Decentralisation is often expected to improve democratic participation and empowerment, and improve government responsiveness to local needs. International experience demonstrates that striking the right balance between centralisation and decentralisation remains highly challenging, and that developing appropriate institutional capacity to…

Problem: After the Soviet Union dissolved in 1989, it became apparent that there was little recognition of the problems of child abuse and neglect, professionally, legally, or societally. There were no effective systems or laws in place to deal with these problems. Method: Beginning in 1995 the Children's Mental Health Alliance, in conjunction…

This investigation provides a model for at-risk youth community agencies to tailor their programs to fit the specific needs of their local out-of-school youth. Using a needs-based assessment, baseline data were gathered on Cleveland African Americans (N = 187) to pinpoint academic strengths and deficits, career interests, and life-skill needs. The…

Volunteers monitor watershed health in more than 700 programs in the US, involving over 400,000 local stakeholders. New Mexico Watershed Watch is a student-based watershed monitoring program sponsored by the state's Department of Game and Fish which provides high school teachers and students with instruction on methods for water quality…

In the wake of the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act, localities across the United States initiated public information campaigns both to raise awareness of threats to air quality and to change behavior related to air pollution by recommending specific behavioral changes in the campaign messages. These campaigns are designed to reduce the health…

Sacred and cultural geography is a universal feature of indigenous religious practices across Native North America. However, in a growing number of cases, conflicts have developed between Native North American religious practitioners and land-managing federal agencies. The contentious situations often come down to Indian peoples struggling to…

This paper presents guidelines for establishing a QuestionPoint collaborative virtual reference partnership between academic libraries in Australia/New Zealand and the US. These guidelines reflect the practices of the state-of-the-art collaborative QuestionPoint partnership, "AskASERL" as well as the unofficial standards and guidelines…

This document represents the annual report card of the U.S. Department of Education's efforts and outcomes during fiscal year 2007. This year's report builds on efforts to increase transparency, and more effectively communicate goals and objectives. The report emphasizes achievements and challenges associated with implementing the Department of…

Community-academic partnership research is a fairly new genre of community-based participatory research. It has arisen in part, from recognition of the potential role of alliances in the development and translation of applied knowledge and the elimination of health disparities. This paper reports on the learning process of academic and community…

This report presents the findings of the Arizona Indicators Panel, a statewide representative sample of Arizonans conducted in May and July 2008. Arizonans think best of local hospitals and community parks among a group of government and community services. While they did not think particularly well of the responsiveness of local governments' to…

The Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) is the nation's oldest and largest membership-based child welfare organization committed to engaging people everywhere in promoting the well-being of children, youth, and their families and protecting every child from harm. By publishing a diverse range of views on a wide array of topics, "Children's…

Every year, millions of high school graduates seek ways to finance the rising costs of a college education, at times falling prey to scholarship and financial aid scams. To help students and their families, on November 5, 2000, Congress passed the College Scholarship Fraud Prevention Act of 2000 (Act) to establish stricter sentencing guidelines…

To provide information on subjects of concern to those in planning, management, and delivery of human services, this journal presents 149 abstracts from literature in the human services field. The journal is divided into five parts: the abstracts themselves, arranged in alphabetical order by title, with bibliographic and availability information;…

This Congressional report contains the testimony and documents presented for the record of the first of two hearings to gather testimony on the effects of welfare reform and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. The oral and written testimony focuses on TANF legislation's outcomes and impact on work and families in…

The Comptroller General of the United States testified before Congress regarding the General Accounting Office's (GAO's) framework for building the information technology (IT) work force to achieve results. The following were among the key points of his testimony: (1) the federal government is facing pervasive human capital challenges that are…