The purpose of the study addressed in this article was to gather information from military service members and their teenage children attending Extension camping programs together. We used a pretest and a posttest to examine resilience of both groups and compared other postprogram youth outcome measures to a normative sample. We found…

Introduction: Anthony cautions that the training of teachers of students with visual impairments (i.e., blindness and low vision) and orientation and mobility (O&M) specialists covers a broad age range, which may result in limited curricular content essential for those who will work with very young children with visual impairments. The current…

In this dissertation, I examine how two major social programs in Kentucky--state-funded preK and Family Resource and Youth Service Centers--impact children's outcomes across the state, including racial, ethnic, and economic equity through elementary school. In each chapter, I will analyze how early childhood opportunities relate to outcomes…

Grandparents raising grandchildren represent a population of adults who confront complex interpersonal and environmental challenges. The intent of this case study was to gather and interpret evaluative data to better understand the impact of a 1-day community education program for grandparents who raise their grandchildren. Extension's philosophy…

"Free To Grow"--a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)--supported efforts by Head Start agencies and their community partners to strengthen the families and neighborhood environments of high-risk preschool children living in low-income communities. The goal was to reduce the children's vulnerability to substance…

As public health organizations continue to implement maternal and child health home-visitation programs, more evaluation of these efforts is needed, particularly as it relates to improving parental behaviors. The purpose of our study was to assess the impact of families' participation in a home-visitation program offered by a central Kentucky…

The purpose of this study was to conduct a "pilot participatory evaluation" of Every Child Succeeds (ECS), a well-established home visitation program in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, using Photovoice methodology. Every Child Succeeds serves first-time, at-risk mothers and their infants. Seven ECS mothers participated in the…

In March 2008, the National Early Childhood Transition Initiative released a document developed collaboratively over several months titled "Designing and Implementing Effective Early Childhood Transition Processes". The document was created as a resource for improving state and local performance on the State Performance Plans (SPP) and…

The Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) Preschool Programs is a comprehensive early childhood educational delivery system that provides developmentally appropriate practices to children, integrated services to families, and interdisciplinary and interagency collaboration among organizations serving young children in Kentucky. This report…

This study evaluated the degree and quality of program implementation and educational outcomes associated with Kentucky's Family Resource and Youth Service Center, a school-based family resource and support program which emphasized increased involvement of families of special needs students and the community with their schools. Twenty centers…

Literacy programs in the United States have taken either a preventive approach for children or a remediation approach for adults. A new approach, family literacy, involves both parents and children in literacy acquisition. The National Center for Family Literacy provides training and assistance to family literacy programs through a process called…

An evaluation was made of PACE (Parent and Child Education), a family literacy program initiated in Kentucky in 1986. PACE was created because of the widespread belief that the state has a serious problem with undereducation of its adult population and the belief also that this problem is the result of persistent patterns of educational failure…

This report outlines the national and state environmental context for the SECCS Initiative in supporting MCH strategic planning in early childhood systems building. This strategic context has implications for roles, relationships, and activities within a planning process and ultimately an implementation process. It summarizes the opportunities and…