Since its establishment through the Smith-Lever Act, the Cooperative Extension Service has sought to use non-formal education programs centered on community needs to provide research-based information. However, the onset of the information age has transformed the way knowledge is shared and as a result altered the way people access information.…

This paper focuses on how the University of Michigan-Flint's Innovation Incubator supports emerging for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations through programming, business plan development, and ongoing mentorship. The Incubator is especially interested in supporting start-ups that address key social issues in the surrounding community,…

As numerous studies from 1906 on have confirmed, children lose ground in learning if they lack opportunities for building skills over the summer. Nonetheless, summer learning loss comes up but rarely in the national discussion of education reform. By the end of summer, students perform on average one month behind where they left off in the spring.…

Making Connections was the Annie E. Casey Foundation's signature place-based, community-change initiative of the 2000s. It sought to build on previous work and launch an effort focused firmly on the framework of family strengthening. The Foundation started Making Connections in 22 places, focusing eventually on first 10, then seven sites. It…

This monograph discusses the developmental stages of career education in Michigan, and describes eight local-level career education projects in the state. Some of the specific programs in operation in Michigan include: (1) a placement project which finds jobs for students and graduates of a vo-tec center; (2) a career-oriented curriculum project…

This guide provides information and guidelines to community college personnel who are administering and coordinating programs designed to prepare paraprofessionals to work with individuals with developmental disabilities in community settings. The guide is specifically for individuals managing the "Paraprofessional Curriculum for Community…

This packet of materials was created to help literacy professionals, social agencies, volunteers, and media representatives promote literacy efforts in Michigan, especially during Literacy Action Month (September). The materials can be used to support literacy in the community, in democracy, in the family, and in economic development. Items…

This paper recounts the Macomb-Oakland (Michigan) Regional Center's 17-year successful experience in eliminating institutional care for children with developmental disabilities (many of them with severe disabilities) and providing all such children with specialized foster home placements. A paper by the Center's director, Gerald Provencal,…

The proceedings at fifteen career education site visits are detailed in this phase 2 final report. (Phase 1, community organization mini-conferences, is described in CE 020 110.) Notes from these visitations cover such programs as career education centers, school system-based programs, and education-work councils. Several site-visit purposes are…

A group of three conference papers, all addressing the subject of effective programs to decrease the number of school dropouts, is presented in this document. The first paper, "Systemic Approaches to Reducing Dropouts" (Michael Timpane), asserts that dropping out is a symptom of failures in the social, economic, and educational systems.…