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    tom forsell

    Sport and Recreation Victoria (SRV), part of the Department for Victorian Communities, in conjunction with the Brotherhood of St Laurence conducted a two day intensive fishing program in 2003 for people at Howmans Gap near Falls Creek, in... more
    Sport and Recreation Victoria (SRV), part of the Department for Victorian Communities, in conjunction with the Brotherhood of St Laurence conducted a two day intensive fishing program in 2003 for people at Howmans Gap near Falls Creek, in North Eastern Victoria. The group included thirteen adult jobseekers (nine males and four females) with four of the participants being refugees from Bosnia and China. The majority (nine) were aged between thirty and fifty years and four under thirty years of age. The Program, based on a State Government supported Schools Recreational Fishing Program, Get Hooked... It's fun to Fish focused on teaching basic fishing skills, equipment, knots, specie identification, and environmental awareness and was an important component of a State Government policy commitment to increase participation in recreational fishing.
    Social capital’s measurement has been limited and an effective scale is needed. This research employed focus groups and interviews and a panel of experts to provide understanding and items for a social capital scale in sport and... more
    Social capital’s measurement has been limited and an effective scale is needed. This research employed focus groups and interviews and a panel of experts to provide understanding and items for a social capital scale in sport and recreation setting. After a pilot study the Club Social Capital Scale (CSCS) was completed by 1,079 members of sport and recreation clubs. This 42-item scale included the factors trust, friendship, acceptance, reciprocity, norms, and governance. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in a 20-item four component (governance, norms, friendship-acceptance, and trust-reciprocity) CSCS. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the potential four or five factor model and the hierarchical structure. The CSCS is the first psychometrically developed instrument to measure the factors underlying social capital rather than its outcomes. It can inform policy makers or sport and recreation administrators to establish baseline social capital in their organization and the efficacy of interventions or changes in policy.
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