This chapter describes how the author became an academic political educator and community organizer, with both worlds always working with, against, and for each other.

One of the central tenets of the neoliberal world view is that there is no alternative to market-based societies with their focus on competition, individualism, and the abandonment of social safety nets and environmental protections. This vision has become the new common sense. As neoliberal policies and practices have spread across the planet,…

In this article, Michael McAfee and Mauricio Torre reflect on the successes and challenges of the Promise Neighborhoods movement as it works toward education equity, and on what it takes to effect large-scale, sustainable change for low-income communities and communities of color. Together they discuss the Chula Vista Promise Neighborhood project…

This article describes the community organizing role of an Extension educator and a research faculty to enable young children in a resource-limited community to start savings accounts and to save regularly through a school-based savings effort. The study explored whether children from low-income communities are capable of saving money regularly…

The Learning Partnership (TLP) initiated a Family and Community Engagement Strategy (FACES) initiative in three Ontario communities to foster active and responsive relationships among community partners and enhanced family engagement in transitions to school. A case study research design, grounded in participatory action research, was used to…

This article discusses the Women Making a Difference programme that has provided hundreds of women in Wales the skills they need to become decision-makers in their communities. The project is all about tapping into women's desire to make a difference in their communities, and getting women who, in most cases, are already active at grassroots level…

Through cross-disciplinary and participatory processes involving key stakeholders from the Zambian education sector, as well as from the traditional leadership structure, a localized HIV/AIDS-prevention strategy, Interactive School and Community Approach (ISACA), was developed and implemented throughout one province between 2002 and 2006. The…

Life in the Community is an action research project with three objectives: (1) To work with four organisations from the third sector to improve the daytime opportunities for up to 40 people with higher support needs and help them to be more included in the life of a community; (2) To develop the capacity of organisations in the not-for-profit…

A framework for the development of adult education within the community development process is presented, based on a three-year project in England that experimented with a number of approaches. The network system suggested involves: (1) an organizational model for adult education provision in a community development setting which may be adopted…

This project attempts to show that a coordinated, data based planning process for youth services can be developed and it will be effective in lessening the frustrations and alienation of young people. (Author/AM)

Discusses the need for coordination of child welfare services at the local level to prevent and detect child abuse and neglect, defines two steps necessary for coordination, and describes current efforts towards coordination in Massachusetts. (ED)

The discourse of sustainability is promoted internationally, with the United Nations declaring 2005-2014 as a Decade for Education for Sustainable Development. There is discussion concerning the nature, status and significance of Education for Sustainability and its relationship with the somewhat established discourse of environmental education.…

The principal objective of this project was to demonstrate a new approach to the delivery of vocational rehabilitation services in rural counties. A three-year Expansion Project was conducted in two typical rural counties of West Virginia, Pendleton and Gilmer Counties. Prior plans for delivery of services by means of itinerant counselors were…

The Community Coordinated Child Care (4C's) Delivery Systems Conference was designed to bring together, for the first time, administrators of community coordinated multi-site child care programs from across the United States for the purpose of exchanging detailed information about their organizations and concerns. Six program administrators from…

The final report documents activities of a 3-year child abuse and neglect demonstration unit in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. The history of the project is reviewed along with the following project components: organization/staffing, case identification, coordination, community education, professional development, case management, research and evaluation,…