The American disability service system is predicated on underlying assumptions and beliefs which are dominant in the majority culture. Consequently, minority families, such as families from India, living in America sometimes experience dissonance with respect to the services provided to their family due to their varying cultural values. As such,…

"The Role of Risk: Mentoring Experiences and Outcomes for Youth with Varying Risk Profiles" presents findings from the first large-scale study to examine how the levels and types of risk youth face may influence their relationships with program-assigned mentors and the benefits they derive from these relationships. The study looked…

This paper describes an urban teacher residency program, the Newark Montclair Urban Teacher Residency, a collaborative endeavor between the Newark, New Jersey Public Schools and Montclair State University, built on a decades-long partnership. The authors see the conceptual work of developing this program as creating a "third space" in…

Prime Time Palm Beach County, Inc. is an organization dedicated to improving the availability and quality of afterschool programs in the county. During the 2007-2008 program year, Prime Time implemented a county-wide Quality Improvement System (QIS) that included program standards, an assessment process, and on-site technical assistance delivered…

Youth who are most vulnerable to challenging community conditions, more limited opportunities and poor health, educational and economic trajectories derive especially strong benefits from engagement in community youth development efforts (Gambone, Yu, et al. 2004). Like many community youth development efforts, the REACH Youth Program called upon…

Tuscaloosa, Alabama, created a prekindergarten program for at-risk children by bringing together the entire community. With donations and volunteer help, the city managed to fund 19 classrooms serving 275 children.

Person-centered planning is a well known and widely used approach to individual program planning in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities. Its purpose is to develop collaborative supports focused on community presence, community participation, positive relationships, respect, and competence. Because there is little research on…

The 2009 H1N1 influenza virus presented a major challenge to health departments, schools, and other community partners to effectively vaccinate large numbers of Americans, primarily children. The use of school-located vaccination (SLV) programs to address this challenge led health departments and schools to become creative in developing models for…

The early childhood community gives back. With the extreme generosity of the "Exchange" Makeover Project partners, Jewel's Learning Center, selected as the winner of the Center Makeover, will be awarded with new and innovative tools to help build an even stronger educational foundation for the children attending the center. Included will be new…

The authors examine GirlPOWER! an innovative program that uses structure and group-based activities to enhance one-to-one mentoring relationships for young adolescent girls from the perspective of the focus, purpose, and authorship dimensions of mentoring relationships that Karcher and Nakkula described. The discussion draws on several sources of…

Urban life comes with diverse social, environmental, health care, and education problems. However, for many of the people seeking better economic, social, and education opportunities, the big city still holds a special allure. Jazz singer Frank Sinatra sings in "New York, New York" that he wants to "wake up in a city that never…

Based on feedback from attendees at an environmental summit who requested information about regional water sources, a team comprised of a local nonprofit, a state university, and a cooperative extension office created a community water education program. Undergraduate student interns worked with the author to develop a 20-minute science-based…

In this article, the author highlights theoretical positions from the field of contemporary art that articulate the dialogical and relational aesthetic of contemporary socially-engaged art practices. To illustrate and examine the dimensions of such a social aesthetic in practice, the author shares the practice of Canadian artist, Julie Fiala,…

This article reports that for the opening of a huge new life-sciences building on its campus, Syracuse University wanted to capture the sense of expansiveness shared by architecture and science. It commissioned the composer Robert Ward to write a musical composition, "In Praise of Science," which was performed at the building's dedication late…

A university course project was developed and implemented in a biology course, focusing on environmental problems, to assess community awareness of childhood lead poisoning. A set of 385 questionnaires was generated and distributed in an urban community in North Carolina, USA. The completed questionnaires were sorted first into yes and no sets…