The rate of early childhood overweight and obesity in the United States has increased significantly over the last 30 years. The psychosocial risks of potential stigmatization and discrimination in an overweight child can cause low-esteem and/or reduced school performance. Overweight and obese children also face the increased health risks…

Inner-city schools located in high poverty communities often operate with insufficient resources to meet the educational needs of students. Community residents serving as paraeducators offer the dual benefits of expanding instructional capacity and fostering family-school relationships, provided they are appropriately prepared and incorporated…

Focusing on creating community partnerships via collaboration to support the growth and development of children and families, this guide is intended to enhance the knowledge and skills Head Start staff need to be full collaborative partners in community efforts to help families develop, nurture their children, and experience success. Following an…

The School-Community Collaboration Project was conducted to train personnel to infuse career education elements into the ongoing educational process and to increase the involvement of parents and the employment community in the process. Five Massachusetts school systems participated in the project, including fifty-four educational personnel and…

In the University of Toledo/Springfield Local Schools Project, school districts, community councils, and teacher education institutions collaborated to assess school improvement needs and design personnel development programs. Results of this Teacher Corps program are described. (PP)

A Seattle (Washington) initiative is dedicated to building a system for out-of-school care, especially for low income, minority families. In this interview, the program coordinator describes how area out-of-school providers cooperated to train staff, train trainers, and elevate the field to a profession. Major issues that affect program quality…

The Adult Basic Education Linkage Project (originally titled Project Reach) was designed to expand and promote linkage of adult basic education (ABE), English as a second language (ESL), and general equivalency degree (GED) programs in Western Pennsylvania with community groups and businesses and to conduct an extensive, ongoing outreach campaign…

The BEST (Building Exemplary Systems for Training) Initiative was evaluated in meeting the following goals for youth workers: (1) increase and strengthen training opportunities at the local level; (2) help communities develop professional development systems; (3) build local capacity to make training accessible and supported by youth-serving…

This guide, volume four of a six-part series, describes several community-outreach methods and provides practical outreach suggestions that are based on experience, as well as typical problems and the ways practitioners have chosen to resolve them. The guide is divided into three parts. Part 1 focuses on recruitment. Specific topics cover ways of…

To reduce the narrowing effects of sex-role stereotyping on the career options of secondary students, a project was conducted using curriculum activities and experiences with nontraditional role models in school and community settings. The vehicle for meeting this goal was the existing Jefferson County (Colorado) experience-based career education…

This guide is intended to assist individuals involved in the development, administration, and delivery of volunteer-based community adult literacy programs. Addressed in the individual sections of the guide are the following topics: community (community assessment, learner population, program purposes, public awareness, and partnerships and…