This project increased awareness about issues of violence to youth, their communities, and policy makers through the technique of photovoice and its translation into photo exhibitions and other community events. Youth participants learned photography skills, engaged in critical communal discussions about important issues affecting their health,…

The Join Together National Policy Panel presents five policies that can help communities reduce and prevent substance abuse. They are: (1) compel substance abuse treatment for criminal offenders; (2) ensure that every person who has an addiction gets treatment; (3) make substance abuse prevention an urgent priority in every community; (4) increase…

A policy panel of criminal justice experts proposed recommendations to help criminal justice systems become consistently integrated into a community response to substance abuse. The recommendations are: (1) repeal mandatory sentencing; (2) expand substance abuse treatment throughout the criminal justice system; (3) collaborate within the criminal…

The Center for Hispanic Policy, Research, and Development (New Jersey), formerly known as the Office of Hispanic Affairs, is celebrating its 20th anniversary. After two decades of service to the Hispanic community of New Jersey, it is appropriate to consider the historical evolution of the Center. This retrospective analysis documents and…

To assess the nature and importance of family support and education programs which have increased in number during the last decade, this prepared statement addresses three questions: (1) What is known about the ways in which context, defined as factors outside the nuclear family, affects a family's capacity to rear its children and build a…

Community advisory boards are now required for local public broadcasting in order to qualify for funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). This discussion identifies some management decisions common to all stations, explores alternative strategies and role prescriptions, and offers suggestions on operational details. (CMV)

Explores policy development in the area of youth violence prevention, using the experience of the California Violence Prevention Initiative, a five-year effort of community action programs, policy, and research, and leadership development. The interests that were served, and the interests that should be served, are discussed. (SLD)

Social capital is the glue that holds a community together. It is the network of relationships among persons that can be used to get things done. Social capital is a necessary, but not sufficient, ingredient of community building. A community must mobilize its social capital and the mechanisms of its infrastructure to face and resolve collective…

Join Together convened a panel of experts to review U.S. policies for addiction treatment and recovery. Although the panel reached an agreement on six recommendations for policy changes that can make help more accessible and expand treatment to more people. These recommendations are: (1) treatment for alcoholism and other drug addiction must be…

Suggests that the relationship between policy outputs and community power may be more fruitfully conceived as variable, depending on the type and characteristics of the policy in question. (Author/AM)

This serial issue summarizes findings from a survey of 20 state mental retardation and developmental disabilities agencies and 93 community based providers on developing and financing community services. The survey queried respondents concerning: (1) which models or strategies for financing community services have been most effective; (2) what…

The tremendous economic, cultural, and social changes that have taken place in the United States in the past 30 years have significantly altered family life. To meet the needs of families, communities and family structures have changed. For the past 10 years, the National Government has been redefining its role in relation to the family. While it…

This paper draws on the experience of various states in its discussion of questions, issues, and decisions that policymakers face as they plan their states' family support initiatives. The discussion is organized into three parts that correspond roughly with the stages of policy formation, program development, and program implementation and…

This report documents a study examining levels of literacy among 2,948 Canadian adults with a mental handicap. Chapter 1 examines different approaches to defining literacy and considers the relevance of these approaches to adults with a mental handicap. Chapter 2 identifies issues that arise in measuring levels of literacy and provides estimates…

The second in a two-part series, this volume presents 13 chapters discussing many of the most pressing cable policy issues facing local government, describing alternative policy options, and suggesting regulatory procedures successfully used by decision makers in the United States. Topics covered are (1) "The Rationale for Regulation,"…