Discusses the problems of public policy responses to the AIDS epidemic in relation to a number of recent research reports and analyses. Suggests that effective policy will be increasingly difficult to formulate as AIDS becomes focused in the Black and Hispanic ghettos. (FMW)

Presents responses from local health officers in 237 northeastern and midwestern small to medium-sized cities about their priorities for promoting health through prevention. Improving HIV and AIDS prevention, improving maternal and infant health, reducing sexually transmitted diseases, reducing violence and abusive behavior, and increasing…

Lack of self-esteem is the root of many social problems. The California Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility has made several recommendations to promote self-esteem as a social vaccine against the problems besetting minority and urban families. (SLD)

Reviews the descriptive empirical literature on homeless women, using a theoretical perspective on stress. Finds that homelessness is highly stressful, and examines the sources and mediators of homelessness. Suggests that more is known about the risk factors than about the mediating factors that may decrease the stressful circumstances' impact.…

Reviews statistics on youth gangs and gang violence. Discusses the socioeconomic and psychological causes of gangs and gang membership. Describes "Making the Right Connection," a gang prevention program in inner-city Catholic schools in Los Angeles, utilizing a curriculum focusing on self-esteem, personal responsibility, value formation,…

Argues that urban decay has created a set of conditions that not only promote the spread of the AIDS virus but also form part of a pattern threatening the health and welfare of all African Americans. Urges an AIDS education and prevention strategy for the survival of the Black community. (AF)

Profiles school crime and student safety in the United States as the first in a series of annual reports produced jointly by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Center for Education Statistics. Includes data on student and teacher victimization, school crime and violence, violent deaths at school, and school environment. (Author)

This ethnographic study of 50 male African-American gang members constructs a portrait of the culture in which these young men lived and points out factors that helped 11 of them begin to escape gang life, in contrast to the other 39 who lacked these supporting factors of families, teachers, and peers. (SLD)

Solving many current urban problems requires reinventing the American university so it becomes a humanistic, morally inspired, civic institution with an inclination and ability to help America become just and fair for all. The article discusses educational reform similar to Benjamin Franklin's original plan for the University of Pennsylvania. (SM)

Examines features of residential segregation in five mixed Arab-Jewish cities in Israel and the role of ideology and state politics among the charter group (Jewish) as a dominant factor in this social process. Findings reveal all five cities exhibit high indices of segregation and hypersegregation--a situation of neighbors without neighborly…

Camden, New Jersey, a city of 80,000 located directly across the Delaware River from center-city Philadelphia, is, by any index of urban decay, one of the nation's most distressed urban centers. While severely ineffective, the city houses the essential building blocks of future recovery: branches of four colleges and universities and two major…

The Quantum Opportunities Project (QOP) was a multisite youth development demonstration project funded by the Ford Foundation in San Antonio (Texas), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Milwaukee (Wisconsin), Saginaw (Michigan), and Oklahoma City (Oklahoma). The programs, organized around educational activities, guaranteed up to 250 hours of education,…

This essay with photographs describes the experiences of two runaways, examining why they left home and how they found help. Although runaways have a reputation for being irresponsible, they usually have good reasons for leaving home. The nun who ran Noah's Ark, where both the runaways featured found shelter and help, estimated that only about two…

Successful principals of urban schools are able to understand the interactions between the city school and its environment and are able to take advantage of the array of urban resources, buffer the school and its students from some negative environmental influences, and provide services that help offset negative factors. Against a backdrop of…

The contributions in this volume grew out of a conference at the University of Minnesota in the fall of 1989. They examine issues that promote a longer range perspective on preventing disabling conditions and intervening early in the lives of children with disabilities. The range of preventable disabling conditions, perinatal influences on…