In 2007, Walter P. Webb Middle School faced a crisis. One evening in January, the superintendent at the time held a meeting at the school in Austin, Texas, to let students, parents, teachers, and community members know that at the end of the academic year, their school would close. Thanks to a new state law focused on accountability, the…

In a community capacity building project, family and consumer sciences professionals developed a family resource center to provide programs and services to strengthen families. The project exemplifies the civic engagement role of the profession. (SK)

This article describes standardized instruments designed to measure physical and emotional health outcomes among children for a statewide implementation of community- and school-based family resource centers. It includes descriptive and psychometric information, strengths and weaknesses of two measures of physical well-being, and four measures of…

Discusses the services provided by the Iowa-based National Resource Center on Family Based Services. The 4-year-old Resource Center disseminates information, provides technical assistance and training in the "thinking systems" approach to family therapy and social casework, and conducts research to help agencies develop alternatives to…

This annual report describes the programs and staff for 1993 of Grassroots Educare Trust, an organization that helps South African communities provide preschool education and health care. Contents of the report are: (1) a list of the board of trustees; (2) a message from the chairman; (3) the director's report on external efforts and internal…

This report provides a model for the provision of social services to single parents. The activities the center provides include drop-in support groups, workshops on single parent issues, a single parent magazine, individual counseling and community outreach. The report briefly specifies the goals of the center and the rationale behind its…

One way to improve technology training for teachers is to use multimedia. This article defines multimedia, discusses the benefits and measurable outcomes of interactive multimedia training, and presents a case study of the DeKalb County (Atlanta, GA) School System's teacher training project and family technology resource centers, resulting in a…

Intended for use by school administrators and community leaders serving families of students in the middle grades (6-8), this booklet describes eight family resource programs that illustrate a broad range of practices that attempt to match specific services to those unique needs of the adolescents and families served in each community. Each of the…

Family resource programs seek to foster the development of emotionally stable children and parents. Two underlying assumptions of family resource programs are that programs should focus on family strengths, not weaknesses; and that programs should empower families, not create dependence on professionals. Education of the public about the need and…

Discusses features of the National Literacy Act that are of interest to librarians. Highlights include a new definition of literacy; cooperation between providers and government agencies; new programs, including state resource centers, national workforce strategies, services for prisoners, and family programs; amendments to existing legislation;…

Family support programs have been attracting increased attention, and are at the center of efforts to build systems of integrated, comprehensive, and preventive family-focused services. This handbook, developed by the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP), profiles 73 school-affiliated family support and education programs in the United States to…