A diverse community, combined with a school division lacking independent taxing authority, led Fairfax County (Maryland) Public Schools to public participation in the budget process. Steps involved developing an objective, identifying the audience, establishing formats (surveys, focus groups, and voice polls), developing a timeline, and reporting…

Proposes a radical reorientation of American universities toward helping solve real-world problems--particularly those in a university's local community. Argues that such an orientation can be achieved through communal participatory action-research projects designed to advance general knowledge and human welfare. Describes a University of…

Clarity of purpose in a career guidance program requires mutual respect, trust, and commitment from all players. Involvement of the entire community--parents, administrators, teachers, students, business, industry, labor, and community agencies--is most effective if each player has a sense of ownership of a piece of the whole. (SK)

Offers a framework for developing school publications that interest and inform the public. Suggestions include sending a consistent, simple message, knowing your audience, and involving the community. Provides recommendations for a distribution schedule, kinds of publications, and going online. (LMI)

Discussion of theories of facilitation in teaching focuses on citizen participation and the role of the facilitator in town planning. Highlights include hierarchies of learning; student-centered learning; facilitating community participation; information technology skills and interpersonal skills; and a rationale for participation. (LRW)

The annual Women's and Girls' Tea Party and Storytelling Ceremony is held in a Berkeley redwood grove by a creek. Seeking to generate community support for creek restoration, the ceremony/celebration/site-specific performance piece uses childhood rituals and story telling to help participants connect emotionally to each other, the place, its past,…

The founder of Bread and Puppet Theater discusses the use of puppetry and theater arts to build community, educate the public about environmental and sociopolitical issues, and provide a setting for group consciousness raising; grassroots reclaiming of art as part of everyday life; and ceremony as a powerful element of performance and as part of…

The Ontario Teachers' Federation is hosting forums where community members talk in small groups with teacher facilitators about positive ways to improve education. For many community participants, it is the first time their views have been sought. Given the opportunity to discuss public education in a nonconfrontational way, participants have…

Describes how a discussion of "The Diary of Anne Frank" moved a class to intense discussion. Discusses how the books, and stories, and poems are invitations to a passionate engagement with human experience. Considers literature as the invitation to a dialogue, to intellectual inquiry, to tell one's own story, to participate in a society and the…

A workshop brought together scientists, community organization members, and agency representatives to review community-based research on the environmental health risks of pesticide exposure for migrant farmworkers; to share appropriate, successful community-based research methods and models; and to determine future research directions and needs…

Provides an overview of the Comprehensive Guidance and Counseling Program in the Beechville-Lakeside-Timberlea Community. Focuses on program development, including the needs assessment and description of programs designed to meet specific needs of students, program evaluation, staff training, and community involvement. Illustrates how the program…

Suggests four methods for implementing a successful library planning process, based on experiences at the Anaheim (California) Public Library. Highlights include maximizing the level of public input; engaging staff at all levels in all stages of the process; assessing all input critically; and proper use in decision making. (Author/LRW)

Although policymakers, courts, and advocacy groups have raised awareness of bilingual education, there is a gap between the remedial model and grassroots community views of bilingual education as enrichment. Support for bilingual education must be recontextualized as a strategy for education reform with leadership from language-minority persons.…

Investigated the social origins of black physicians from poor, rural, southern communities, examining contextual factors that helped explain their great academic and professional success as young adults. Argues that it was the community that identified and nurtured these gifted children, thus making it possible for them to attend college and…

This article describes a participatory action research (PAR) project designed to evaluate Parent to Parent programs in five states. The process of developing a shared understanding of the program and of the purpose for evaluating them, along with an on-going willingness of parents and researchers to compromise, led to creative solutions to…