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This case was developed through interviews with Brooke Cooper, Dr. Charles Steinberg and others at the WooSox, as well as a thorough analysis of the Worcester Red Sox’s social media and company websites.

The purpose of this marketing case study is to This case focuses on understanding the process involved in conceptualizing and developing a marketing plan and strategy, and the ability to define and articulate the importance of BRAND in a marketing context.

The Pawtucket Red Sox relocated to Worcester, Massachusetts in Spring of 2019. The citizens of Worcester embraced their new team – the WooSox – as did many of the surrounding towns in Worcester County. The marketing arm of the WooSox worked tirelessly to develop a plan that included immersion in the cultures of the cities and towns within Worcester County; becoming a presence in their schools, businesses and community-based organizations; learning the priorities of the individual communities and supporting those needs; building a consistent, interactive and strong presence on social media; highlighting various interactions with their fan base; providing an outstanding experience at Polar Park; creating a loyal fan base ultimately driving ticket and merchandise sales and cultivating new fans to experience Polar Park; and understanding that word of mouth is the best form of marketing. The WooSox leadership team understood the need to expand its reach into new markets. In this case, the marketing team has been charged with exploring the Western Massachusetts region as a potential growth opportunity. The WooSox have a strong brand in the greater Worcester County area – but can they travel 60–90 min west and establish the same presence?

This case was written for undergraduate-level Marketing Principles or Sport Marketing courses.

William R. Freudenburg conceived “the double diversion” as the simultaneous process of diverting environmental resources or rights shared by all to a small group of social actors, which was made possible by a second diversion – the acceptance of the taken-for-granted assumption that environmental harms benefit the common good. In doing so, Freudenburg was among the first to note the importance of looking at not only the distribution of environmental harms but also environmental privileges. In this chapter, we extend the conceptualization of the double diversion to include an instance where rather than framing environmental harm as being a public good, environmental action is framed as benefiting the public writ large, while larger issues of environmental injustice are ignored. In particular, we look at the disproportionate distribution of the urban tree canopy in Worcester, Massachusetts, and the framing of the mitigation of the environmental threat of the Asian Longhorned Beetle as a problem for the commons. Through an analysis of media, we demonstrate that organizations and social actors who have tried to address the effects of this particular ecological threat have nonetheless ignored previous disproportionalities in the environment–society relationship.

The benefits of “green dementia care”, whereby people living with dementia are supported to connect with nature, are increasingly being recognised. Evidence suggests that these benefits span physical, emotional and social spheres and can make a significant contribution towards quality of life. However, care settings often present specific challenges to promoting such connections due to a range of factors including risk-averse cultures and environmental limitations. The purpose of this paper is to report on a project that aims to explore the opportunities, benefits, barriers and enablers to interaction with nature for people living with dementia in residential care and extra care housing schemes in the UK.

Data were gathered from 144 responses to an online survey by managers/staff of extra care housing schemes and care homes in the UK. In depth-case studies were carried out at three care homes and three extra care housing schemes, involving interviews with residents, staff and family carers.

A wide variety of nature-based activities were reported, both outdoor and indoor. Positive benefits reported included improved mood, higher levels of social interaction and increased motivation for residents, and greater job satisfaction for staff. The design and layout of indoor and outdoor spaces is key, in addition to staff who feel enabled to promote connections with nature.

This paper is based on a relatively small research project in which the participants were self-selecting and therefore not necessarily representative.

The paper makes some key recommendations for good practice in green dementia care in extra care housing and care homes.

Outdoor activities can promote social interaction for people living with dementia in care settings. The authors’ findings are relevant to the recent policy focus on social prescribing.

The paper makes some key recommendations for good practice in green dementia care in extra care housing and care homes.

Anonymous distributed computing systems consist of potentially millions of heterogeneous processing nodes connected by the global Internet. These nodes can be administered by thousands of organizations and individuals, with no direct knowledge of each other. This work defines anonymous distributed computing systems in general then focuses on the specifics of an applet‐based approach for large‐scale, anonymous, distributed computing on the Internet. A user wishing to participate in a computation connects to a distribution server, which provides information about available computations, and then connects to a computation server with a computation to distribute. A Java class is downloaded, which communicates with the computation server to obtain data, performs the computation, and returns the result. Since any computer on the Internet can participate in these computations, potentially a large number of computers can participate in a single computation.

There is increasing interest in the UK in developing environments that support people who are neurodiverse. This paper aims to report on a project to develop a cognitively supportive environmental assessment tool to improve the design of health centres, where the majority of National Health Service consultations take place, for all users, including people living with dementia and those who are neurodiverse.

A three-stage process was used: a literature review; the development of a matrix of key design features for people living with dementia, autism and other neurodiverse conditions; and the development of an environmental assessment tool and guide for users, which included easy-to-read versions to maximise service user involvement.

The overarching concepts of dementia-friendly design can be adapted to create designs for everyone, including those who are neurodiverse.

There is a paucity of research in environmental design for primary care from the patient’s perspective, and, more generally, further research on design for adults with learning disabilities and autism is needed.

The tools are free to download. With adaptation, they have potential applicability across health and care settings.

This project has confirmed that the principles of dementia-friendly design are applicable, with modifications, to a wider group of neurodiverse people. Critically, each person’s response to sensory stimuli is individual rather than determined by their condition.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused major disruption in community support for vulnerable older people and is thought to have exacerbated existing issues within UK adult social care. This study aims to examine the legacy of that disruption on how meeting centres for people affected by dementia have been impacted in continually evolving circumstances.

Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were conducted at three meeting centre case study sites. Ninety-eight participants, including people living with dementia, family carers, staff, volunteers, trustees and external partners, were asked about the impact and legacy of the pandemic upon meeting centres. A thematic analysis was carried out on the data.

Ten themes were identified: ability to re-open venues; increased health decline and loss of members due to isolation; closure or halting of linking services and dementia community support; disruption to diagnosis and referrals; increase in outreach, building communities and overall reach; digital access and use of technology (boom and decline); changes to carer involvement and engagement; continued uncertainty and changes to funding, resources and governance; staff and volunteer recruitment issues; and relief at/wish for return to pre-pandemic norms.

This paper offers new insight into a still-developing situation, namely, the legacy effects of the pandemic upon third-sector community support for people affected by dementia and the health and social care services that support it. The reduction in maintenance of pandemic-era technological innovations is a key finding.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the efficacy of a community‐based outreach initiative, piloted in Worcester, Massachusetts, to reduce children's exposure to toxic chemicals in common household products by changing parental behavior regarding product purchase and use.

The program model was based on the premise that community health workers have the potential to deliver health education messages with particular effectiveness. Community health workers in Worcester received customized training to learn about the impact of toxic chemicals on children's health and strategies to reduce children's exposure to toxics in household products. The health workers then delivered this information to low‐income parents in English or Spanish. Through follow‐up interviews, the health workers used short surveys to collect data regarding the effect, if any, of the outreach on parental behavior regarding household product purchase and use.

Parents were receptive to receiving technical information about toxics and household products from outreach workers who could convey the message at an appropriate comprehension level. Parents' responses to the survey questions suggest that the outreach efforts increased their awareness and understanding of how toxics affect their children's health.

Design and implementation aspects of the initiative – notably the size of the cohort recruited to the project – make it difficult to draw robust conclusions from the survey data. Nevertheless, the data do reflect at least a modest degree of parental behavior change regarding household product purchase and use.

Outreach efforts that reach parents individually in their homes are effective at communicating targeted information but do not necessarily result in parental behavior change. As consumers, many parents need to hear the message more than once before they will change their behavior regarding product use and purchase.

This paper describes a health education model that addresses an important but often overlooked area of risk to children's health: their exposure to toxics in common household products.

A new HND course has been launched in Worcester, through the co‐operation of local colleges, capitalising on their strengths and experience and new facilities. The course is aimed at producing technical staff for the food and drinks industry to fill a gap in the market. Graduates will gain a good overview of the industry but have a particular focus on quality control and assurance aspects. The course is of two years’ duration full‐time study and includes a 20‐week work placement between the two years. There is scope for part‐time study and Accreditation of Prior Learning for suitable candidates. It is envisaged that the course will attract a good range of candidates from school leavers to more mature and experienced applicants, all of whom are interested in furthering their knowledge of the food industry, relevant technical skills and their employability.

Community Makers (https://communitymakers.co) is an active UK wide network that evolved rapidly in response to COVID-19 and the negative impact of social isolation and distancing on people and families affected by dementia. The network is led by the Alzheimer’s Society, UK Dementia Research Institute Care Research and Technology Centre and The Association for Dementia Studies, at the University of Worcester. This study aims to investigate what works for whom and why and in what circumstances as a basis for the development of an online toolkit for people supporting people affected by dementia to connect and reconnect during the pandemic and beyond.

The development of the toolkit was informed by an iterative approach of engagement with people affected by dementia, learning from a network of community organisations and a rapid realist literature review.

Four common factors that combine to make a successful support intervention, regardless of its type, size or location were identified: relationships, purpose, technology and community. The application of the factors, adopted as principles, is illustrated by applying them to three real-world examples.

The main output was the online tool kit, which is a resource of creative ideas to inspire groups with different approaches to digital involvement and help reduce social isolation.

This report offers new insight, based on identification of four principles, into how people affected by dementia can be supported online and offline during a pandemic and beyond.

Meeting Centres (MCs) are a complex community-based psychosocial intervention to support people affected by dementia. The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of identifying the essential features of MCs from a UK perspective.

The essential features were examined within a concept analysis framework, which combines both static and evolutionary methods, enabling multiple stakeholder groups to be included in the process in an iterative manner.

Eleven essential features were developed, providing a conceptual model of the UK MCs. The underpinning rationale is sufficiently flexible to enable community-based development, while at the same time providing a robust platform upon which to build the evidence base.

While some features may be common to other types of community-based support, the combination of characteristics and the underpinning ethos differentiates MCs and enables each one to meet the needs of its own community.