This volume describes actual programs that are based on the idea that family connections are substantial resources for healing and recovery even when the family is a very troubled one. With a focus on severely damaged families, these programs attempt to keep children connected with their own families even when circumstances prevent their living…

The Student Literacy Corps of Fitchburg State College, Massachusetts, in cooperation with the surrounding community, implemented a successful literacy program whose primary goal was to nurture and develop literacy opportunities and awareness of cultural diversity for area youth and adults. College students (for whom this is an elective course)…

This book gathers facts about Hispanic families in the United States and describes the Intercultural Development Research Association's distilled experience involving families in their children's educations. Researchers conducted focused interviews with a variety of Hispanic parents, and asked a school administrator and a principal who have…

Noting the improvement in the quality of schools and education that occurs when parents are actively involved in their children's schools, this activity guide provides ways that parents can forge partnerships with schools on a variety of levels. Following an invitation from the United States Secretary of Education for parents to participate in the…

Corporate funding is now being used to invest in the improvement of community dependent care. This strategy benefits the firms by: (1) ensuring that employees will be absent from work less frequently due to childcare responsibilities; (2) providing a flexible strategy for meeting a variety of community needs; (3) improving community-firm…

In 1978 a complaint was filed by New Hampshire Legal Assistance against Laconia Developmental Services, New Hampshire's only public institution for children and adults with developmental disabilities. The decision from the Federal district court judge in August 1981 ordered the state to devise a plan for: institutional improvement; development of…

A study explored the experiences of four adult students who served on the board of The Learning Center, a community-based literacy program. The adult education literature touched on the challenges, benefits, and limitations of participatory practices, but the three were seldom juxtaposed, raising the question of whether the limitations equaled or…

This study is a follow-up to a 1990 needs assessment of American Indians with disabilities in the Denver (Colorado) region. The study involved a content analysis of transcripts of three focus group meetings of Project Advisory Committee (PAC) members, American Indians with disabilities, and service providers. Overall, PAC members and service…

This document uses interviews with 18 practitioners as the basis for an examination of the barriers to and promise of strategies intended to build effective, comprehensive, community-based service initiatives for children and families in a deregulated policy environment. Four major barriers are identified: (1) structural/legal barriers, reflected…

Many health and education practitioners agree that school-based violence prevention services can counteract the negative effects of violence by offering children access to mental health care. The lessons learned at three sites that implemented such programs in various schools are reported here. Although the sample of sites was small and diverse,…

A study investigated the perceptions of 78 special education teachers in Ohio about the implementation of a community-based, functional curriculum for students with severe disabilities. Teachers responded to a survey on their beliefs, perceptions about educational outcomes, levels of state and local support from educational agencies, how parents…

The second in a series on service-learning in the community college, this monograph presents 14 essays by community college faculty, chronicling their experiences in developing service-learning activities. Following two introductory essays describing the current status of service-learning and the purpose and organization of the monograph, the…

This document contains a project report and tutor manual from a demonstration project conducted by the Fayette County Community Action Agency (FCCAA) of Fayette County, Pennsylvania to evaluate the effectiveness of using computers and selected reading software in conjunction with traditional one-on-one tutoring to teach reading skills to…

This report presents information and opinions advocating for school-based health centers. Each section starts with a brief introduction and follows with quotations from leaders in the field. The leaders whose thoughts are captured here believe school-based health centers are part of the solution to increasing childhood and adolescent health…

This Program Focus discusses the strategies of the Beacon Community Center Program (the Beacons), the history of its crime prevention programs, and general operations. It focuses on the activities of one particular program, Red Hook in Brooklyn (New York City), before analyzing the Beacons' potential for preventing crime. A core concept of the…