The recent movement to integrate social services into schools to serve at-risk students is hampered by the proliferation of highly specialized human services. Each had different organizational approaches, one bureaucratic and the other communal. A study examined the Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools' (CORS) data on 24…

In-depth interviews were conducted with early childhood teachers and parents in two counties with similar characteristics in Sweden and the United States. Inductive analyses revealed differences in responses between informants at the macro-, meso-, and micro-levels. At the macro-level were considerations of overall societal issues and general…

This guide presents a framework that identifies what a home, school, and community partnership can do to help families thrive as they experience change and their young children grow. The guide explains how connections among home, school, and community enable families to move from setting to setting with ease and build on their previous experience.…

This paper provides 1- to 6-page fact sheets on 15 programs administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families. Each fact sheet provides information on program services and funding. The fact sheets cover the following programs: Youth Gang Drug Prevention, Refugee Assistance, Runaway and…

Home visits are becoming an important part of family education and support programs such as Even Start. Over time, the objectives of home visits have shifted from a deficit model, which was aimed solely at solving problems, to an empowerment model, which focuses on ameliorating conditions which lead to familial problems. The empowerment model…

This annotated bibliography lists books, papers, reports, and articles of interest to integrated service providers and higher education interprofessional programs providing health, educational, and social services for at-risk children, youth, and their families. The material is divided into six parts: in the first part, 19 entries describe…

This report summarizes the work of Minnesota's Legislative Commission on Children, Youth, and Their Families (LCCYF). The commission was established in 1991 to study state policy and legislation affecting children and their families, and to make recommendations to promote the present and future well-being of these groups. The report begins with an…

This policy brief reports on a study of how families and agencies cope with growing waiting periods for community services for adults who have mental retardation or developmental disabilities (MR/DD). Preliminary information looks at reasons for long waits, characteristics of families waiting for services, and impact of adult members with MR/DD on…

This guide describes the status of selected family resource programs in the United States and Canada. The first chapter provides detailed descriptions of 13 programs that offer collaborative and comprehensive services. These programs, which are often large and innovative, foster coalitions of service providers in order to offer an extensive range…

This report describes the relationship between comprehensive prenatal care services and healthy babies, and examines the inclusion of social support services with medical care for women at-risk of problem pregnancies and unhealthy babies. The report notes that the United States trails many countries in indicators of maternal and child health. In…

A study on family structure and values among the poorest of all welfare recipients, homeless families found that not only has the traditional family structure broken down, but that there are stark contradictions between the reality of the lives of homeless women and the values they hold. The traditional family may actually be obsolete for this…

Programs that attempt to keep children from turning to crime are described following an introduction by Senator Joseph Biden that considers the scope of the problem of juvenile crime and possible solutions to the problems of youth violence. Catalogued are 192 ways in which communities are reaching out to children. The programs listed vary in size,…

In preparation for new federal legislation that promotes unprecedented levels of comprehensive planning and service integration at state and local levels, an analysis of state issues relevant to comprehensive service delivery is necessary. This paper examines such state issues, with a focus on Arizona's at-risk population, and presents a framework…

Extensive information is provided about the various cultural elements, including attitudes toward education and work, that different family groups have drawn on in order to exist in the United States today. The family ethnicities of five distinct cultures (Native American, African American, Mexican American and Spanish origin, Muslim American, and…

This report presents the recommendations of the Coordination of Social Services Action Group (CSSAG) to the governor of Illinois for the improvement of social services for children and parents within the state. Because of financial constraints, ways to develop a more efficient and effective social service delivery system must be found. To this…