In this paper, we report on our experience as rookies organizing, funding, and running a summer computing camp for middle school girls. The focus of the camp was building mobile applications using App Inventor. The three day/two night camp targeted girls in rural, high poverty school districts and was funded through an award from the National…

With many cities showing an interest in afterschool system building and research providing a growing body of useful information, this Wallace Perspective offers a digest of the latest thinking on how to build and sustain an afterschool system, and the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for this promising work. The report (a follow-up to a…

Opened in fall 2009, YOUmedia attracts high schoolaged teens who want a safe and welcoming place to hang out and socialize, as well as those with established or nascent interests in both digital and traditional media. With the guidance of staff and the synergy of peer involvement, participants discover and pursue their interests through both…

Making Connections was the Annie E. Casey Foundation's signature place-based, community-change initiative of the 2000s. It sought to build on previous work and launch an effort focused firmly on the framework of family strengthening. The Foundation started Making Connections in 22 places, focusing eventually on first 10, then seven sites. It…

The 1979 Displaced Homemakers Conference focused on developing awareness of services available from various Illinois agencies to displaced homemakers, generating the spirit and means for cooperative relationships among agencies serving them, and offering prototypes of how women's centers are attempting to coordinate the various services of state…

Based on a study by the Department of Community Service Education, Cornell University, to evaluate human service planning (HSP) nationwide, this paper discusses the premises that HSP may be defined as community learning and that the community (according to the Robert Boyd and Jerold Apps model for adult education) is both a beneficiary of and…

The Venice-Lincoln Technical Center, Venice, Illinois, is housed in former public school facilities and offers a variety of adult education and job training classes. State agencies' involvement and enabling legislation concerned with program implementation, development, and funding are discussed. (LH)

The Illinois community college system is comprised of 39 districts encompassing 49 campuses which served a fall 1974 enrollment of 267,156 (over 50 percent of all students enrolled in public institutions of higher education in Illinois). According to legislative dictum, Illinois community colleges must offer programs in liberal arts and sciences,…

Presents a case study of the development of kinship care policy in Illinois due to court decisions regarding the provision of financial support to relatives acting as foster parents. Compares recent reform of kinship care policies in Illinois with welfare reform efforts across the country and their national implications. (SD)

Explains the need for family literacy programs in Illinois and describes efforts to improve adult and child literacy. Topics discussed include poverty; reading, writing, and computing instruction; interaction between parents and children; families and books; partnerships between state agencies, private organizations, and public libraries; and…

The extent to which state agencies are implementing information systems and analytical methods for budget review are examined. Focus is on 17 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Trends in budget…

The federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) has launched a five-year initiative that will support state efforts to build comprehensive early childhood service systems. This initiative--the State Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (SECCS) Initiative--provides planning and implementation grants to the state and territory Maternal and…

"After School: Connecting Children at Risk With Responsible Adults to Help Reduce Youth Substance Abuse and Other Health-Compromising Behaviors (After School)" helped develop intermediary organizations in Boston, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area in order to create citywide systems of after-school programs. The…

The rising number of individuals returning to communities from prison and jail represents one of the defining issues of time. Individuals reentering society face myriad challenges, not the least of which is securing viable employment; in addition, each individual has a unique set of experiences, needs and resources. This project stems from the…

Onunaku, Ahlers, and Gilkerson describe Illinois's effort to build infant mental health capacity within the Part C Early Intervention system and Wisconsin's effort to build capacity for infant and early childhood mental health services statewide across all systems that serve children. Because of multiple funding streams, families often experience…