Lower-income students of color in California are often underserved, as evidenced by low-resourced schools, an achievement gap, and low college-going rates. Educators increasingly call for "community schools" that link schools with community members and agencies to promote educational achievement and to access communities as resources for…

This paper proposes a model for a neighborhood program to help enough low-income individuals improve their employment and financial standing so that the impacts are meaningful at a neighborhood scale. Section I describes the project. Section II explains why neighborhood-focused employment programs are an important part of the solution for…

Rural America is currently facing an overwhelming problem, the need for decent housing. Even though small towns and rural areas of Southern America have been undergoing drastic change over the past 2 decades, over one-half of all inadequate rural housing is located in the South. Substandard housing is, for the most part, inhabited by families with…

Basing his discussion on an earlier paper Dr. Charles J. Erasmus ("Community Development and the Encogido Syndrome"), the author argues that community development should be defined in a more restricted fashion than has been done; that the techniques and limitations of the community development worker should be more clearly recognized;…

Fifty low income, rural families living in Dane County, Wisconsin, having school-age children, were studied to obtain information that would be useful for community development work with families in rural areas, and to assess the delivery of social services in rural areas. Characteristics of the poor in Wisconsin and in the United States as a…

Community building is an approach to urban poverty that rejects a programmatic approach in favor of efforts that catalyze personal relationships and social networks to improve community life. Community building analyzes urban poverty as a web of interwoven problems that can lock families out of opportunity permanently. Community building…

Sixteen essays pertaining to agricultural extension education were the basis of the 18th National Agricultural Policy Conference, held September 10-18, 1968, at Sequoyah State Park, Wagoner, Oklahoma. Individual topics of papers include leadership training, Iowa State welfare, low income area community development, an urban extension pilot…

Argues that Neighborhood Development Organization (NDO) staffs and volunteers have a faulty understanding of the political economies of poor urban communities, and have adopted a free market orientation. Recommends an alternative "organizing-driven" model of community development. (FMW)

Papers in this collection result from an 18-month exploration of ways to reform services for children and families in big cities, a so-called "rolling seminar" searching for ways to provide supportive and nourishing communities for city children. Contributions to this collection include: (1) "Themes and Viewpoints" (Editors);…

The expansion of community development credit unions through a grant from the Office of Economic Opportunity is proposed and elaborated on by a current examination of the program. Described as consumer-owned, neighborhood-based financial institutions, more than 250 of these community credit unions are presently serving low-income communities…

Pressures on rural Appalachian families to function as an integral part of the larger American society have led to internal discord and a "Culture of Poverty"; consequently, a new vehicle for rural community reorganization is needed, particularly for low-income rural Appalachian communities. An alternative for non-conventional…