Friday, December 13th, TechSoup's NonProfit Commons in Second Life meeting will feature Evelyn McElhinney (Kali Pizzaro in SL), who will present a snapshot of her findings from her first study which explored the health literacy skills of people who accessed health information in 3D virtual worlds and the influence on physical world health behavior.

Kali will go onto discuss her second study of her PhD with the aim to raise awareness and recruit participants. The study is investigating how participating in virtual world communities/groups influences peoples ability to 'live with' or 'cope with' their long term health condition in the physical world. A long term health condition is defined as a condition which lasts more than one year and impacts on a persons life and may require ongoing help and support (Scottish Government).

Bio:

Kali Pizzaro/Evelyn McElhinney is a Registered Nurse and Registered Nurse Lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland. She is also a part time Doctoral Student at Glasgow Caledonian University. She was in clinical practice for 13 years and has been full time at the University for 8 years. She has presented at national and international conferences and published in peer reviewed journals.

Join us in Second Life!

Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting

Friday, December 13th, 8:30 AM PDT / SLT

Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater

http://bit.ly/NPCinSL  

AGENDA (all times below PT)

• 8:30 am Introductions
• 8:40 am TechSoup Announcements
• 8:45 am Mentors Central 
• 9:00 am Featured Presentation -  Evelyn McElhinney (Kali Pizzaro in SL) Study of Virtual Health Literacy Skills and Real Life Impact 
• 9:40 am Open Mic / Announcements

http://nonprofitcommons.org  

The mission of the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life is to create a community for nonprofits to explore and learn about virtual worlds, foster connections, and discover the many ways in which nonprofits might utilize the unique environment of Second Life to achieve their missions. 

Friday, November 15th, TechSoup's Nonprofit Commons in Second Life meeting will be welcoming members of the University of Michigan's, Latino youth sex education project ¡Cuídate! taking place in Second Life.

Research team members:

• Antonia Villarruel, PhD (avillarr in SL)
• Michelle Aebersold, PhD (jaimeaebersold in SL)
• Dana Tschannen, PhD (madeline.glaz in SL)
• Emily Yeagley, MPH, MA  (eyeagley in SL)
• Angel Valladares (angelfv in SL)
• Joseph D. Yaksich, MS, RN (jyaksich in SL)

About ¡Cuídate!:

¡Cuídate! Is an evidence based program designed specifically for Latino youth to reduce sexual risk behavior. A key component of ¡Cuídate! Is to have trained facilitators delivering the program. The training is developed in Second Life in order to increase access to quality training. The project uses Second Life ®, an online web-based environment where participants can learn and practice skills needed to implement ¡Cuídate! 

• http://cuidate.nursing.umich.edu

The scale-up of effective evidence-based programs is sometimes held up by the inability to meet the demand for curriculum training. Traditional trainings are conducted face to face, are time intensive, often require travel, and are conducted at the same pace. Barriers to training include getting time off as well as the time and cost of travel. 

The goal is to offer a more efficient, user-based way for individuals to be trained in ¡Cuídate! We believe this method will provide an excellent learning environment to learn the skills necessary to deliver ¡Cuídate! and do so in way that is less costly and more convenient. 

Funding for this study comes from NIH Grant No. 1R21MH09572301A1. 

Join us in Second Life!

Nonprofit Commons Weekly Meeting

Friday, November 15th, 8:30 AM PDT / SLT

Plush Nonprofit Commons Amphitheater

http://bit.ly/NPCinSL  

AGENDA (all times below Pacific Time)

• 8:30 am Introductions
• 8:40 am TechSoup Announcements
• 8:45 am Mentors Central 
• 9:00 am Featured Presentation - ¡Cuídate! Latino Youth Sex Ed Virtual Facilitator Training
• 9:45 am Open Mic / Announcements

Immediately following the meeting we will take a virtual tour of the ¡Cuídate! training center in Second Life, located at: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Wolverine%202/55/78/25

http://nonprofitcommons.org 

The mission of the Nonprofit Commons in Second Life is to create a community for nonprofits to explore and learn about virtual worlds, foster connections, and discover the many ways in which nonprofits might utilize the unique environment of Second Life to achieve their missions. 

[Cross-posting from the NetSquared blog by BJ Wishinsky]

N2Y4 Mixed Reality Health Panel, Wed. May 27, 11:15 AM

The Health Panel Expo planning is coming together and the event is right around the corner! Here are the details!

Click here to view a complete agenda of the days events.

PRESS RELEASE