Many counties of Western North Carolina have high levels of food insecurity that may be addressed by training communities to grow, prepare, and preserve their own food. A curriculum was developed and tested in 2016 at a Section 8 housing development in Polk County, NC. Research investigated successful community agriculture projects and assessed…

The Community Science Workshops (CSWs)--with funding from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation--created a network among the CSW sites in California. The goals of the CSW Network project have been to improve programs, build capacity throughout the Network, and establish new sites. Inverness Research has been…

Environmental education is a widespread, yet relatively unexamined strategy to reduce human-wildlife conflicts. We evaluated knowledge, attitudes and behavioral intentions toward bear conservation after five years of environmental education in a Quichua community. Conflicts with livestock predation created mixed attitudes and behaviors toward bear…

The impact of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is usually understood in relation to schools and districts, but the legislation has also affected community-based organizations that operate school-linked programs. This case study of an after-school program in California demonstrates how educational accountability systems that emphasize students' academic…

Coalitions have key roles in helping their communities accomplish the following: (1) Track the level of literacy in the community; (2) Use that information to help identify what, and how much, literacy assistance is needed; (3) Assess the extent to which community literacy programs are meeting the need, including how well existing literacy…

Examined effects of Smart Start, a broad-based community initiative, on the quality of child care for North Carolina preschoolers. Found that care quality, as measured by the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, was significantly higher in 1996 than in 1994. Child care quality in 1996 was related to the number of local quality improvement…

An independent evaluation of the VISTA program in two Baltimore, Maryland, schools describes the objectives and activities of this project funded by the Economic Opportunity Act. Assessment of the VISTA efforts was based on questionnaires completed by the 10 volunteers, and interviews with principals, teachers, guidance counselors, pupils, and…

A survey of directors of 61 Texas early intervention programs found that directors felt that program improvement should be the main reason for program evaluation efforts, that evaluating program goals and child progress are the most feasible strategies, and that evaluating program quality and family progress are the most difficult strategies. (DB)

In the present climate of public accountability, there is increasing demand to show "what works" and what return is gained for the public from investments to improve communities. This increasing demand for accountability is being met with growing confidence in the field of philanthropy during the past 10 years that the impact or effectiveness of…

The Iowa Adult Basic Education Assessment Study was conducted to document the qualities of excellence, accountability, and purpose that are present in Iowa's adult basic education (ABE) program. A six-step documentation procedure included creation of an ABE task force; submission of written assessment reports from ABE coordinators; development,…

The report contains the findings and recommendations of an evaluation of the Community Training Home program operated by the Connecticut Department of Mental Retardation. The section on background information provides details of the history of the program which currently provides foster care services for 478 people with mental retardation of which…

The 1987-1988 Project SPIRIT programs were evaluated for effectiveness from the points of view of the participants, both parents and children. An initiative of the Congress of National Black Churches that was begun in the summer of 1986, Project SPIRIT aims to nurture children's strength, perseverance, imagination, responsibility, integrity, and…

This report, along with its supplemental volumes, assesses the welfare system and its successes and failures, describes the frustrations felt by the poor in the United States, and proposes a basic change in public assistance policy. America's state and federal governments spend more than $150 billion a year on programs to alleviate poverty, yet…

This report provides an overview of the current welfare system. The number and size of federal public assistance programs have increased during the past 25 years, with particular growth in noncash benefit programs, which now constitute about three-quarters of all means-tested assistance. From mid-1983 to mid-1984, more than 52.5 million Americans…

Designed specifically for state and local managers and supervisors who plan, direct, and operate child support enforcement programs, this workbook provides a four-part, step-by-step process for identifying needed information and methods of using the information to operate an effective program. The process consists of: (1) determining what…