Byron R. Johnson

Demonstrates how students and educators can resist narrow, utilitarian views of higher education's purpose.While the search for meaning and purpose appears to be a constant throughout human history, there are characteristics about our current time period that make this search different from any other previous time, particularly for college students. In this book, Perry L. Glanzer, Jonathan P. Hill, and Byron R. Johnson explore college students' search for meaning and purpose and the role that higher education plays. To shed empirical light on this complex issue, the authors draw on in-depth interviews with four hundred college students from different types of institutions across the United States. They also analyze three sets of national survey data: the National Study of Youth and Religion, College Students Beliefs and Values, and their own Gallup-conducted survey of 2,500 college students. Their research identifies important social, educational, and cultural influences that shape students' quests and the answers they find. Arguing against a utilitarian view of education, Glanzer, Hill, and Johnson conclude that colleges and universities can and should cultivate and aid students in their journeys, and they offer suggestions for doing so.

The Faith Factor and Social Welfare: Evidence, Practice, Policy comprises case studies and impact evaluations on the important work done by faith-based organizations (FBOs) in the United States to address a wide range of issues, including prisoner reentry, high-risk youth behaviors, family fragmentation, and homelessness. Byron Johnson, Alfreda Alvarez Wubbenhorst, and William Wubbenhorst have designed this textbook as a learning tool and framework for understanding key components of FBO programs and ministries. The setting of each featured FBO initiative and the social impact made within its community is examined and explained, followed by a description of the organization: its origins and motivations, how and why it was formed, and analysis of the results and outcomes associated with its work. The authors then assess the potential future possibilities drawn from these observations and from examples of collaboration among government agencies, philanthropic organizations, and FBOs, and make recommendations on how these partnerships could be developed, deepened, and replicated. Discussion points and research topics are also included at the end of each case study. A resource for undergraduate and graduate classes in theological seminaries, schools of social work, sociology, public health, public and nonprofit management, education, and public policy, this textbook is also ideal for implementing a variety of leadership development classes focused on community organizing, family strengthening, and other domestic mission and ministry efforts.

The Faith Factor and Social Welfare: Evidence, Practice, Policy comprises case studies and impact evaluations on the important work done by faith-based organizations (FBOs) in the United States to address a wide range of issues, including prisoner reentry, high-risk youth behaviors, family fragmentation, and homelessness. Byron Johnson, Alfreda Alvarez Wubbenhorst, and William Wubbenhorst have designed this textbook as a learning tool and framework for understanding key components of FBO programs and ministries.The setting of each featured FBO initiative and the social impact made within its community is examined and explained, followed by a description of the organization: its origins and motivations, how and why it was formed, and analysis of the results and outcomes associated with its work. The authors then assess the potential future possibilities drawn from these observations and from examples of collaboration among government agencies, philanthropic organizations, and FBOs, and make recommendations on how these partnerships could be developed, deepened, and replicated. Discussion points and research topics are also included at the end of each case study.A resource for undergraduate and graduate classes in theological seminaries, schools of social work, sociology, public health, public and nonprofit management, education, and public policy, this textbook is also ideal for implementing a variety of leadership development classes focused on community organizing, family strengthening, and other domestic mission and ministry efforts.

Drawing on work from inside some of America’s largest and toughest prisons, this book documents an alternative model of "restorative corrections" utilizing the lived experience of successful inmates, fast disrupting traditional models of correctional programming. While research documents a strong desire among those serving time in prison to redeem themselves, inmates often confront a profound lack of opportunity for achieving redemption. In a system that has become obsessively and dysfunctionally punitive, often fewer than 10% of prisoners receive any programming. Incarcerated citizens emerge from prisons in the United States to reoffend at profoundly high rates, with the majority of released prisoners ending up back in prison within five years. In this book, the authors describe a transformative agenda for incentivizing and rewarding good behavior inside prisons, rapidly proving to be a disruptive alternative to mainstream corrections and offering hope for a positive future.The authors’ expertise on the impact of faith-based programs on recidivism reduction and prisoner reentry allows them to delve into the principles behind inmate-led religious services and other prosocial programs—to show how those incarcerated may come to consider their existence as meaningful despite their criminal past and current incarceration. Religious practice is shown to facilitate the kind of transformational "identity work" that leads to desistance that involves a change in worldview and self-concept, and which may lead a prisoner to see and interpret reality in a fundamentally different way. With participation in religion protected by the U.S. Constitution, these model programs are helping prison administrators weather financial challenges while also helping make prisons less punitive, more transparent, and emotionally restorative. This book is essential reading for scholars of corrections, offender reentry, community corrections, and religion and crime, as well as professionals and volunteers involved in correctional counseling and prison ministry.

Drawing on work from inside some of America’s largest and toughest prisons, this book documents an alternative model of "restorative corrections" utilizing the lived experience of successful inmates, fast disrupting traditional models of correctional programming. While research documents a strong desire among those serving time in prison to redeem themselves, inmates often confront a profound lack of opportunity for achieving redemption. In a system that has become obsessively and dysfunctionally punitive, often fewer than 10% of prisoners receive any programming. Incarcerated citizens emerge from prisons in the United States to reoffend at profoundly high rates, with the majority of released prisoners ending up back in prison within five years. In this book, the authors describe a transformative agenda for incentivizing and rewarding good behavior inside prisons, rapidly proving to be a disruptive alternative to mainstream corrections and offering hope for a positive future.The authors’ expertise on the impact of faith-based programs on recidivism reduction and prisoner reentry allows them to delve into the principles behind inmate-led religious services and other prosocial programs—to show how those incarcerated may come to consider their existence as meaningful despite their criminal past and current incarceration. Religious practice is shown to facilitate the kind of transformational "identity work" that leads to desistance that involves a change in worldview and self-concept, and which may lead a prisoner to see and interpret reality in a fundamentally different way. With participation in religion protected by the U.S. Constitution, these model programs are helping prison administrators weather financial challenges while also helping make prisons less punitive, more transparent, and emotionally restorative. This book is essential reading for scholars of corrections, offender reentry, community corrections, and religion and crime, as well as professionals and volunteers involved in correctional counseling and prison ministry.