Openness and accessibility were once the hallmarks of U.S. public schools. Civic and governmental agencies held meetings in the schools, and families and community groups came together at schools their children attended. Now that 75 percent of all taxpayers have no children in school, it is essential that school districts stop overprotecting…

Discusses roles of school counselor in outreach, advocacy, and consultation. Presents intervention model which includes three levels of identification across six categories of situations and conditions. Concludes that, as counselors become more comfortable with multidimensional roles, their effectiveness will expand. (ABL)

Describes plans for Community Outreach Education Program (COEP), designed to provide educational interventions to disseminate information about diagnoses, assessment, management, and treatment of dementia to health care professionals, service providers, staff or volunteer and community agencies, and family members. Describes plans within context…

Financially strapped elementary schools can explore some community resources to enrich arts programs, including college or university arts presenters, local arts council, local cultural organization, state arts agency, and regional arts organization. Schools should also consider local people trained in some aspect of arts: architects, furniture…

Describes outreach service in rehabilitation hospital through which volunteers with previous amputations visited patients with recent amputations, acting as role models and offering emotional support and information. Notes that patients who were visited had strong positive responses to the program, and identified critical components of the…

Assessed self-esteem among homeless people (n=61). Found associations between low self-esteem and depression, family relationships, goal attainment, disability, health, and food deprivation. Findings suggest that depression and poor health are two most significant variables contributing to low self-esteem. (Author/NB)

The Ulster People's College is a community education center committed to radical social change and individual and collective growth. Its major concerns are assisting with social and economic problems and studying and bridging cultural and political divisions through an antisectarian approach. (SK)

Although new Widening Participation initiatives are promising for increased access to higher education in Britain, such policy initiatives tend to reinvent the wheel. A distinctive, radical vision is needed that places the university at the center of social renewal in excluded communities. (SK)

Reports on efforts at several universities to encourage more male students to use student health services, including establishment of male-only health clinics. Programs at the University of Colorado (Boulder), San Francisco State University (California), University of Rochester (New York), and Tulane University (Louisiana) are noted. (DB)

Article summarizes information on the prevalence of self-destructive behaviors and includes risk and protective factors. Describes the effectiveness of existing prevention programs. Proposes a coordinated, resilience-building prevention strategy which addresses generic and domain-specific knowledge and skills. (Author/JDM)

Focus group and survey results were used to create a continuing education outreach program in gerontology. The model includes aging knowledge and interpersonal and organizational skills. Core areas included the structure, contexts, theories, and concepts of aging; stability and change; ethics; scholarship; and practice. (SK)

Describes both past and more recent efforts by the California State University (CSU) system to come to terms with "remediation." Describes recently mandated collaborations between high school language arts faculty and CSU English faculty to reduce the need for remediation. Describes an ongoing outreach program addressing the needs of…

Supporting parental-involvement research findings, Congress in 1995 appropriated $10 million to fund 28 parent information and resource centers in 27 states and Washington, D.C. In 1999, 58 more were funded. Centers communicate personably with parents via newsletters, referral networks, websites, cable TV, and toll-free numbers. (MLH)

Explores initiatives by the University of Newcastle in Australia to facilitate participation and success of people from disadvantaged backgrounds, including low socioeconomic-status families, indigenous Australians, people with disabilities, people from rural and isolated communities, women in non-traditional fields, and young and older people who…

Highlights changes in the Catholic church over the past few decades that have broadened Catholic culture and made it more ambiguous for young Catholics. Describes ways to reach out to youth and involve them in social projects, volunteer ministries, religion teaching, nursing home visits, parish councils, choirs, and liturgical functions. (MAB)