After-school programs (ASP) are a long-standing activity historically facilitated by organizations such as the YMCA, Boys and Girls Club, social service/community centers and, in the past decade, an increasing number of municipal park districts. Staffing usually consist of recreation professionals, social and youth workers, and volunteers. In…

Discusses ways in which a community-based program evaluation can be enhanced by using a screening tool to delineate the program's evaluative needs, resources, and commitments. Describes use of the Evaluation Pre-Screening Tool and reports on some examples of successful use. (SLD)

A merger of school and community programs provides a more comprehensive and realistic approach to health education. (LH)

This report describes the history and content of a 4-year research effort on the status of programs for promoting physical fitness and exercise. Two phases of the research work are covered. Discussion on Phase One, initial assessment and design, includes: (1) identification of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports programs; (2)…

This planning guide is designed to help communities answer important questions about programs to address youth violence, including finding out the types of programs that are effective and learning how to implement them. The guide is divided into four sections. Section 1, "Key Facts about Youth Violence," presents key facts about youth violence…

This is a call for community psychologists to engage in research, consultation, and program development and evaluation in supporting military families and communities. Barriers to such involvement are identified and discussed. It is argued that the needs of military families and communities cannot be ignored when military and civilian communities…

Continual monitoring of the community is required if community colleges wish to offer meaningful community-based programs. The college must also constantly evaluate the extent to which it achieves its community program objectives. (JDS)

The Wisconsin Child Care Improvement Project's (WCCIP) community-based approach to building child care capacity is described in this document. The WCCIP assists Wisconsin communities in their efforts to increase the availability and accessibility of quality child care. The work provides a rationale and identifies needed resources and information.…

A guide for college and university educators who manage service-learning programs, or programs that support student involvement in the community, is presented. A systematic approach to planning and managing service-learning programs is presented, management functions for supporting a service-learning system are identified, and ideas on…

This manual was intended to help community leaders plan and conduct consumer education workshops. The content is in twelve sections as follows: (1) covers the need for consumer education and several consumer education definitions; (2) presents some possible workshop topics; (3) describes methods that can be used to ascertain the consumers' needs,…

The needs assessment process is broken down into nine steps: (1) identifying community leaders; (2) defining assessment terms; (3) developing areas of concern; (4) conducting the assessment; (5) data analysis; (6) prioritizing; (7) analysis of probable success in meeting needs; (8) planning the program; and (9) evaluation. Surveys are discussed,…

Describes a community needs assessment process that moved community decision makers into action. The needs assessment was conducted jointly by program development staff members from the office of continuing education and public service at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and by members of a small rural community. (CT)

Current approaches to need assessment belong to one of three theoretical orientations: the rationalistic perspective in which need is predicated on the existence of some pathology or deviance from the rational ideal; (2) the empirical position where need is conceived as deviance from a normative or observed state of good health and well-being; and…

Evaluation research, if appropriately matched to a human service program's stage of development, can help inform the decision making at each step. The developmental stages of a program, questions to be answered at each stage, and kinds of research activities pertinent to such questions are discussed. (TJH)

This program plan for 1993 covers all Idaho community rehabilitation programs served by the Idaho Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (IDVR) and the Idaho Commission for the Blind (ICB), and attempts to assess client and rehabilitation service provider needs, to plan for program development, to identify needed changes, and to evaluate the…