Describes the Intensive Crisis Counseling Program operating throughout Florida which provides immediate services to families in their homes. An exemplary case study is presented. (Author/BB)

Describes a continuum of services to families in their homes to prevent the necessity of child placement. Presents four categories of services--general case management, the comprehensive social worker, the in-house team, and the intraagency team--to aid families who demonstrate psychological difficulty and resource deficits. (Author/JAC)

This directory describes 241 non-governmental and governmental organizations, based in 40 sub-Saharan African countries, involved in early childhood care, development, and education. A useful information source for those working with and for children, the directory encourages and facilitates communication and information-sharing between…

Describes respite care, a temporary relief service for families with developmentally disabled members at home, as an essential element in preventing institutionalization of disabled persons. Major approaches for providing respite care are identified. The advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches are discussed. (Author/JAC)

Describes the activities of two Head Start programs, Murray Head Start in Murray, Kentucky, and Inn-Circle in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Both programs integrate families into wider communities, and bring community resources into their programs to better serve parents and children. Both programs illustrate how Head Start can become a community hub for…

Describes new services offered by the Community Action Agency of Franklin County, New York, after carefully listening to Head Start families. The agency now operates programs that successfully address problems Head Start families and other members of the community are having with housing, nutrition, domestic violence, and emergency assistance.…

Highlights a Beacon Colleges Grant-funded project conducted by six Oregon community colleges to foster interagency cooperation among social and welfare services, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations. Offers such guidelines for collaborative projects as focus on individual needs, foster independence from agency services, and…

Describes a caseload weighting system used by a voluntary child welfare agency which successfully increased caseworker-client contact and improved the quality of the delivery of child and family services. (BB)

Describes one community-based program designed to support and strengthen families with an identified problem of substance abuse. Discusses parents' progress in addressing their problems, reduction of risk in Project families, children's placement experience, and client satisfaction. Concludes with implications for practice with substance…

A Tucson, Arizona elementary school is one of 45 development sites for the Toyota Families in Schools Program, which brings in parents to learn alongside their children and in their own classrooms for 4 hours daily. Parents also receive vocational instruction aligned with local job opportunities. (MLH)

Provides impressionistic reflection of how human service agencies in San Jose, California have helped refugee families from war-torn Cambodia and Bosnia. Summarizes some of the lessons learned from working with refugee families. Notes that the experiences have influenced the capacity- building, empowering, and mentoring aspects of a new…

Describes the growth of Early Head Start (EHS) programs, focusing on one EHS partnership with child care providers in Delaware to serve infants, toddlers, and their families. Includes discussion of partnership strategies that promote quality programming, ways the early care and education coordinator supports child development, strategies for…

This article explores what it takes to prepare practitioners to work effectively in the infant-family field and describes efforts to meet training needs. A multifaceted effort to prepare and support practitioners who work with infants, toddlers, and families has been central to the growth of the infant-family field. Part C of IDEA and Early Head…

This article describes how in Alameda County, California, the Children's Hospital Oakland (CHAO) Neonatal Follow-up Program and the County Public Health Department have collaboratively addressed gaps in services for premature infants and their families through the Special Start initiative. Mental health specialists, health specialists, and…

The Center for Family Research has implemented the first family-community preventive intervention program designed specifically for rural African American families and youths. Basic information garnered during a decade of research in rural African American communities formed the theoretical and empirical foundations for the program, which focuses…