In an era of increasing complexity, the majority of local land-use decisions in the United States are made by volunteer citizen planners. Often these elected or appointed volunteers enter their positions with a passion for their communities but without appropriate background training. The Michigan Citizen Planner Program was developed to address…

SWAT (Student Weekend Arborist Team) is a program affiliated with Cornell University and Extension founded to conduct street tree inventories in New York State communities with 10,000 residents or fewer, a group of communities underserved in community forestry planning. Between 2002 and 2010, SWAT conducted 40 inventories, and data from these…

In this article we take a closer look at a developing university-community engagement project being undertaken between California State University, Fresno, and the City of Fresno. A history of the project is provided, along with a review of the relevant literature and a summary of what pieces of the puzzle we feel should be in place for a…

In September 2009 the Council for Children's Rights unveiled the Larry King Center for Building Children's Futures (LKC). The LKC serves as a resource to the community "maximizing the effectiveness and impact of work being done for children by providers, agencies and funders." The LKC has chosen three initial priorities to address in…

This article presents an overview of a community-based teaching and learning project linking sustainability, working family housing, neighborhood social capital, and urban design research and development. The article foregrounds principles and protocols that can be used to measure community effectiveness and it highlights a basis for further…

International community development is a fertile area of research for environmental education scholars and practitioners. Although the community development field is well established, there is relatively little focus on education and learning in community development literature, especially in developing country settings. Particularly,…

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation began developing a multisite initiative in 1986 that would employ community-generated strategies to reduce the use and abuse of alcohol and illegal drugs. From a community planning phase that began in 1990 through two phases of implementation, the Fighting Back initiative had been in place for twelve years,…

In 1991, the Australian Parliament implemented a formal 10-year process of reconciliation. The aim of the process was to reconcile Indigenous and non-Indigenous people by the end of 2000. The Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (CAR) was established to promote the process. The process had three broad goals: improving education, addressing…

Designed to assist in the planning of community education and services, this booklet offers an argument in support of as well as step-by-step implementation instructions for a 2-day planning process. Following a discussion of the advantages of cooperative planning, the community planning process is outlined. Examined next are the reasons why a…

These transcripts present testimony from the first hearing on the reauthorization of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), focusing on CAPTA's implementation and administration since its last reauthorization, and effective and ineffective practice in child abuse and neglect prevention. Opening statements were made by…

This document consists of a final report and two manuals developed by the Pennsylvania State Coalition for Adult Literacy's Building Communities for Learning (BCL) project, which worked to improve the delivery of adult basic and literacy education services through interagency collaboration and community-based planning at the local level. The final…

Servol (Service Volunteered for All) is a voluntary organization in Trinidad and Tobago with a staff of some 90 people engaged in a wide range of activities grouped in seven Life Centers and a periphery of 13 nursery schools, as well as family farm units in a rural area. From a modest start in late 1970, Servol has grown steadily during its first…

THIS ISSUE OF THE NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTER FOR URBAN EDUCATION, AN OFFICE OF EDUCATION REGIONAL LABORATORY, CONTAINS AN ADDRESS TO THE STAFF ON THE OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR THE CENTER, A REVIEW OF THE STATUS OF EDUCATIONAL PARKS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES, AND A REPORT ON CLASSES IN NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING WHICH WERE SUBSTITUTED FOR THE…

Of the 19 projects conducted as part of the Defense Conversion Adjustment (DCA) Demonstration administered by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Work-Based Learning, 8 tested the worker mobility approach. The projects, which shared the common goal of helping dislocated defense workers find high-quality jobs, tested one or more of the…

Of the 19 projects conducted as part of the Defense Conversion Adjustment (DCA) Demonstration administered by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Work-Based Learning, 5 tested the community planning approach. The projects attempted to alleviate the negative impacts of defense cutbacks on communities, firms, and workers. The project sites…