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…

This paper depicts the origins, operation, and success of the Community Mediation Service established at the University of Hawaii, Manoa in 1979. During the 1970s, a national impetus for change arose out of stresses in the justice system including clogged courts, expensive and lengthy litigation, distrust of lawyers, and dissatisfaction of both…

This paper describes some of the ways in which Hispanic elderly in East Harlem in New York City are advancing as a result of advocacy program involvement. Major problems and needs endemic to the Hispanic elderly in East Harlem are identified and some of the basic causes of these problems are discussed. The areas discussed include housing, health,…

After a long battle against the construction of a Harvard Medical School hospital complex, the Roxbury Tenants of Harvard formed a limited partnership to construct 774 units of re-location and mixed-income housing in conjunction with the new medical facilities. (Author)

Author comments briefly on articles on compensatory education which appeared in the January 1972 issue. (SP)

A North Oakland (California) neighborhood spent years convincing the city to convert an old college building into a senior center, housing, a park, and an African American cultural center instead of replacing it with a strip mall. Community strategies included publishing a monthly newsletter, attending meetings, replacing city politicians, and…

Grassroots organizing, planning, and political strength have resulted in a community school. (Author/MLF)

Author visits a parents' advice and information centre in London's East End. (Editor/RK)

A new complex in Buena Park, California, houses all community activities for senior citizens, including adult day care, nutrition programs, classrooms, meeting rooms, recreational activities, and a nurses' station. Community involvement in planning the facility and its programs is discussed. (PP)

A group experience with neighborhood workers in a black, ghetto community action program, with a white psychiatrist as group leader focuses on the definition of the task of consultation, derivation of mutually agreed upon goals, evolution of the group, and issues dealt with during the experience. (Author)

Defining "community literacy" as literate acts that could yoke community action with intercultural education, strategic thinking and problem solving, and with observation-based research and theory building, this paper articulates this "generative and tension-filled" vision of community literacy. The paper begins by examining…

Interviews with rural women active in grassroots community organizations in Appalachia revealed that the consequences of women's participation included learning new skills, developing communication skills, gaining understanding of their lives, and setting new educational or vocational goals. Aspects of organizational environment that supported the…

In a foreword to this document, David Mathews, president of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, describes in what ways effective communities are different from ineffective ones. Following an introduction, a section on school use suggests that most schools offer nothing to adults without children, so it should be no surprise that many adults are…

R. Benjamin Wiley has led the Greater Erie Community Action Committee (GECAC) in Erie, Pennsylvania, since 1969, creating a wide range of human services programs. His passion for education is reflected in the GECAC Learning Center, which offers numerous training and educational programs for residents of all ages, and in the GECAC Community Charter…

That preservation and recycling of unused school buildings to other community uses is both economically and socially sound is illustrated by several examples. Information on federal grants for conversion of unused school buildings to community education and activities centers is included. (MF)