experience and extensive skills to compensate age-related slowing performance. Older adults deliver a decline performance on lab-related cognitive task but demonstrate good level performance in real-world job, and there appears to be no significant relationship between age and job capacities. Warren Buffett, born in 1930 and ranked as the worlds second wealthiest person in 2009, is one of the most successful, active and smart investors in the stock and capital market of the world today. He is often called the legendary investor Warren Buffett for his precisely judgment of the market and value invest philosophy. But he is not a special case in the expertise, problem solving and decision making condition of old people. Actually, everyday plenty of old adults are making the most important and complicated decisions in the world as executives, politicians, and world leaders. Researches find that cognitive processes appear to be more important in the differentiating the old and young managers. Expertise in a certain field can act as an improvement to cognitive aging. In a research conducted to investigate the relationship between cognitive aging and experience, sociologists find that among experienced players, those who are skilled in bidding strategies could ameliorate the neg ative influence of cognitive aging until nearly the age of 60. The highest level of a job description would be the creative thinking. The researches focus on creativity and idea productivity state that originality declines gradually from younger worker to older workers. Age-related sensory and perceptual changes and limitations When concern about old peoples visual changes, Fozard (1990) presents four main sensory and perceptual capacities we need to focus most. Firstly, he concludes that excessive extent of illumination can cause elderly workers adversely reactions. For example, older workers have shown to be more adversely affected by glare from lights in workplace. Secondly, he also mentions the disability of older adults to detect different visual stimuli, which he calls poor contrast. Old workers require more contrast between the stimuli before distinguishing them. Furthermore, a third age-related change in visual ability is the useful field of view, in which older workers gain messages from environment. Finally, he also points out that the decrease level of visual activity of older adult bring about the fact that they are not favorable to read printed material (Fozard, 1990). It is well recognized that many older people experience hearing changes such as difficulties to hear sounds at high frequencies. Sometimes we find older people would speak louder because they cannot hear themselves. What is more, many manifest trouble to understand what they have clearly heard at a given loudness. Suggestion about this can include reduce distracting noise in working place for old people. When we talk about older people, the most common stereotype of them would be slow to perceive things as an aging deficit. Scientific research findings indicate that it will take nearly 1.2 times longer for older people to finish cognitive process than their counterpart. In a conclusion, job performance is closely related to functional ability but deficits with aging can not necessarily prevent most of older workers from being still effective and qualified employees. Older workers have positive effects on labor force productivity and economic growth Encourage the labor force participation rate of elderly After talking about all the strength and deficits of older work, I would like to focus on the dealings with means of expanding the opportunities for them to regain active participants in the labor market. In the first place, empirical evidence that elderly have difficulty integrating information from multiple sources gives us a clue to develop communication and information-handling systems for older workers in workplace. For this reason, the priority for designing the system is to be acceptable by majority of users. What is more, in order to integrate into the labor force, older worker are longing for training of the new technology or skills in an easy to comprehensive way when they face up the difficulties with computerized work situations. Training and educational programs would be really helpful if we handle them on the right direction. That means we understand that elderly employees have alternative requirements for different position. Finally, if the government could apply more practical social policy and promote the social perspectives of the whole community, the low labor force participation rate may grow to meet the need of older people in Hong Kong. Even though we understand unemployment, no matter for young or old, is a problem brought about by economic recession, policy can still try to help aging who really need assistance in meeting their daily needs and can live peacefully.

Platos Allegory of the Cave and Jumping Mouse :: Allegory Jumping

Plato's Allegory of the Cave and Jumping Mouse Truth is like trout. Slippery, it becomes difficult to grasp tightly in any attempt to catch it, and is even more difficult to show to other people, in that when one holds it up for scrutiny it is often lost in the struggle to do so. "Jumping Mouse" and Plato's "The Allegory of the Cave" have a common theme in the form of the search for truth, and showing this truth to the unenlightened. They vary greatly, however, in the carrying out of their exposure of truth, and more, their view of truth and how it is to be handled. In the ancient story of "Jumping Mouse", Mouse finds his way to the river and medicine through his ability to literally jump past his fears and see the sacred mountains. When he does so, he catches a glimpse of a personal vision that is to drive him through the remainder of the story, and eventually to a higher plane when he is changed into an eagle. This vision is everything to him from that point on, and he strives from then on to reach it. After he has seen it and fallen into the river, he returns to where the rest of the mice are busy with the same thing they did when he left. They are enthralled in their narrow worlds and views, and so treat him with fear when they see him. They choose to make a story to explain his physical change, an excuse to stay away from him, possibly because they fear the ideas of change he brings back with him. On the most basic level, Jumping Mouse at that point threatens their existence. They are mice, and defined by the fact that they are ever busy: burrowing and nesting and foraging; Jumping Mouse comes back with the idea that this might not be the only thing to life. Obviously they cannot simply drop everything they had known to that point and take up his view, so they instead rejected him. Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" is similar in that a fabled and nameless man who had been chained to his illusions was set free and saw the true nature of all that was around him, outside of the cave. When he hypothetically returns to try to tell those who are still chained there of the outside world, and how everything they see is only the faint shadows outlining the true nature of reality, they reject him outright.

Crash by Jerry Spinelli :: Jerry Spinelli Crash

Crash by Jerry Spinelli   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Setting: This book starts out in this kids house his name is crash. Then they go to the arcade. That is where they spend most of the story. Then close to the end they go to the riverside.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Main Character: Crash he is the only one mentioned in this whole book. He is the main main character. He is tall has blonde hair, brown eyes, and has glasses. He has a funny personality. He just wants to have fun. On the outside he is a weird, tall, skinny guy on the outside but a lost, hopeless, scared boy on the inside.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Winnie is the girl that Crash likes loves dearly. She never paid much attention to Crash though. She has dirty blonde hair, really pretty blue eyes and, and is really funny.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Plot Summary: This is a story about a kid named Crash. When he was four he met this boy named James but that was all that was told about him so I didn’t put his name in the character list because he wasn’t all that important. He and Crash got into a lot of trouble at their house I mean a lot so one day when they were 12 and 13 Crash’s mother kicked him and his friend James out to go to the arcade. There they met this girl Winnie that crash liked I mean loved dearly but, she never really realized him until that day when they went to the arcade.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There he got into this big fight with the a big strong guy named Biff that was all said about him too. The guy Biff was Winnie’s really greedy boyfriend which she was only going out with because he threatened to kill her friends. That day Crash accidentally bumped into Biff and said excuse me and Biff punched him he then kicked Biff in the face since he knew karate then Biff fell to the ground and chased him until Crash jumped over James on to a game and did a back flip kicking Biff in the face again and knocking him out.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After that Winnie was amazed and fell deeply in love with Crash. For being the only person to stand up to Biff and saved her from him. After that whole big incident at the arcade they were kicked out so he, James, James’s girlfriend, and Winnie all went to the river side.

The Importance of Being Earnest :: Comedy Irony Papers

The Importance of Being Earnest ALGERNON. You have always told me it was Ernest. I have introduced you to every one as Ernest. You answer to the name of Ernest. You look as if your name was Ernest. You are the most earnest-looking person I ever saw in my life. It is perfectly absurd your saying that your name isn't Ernest. It's on your cards. Here is one of them. [Taking it from case.] 'Mr. Ernest Worthing, B. 4, The Albany.' I'll keep this as a proof that your name is Ernest if ever you attempt to deny it to me, or to Gwendolen, or to any one else. [Puts the card in his pocket.] JACK. Well, my name is Ernest in town and Jack in the country, and the cigarette case was given to me in the country. ALGERNON. Yes, but that does not account for the fact that your small Aunt Cecily, who lives at Tunbridge Wells, calls you her dear uncle. Come, old boy, you had much better have the thing out at once. JACK. My dear Algy, you talk exactly as if you were a dentist. It is very vulgar to talk like a dentist when one isn't a dentist. It produces a false impression. ALGERNON. Well, that is exactly what dentists always do. Now, go on! Tell me the whole thing. I may mention that I have always suspected you of being a confirmed and secret Bunburyist; and I am quite sure of it now. JACK. Bunburyist? What on earth do you mean by a Bunburyist? ALGERNON. I'll reveal to you the meaning of that incomparable expression as soon as you are kind enough to inform me why you are Ernest in town and Jack in the country. JACK. Well, produce my cigarette case first. ALGERNON. Here it is. [Hands cigarette case.] Now produce your explanation, and pray make it improbable. [Sits on sofa.] JACK. My dear fellow, there is nothing improbable about my explanation at all. In fact it's perfectly ordinary. Old Mr. Thomas Cardew, who adopted me when I was a little boy, made me in his will guardian to his grand-daughter, Miss Cecily Cardew. Cecily, who addresses me as her uncle from motives of respect that you could not possibly appreciate, lives at my place in the country under the charge of her admirable governess, Miss Prism. ALGERNON. Where in that place in the country, by the way? JACK. That is nothing to you, dear boy.

Nike Business Presentation Outline

Topic: Nike marketing strategy, social responsibility, and diversity. Specific Purpose: To inform my audience about the marketing strategy, environmental and social commitment and diversity of Nike company Brief: In my presentation, I will be talking about Nike’s marketing strategy and its social responsibility MARKETING A) INTRODUCTION  §Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Preview – Because Nike’s success largely depends on its shrewd marketing strategy, I will be explaining to you the importance of marketing to Nike and introducing what marketing strategy Nike is currently deploying. B)   BODY 1. Marketing is very important to its viability and profitability a.Since Nike is a consumer product company, it must respond to market changes through aggressive marketing. * If fail to anticipate accurately and respond in timely manner to market changes, Nike could experience material adverse effects on sales and profitability. b. Nike must stay domestically and globally compe titive to other large companies such as Puma or Addidas. c. As a result, Nike takes marketing issues very seriously. Nike has been increasingly investing into marketing. (Refer to chart) * Nike experienced a substantial increase in marketing investment in the FY of 07-08, largely because of the Olympic Games 2008. Demand creation in FY 2009 is $2,351. 4 mil. , increased 2% in compare with FY 08 2. Nike is successfully deploying the favorable brand image strategy a. Favorable brand image * Associates with a distinctive logo and advertising slogan â€Å"Just do it† * Advertise itself as a high quality and expensive product company. * Promotion: Nike contracts with high profile athletes and actively sponsors sport events to promote its brand. For example: * Michael Jordan: in 2007, the Jordan brand, now a separate Nike subsidiary with its own building, grossed about $800 million. Tiger Woods: in 2000, Nike agreed to a multi-year deal with Woods worth a reported $105 million (It can be said that Nike is successfully approaching the market by its shrewd marketing strategy. Now, I’ll be talking about Nike Social responsibility) SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY INTRODUCTION  §Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Preview: Nike is a leading socially responsible company. I’ll be exploring Nike’s community investment and environmental commitment. (First, I’ll be talking about community investment) BODY I. Nike has a long history of engagement in communities around the world, investing in their backyards, key markets and manufacturing communities. . In FY07-09, Nike has directly invested in community $168. 8 million – Set the goal of $315 million of contributions for FY11 – Involves contributing expertise and philanthropic activity to the community. 2. To achieve its community investment strategy, Nike has developed 2 core approaches: a. Focus on creating new models to provide young people access to the power of sport (to unleash their confiden ce, leadership, health, education or employment) – The Nike Foundation (separate nonprofit organization): focuses on developing adolescent girls to bring positive changes into community. They has committed more than $100 mil to benefit adolescent girls. b. Promote philanthropic activities and create financial flows that ensure long-term success – Nike manages a portfolio of investment that have triggered donations from consumers to expand its initial investment. – Notable projects: Livestrong, Human Race, Hurley H20 water initiative†¦ (Not only is Nike socially responsible but also Nike is environmentally responsible)  Ã‚  Ã‚   BODY 1. Highly committed to sustainable development – To help focus effort and resources where company can make the most impact, Nike developed its own North Star to define sustainable development. . To achieve its goal, Nike has broken it into a number of smaller attainable steps: a. Product design: * Internally, Nike mobil izes its human resources to develop closed-loop product. * Externally, Nike actively posts unresolved problems and requests solutions from outside investors, universities and companies. b. Climate and energy: As a co-founding member of Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP), Nike and its partners have committed to strategic collaboration to push for US energy and legislation and rule making. c. Water: Nike aims to contract with factories where water is abundant enough to support it operations. * Nike also collaborates with factories to improve efficiency of water-utilizing * Nike encourages its suppliers’ adherence to high quality standards for all of their production. (Nike itself is a diverse company) BODY 1. Diversity and inclusion are key to drive creativity and innovation: – Grows their competitive advantage, recruit – In 2006, Nike appointed its first VP of Diversity. – In 2008, Nike formed a global diversity and inclusion team fo cused on three areas: a. Engaging employees b. Providing business consultation . Developing innovative tools, models and designs 2. Diversity and inclusion statistics a. Gender diversity: * Global work force is half-male, half-female * Overall management is 60% male and 40% female. b. Ethnicity diversity: c. 55% of its work force is Caucasian, 22% is African American, 13% is Hispanic, 9% is Asian/Pacific islander and 1% is American Indian. d. Supplier diversity: national and regional partners on its suppliers effort, including the National Minority Supplier development council, the Oregon Association of Minority Entrepreneurs and the Women’s business Enterprise National Council.

Compare and Contrast the Ways in Which Two Poets Create Sympathy for Their Characters †‘on a Portrait of a Deaf Man’ and ‘the River God’. Essay

The poems ‘On a Portrait of a Deaf Man’, written by John Betjeman and ‘The River God’, written by Stevie Smith appear as two very different poems; one in monologue form and the other in a regular form; but they are in fact two very similar poems. ‘On a Portrait of a Deaf Man’ presents a character mourning the death of a deaf man who was very close to him/her, and ‘The River God’ presents a lonely God who is abused by people and resorts to murdering women to keep himself company. Both characters are lonely and the portrayal of this loneliness causes you – the reader – to feel sympathetic towards them. The ‘River God’ is lonely because he is only used by others, no one stays to be with him, they leave – ‘and I like the people who bathe in me . . . or will she go away?’ suggesting that he enjoys their company but doesn’t want them to go as he get’s lonely. In ‘On a Portrait of a Deaf Man’ the mourner feels lonely because he/she has lost someone very close to them – ‘the kind old face . . . he took me on long silent walks . . . when young’ implying they were close as they have known each other since a young age. Both blame others for the situations that they have found themselves in. The ‘River God’ blames the women who ‘bathe in [him]’ for his loneliness, meaning that out of desperation he tries to keep the women with him but by doing so ends up killing them ‘she lies in my beautiful deep river bed with many a weed’. I believe he understands though that he has killed them and that is why he keeps them in the ‘beautiful deep river bed’; this causes you to feel some sympathy for him as he accidentally kills them but then out of love keeps them in his ‘beautiful deep river bed’. The mourner blames God for the death of the ‘deaf man’: ‘You, God, who treat him thus and thus, /Say ‘Save his soul and pray.’/You ask me to believe You and / I only see decay’ describing how God should be, but then the reality of asking God for things which aren’t achieved. This causes you to feel sympathetic because you see someone who asked God to save him yet he still died – ‘see decay’. The poems both begin with descriptions of characters. ‘The River God’ begins ‘the kind old face, the egg-shaped head’ and ‘On a Portrait of a Deaf Man’ begins ‘I may be smelly and I may be old’; the first description makes you feel sad that someone kind and good has died and the second makes you feel pitiful for the river, it’s not the river’s fault that it’s that way as it’s reflective of old age and the abuse it has had by mankind, all of which you would be distraught if you found yourself in so you can feel sympathetic towards them. The poets use the death of a person to draw sympathy from you. In ‘The River God’ a woman dies, one that he was fond of and he was against her dying; in ‘On a Portrait of a Deaf Man’ a friendly deaf man dies, presumably suddenly; these draw your sympathy because it suggests that they are lonely, in a state of mourning and vulnerable – all of which are states in which you would not want to find yourself and when you see someone else in such a state, you will feel sympathetic and be able to relate to the emotions they are feeling. The poets use the deaths of characters in their poems to create side-personas for the characters through the persona of the main-speaking character. ‘The River God’ uses the dead woman to give another perspective of what’s going on, ‘This beautiful lady, or will she go away?’ shows this perfectly. The questioning gives her perspective that she wants to leave but she is being held, leading you to feel sympathetic for her as this large ‘River’ is holding her captive and she cannot leave. However, it shows the misunderstanding of the ‘River God’ as she is drowned, ‘Oh who would guess what a beautiful white face lies there’, ‘white face’ implying she is dead, leading you to feel sympathetic again towards him as he is totally ignorant of everything going on around him. ‘On a Portrait of a Deaf Man’, the writer uses the deaf man to display what exactly he/she has lost through his death, Ã¢â‚¬Ë œHe knew the names of ev’ry bird’. This shows how caring he was and this would presumably translate to how he acts to people – kind and caring – and lead to sympathy as you would never want to lose a person so good to die. The poem also describes what further potential to do good he had if he knew what was coming, ‘He would have liked to say good-bye/Shake hands with many friends.’ This causes a sympathetic response from the reader because again even though he was dying he would have wanted to show respect to his friends rather than just leaving. It also creates sympathy because the person who has lost this ‘kind’ man would be very upset about his/her death. We see this when he/she blames God for his death as he didn’t save him/her, ‘’Save his soul and pray.’/ You ask me to believe You and/ I only see decay.’ – this shows a stage of mourning in which you blame others for the death you have experienced. In conclusion, the poets create sympathy for their characters very effectively through: descriptions, meanings and powers out of the characters control; all of which attract the reader to feel some understanding, pity or empathy towards them. The poets both use the deaths of characters to contrast the feeling of the characters and the feelings of the dead to create sympathy.