This report presents findings and recommendations resulting from the evaluation of programs implemented in 15 cities by the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. These programs were implemented to distribute variations on the "Weed and Seed" program and its provision of crime and drug prevention programs. The overall goal of Weed and Seed was…

The 12 chapters of this volume offer a comprehensive portrait of today's children and their challenging urban environments. The opportunities and obstacles that confront children are examined in detail, and key social problems are discussed in the following contributions: (1) "Growing Up in the Urban Environment: Opportunities and Obstacles for…

This book is an account of a study of racism among young people in the central and southern parts of the London (England) Borough of Greenwich. It builds upon an earlier study in the Thamemead area in seeking to understand the social basis of racist activity in order to design strategies to combat it. Greenwich is an area that has experienced…

This report highlights 11 family support programs that are serving one of the fastest growing groups in the United States--the Latino population. The programs described in this report differ from each other in terms of their structures and the types of families and communities served. They represent a range of geographic areas and vary in terms of…

This analysis of causes of poverty in the Watts section of Los Angeles (California) and other inner-city communities and of the effects of poverty on children considers exogenous factors that affect lives and behaviors, focusing on the situations of high school students. The first five chapters are arranged around issues cited by those who blame…

The National Center for Children in Poverty has recently conducted research on case management in service integration projects, with the core information coming from 16 projects for children around the country. This brief describes the training and experience that case managers bring to their jobs and receive on the job, how prepared they feel to…

Interviews with 209 African Americans in a number of United States cities are the basis for a discussion of the black middle-class experience. Although middle-class African Americans appear to have secured the promises of the American dream, conversations make it apparent that they have experienced discrimination and hatred from Whites. The…

The story of the Stop the Violence movement among rap music artists and music industry colleagues is told, along with the story of a video that was produced as part of this initiative. The Stop the Violence project grew out of the reaction to violence among concert goers at a 1987 rap concert on Long Island (New York). Rap musicians have joined…

It is argued that both economic concerns and political factors can be synthesized within a new framework to improve city policymaking. This approach is based on a systematic empirical study of policymaking in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) and Baltimore (Maryland) in the 1970s and early 1980s. Numerous government documents and extensive interviews with…

This document is intended to be a guide for action for people concerned about the youths who live alone on the streets of America without the nurturing, protection, and supervision of caring adults. It describes the varied activities, knowledge, and skills and outreach program needs to provide services to these youth who are living on the streets.…

In 1992 the Pew Partnership launched a national initiative aimed at discovering new knowledge about how citizens accomplish significant, lasting improvements in their communities. The Partnership chose smaller cities as the focus for this experimental effort, granting each of 14 cities up to $400,000 for a 3-year period. Eight of the cities later…

This handbook provides information about gangs for education professionals working with immigrants. As the introduction makes clear, gangs are one of the many problems that newly arrived immigrants face in their neighborhoods and at school in the United States. Following the introduction, the first section describes the types of gangs including…

This report examines homeless families, isolates similarities and differences between homeless and poor but stably-housed families, identifies paths along which families slide into homelessness, and recommends policy changes. The report uses a body of data collected in 1987-1988 on two groups of poor families in Los Angeles (California) half of…

This document addresses the difficulties of urban education, particularly relating to inner cities that contain immigrant and minority students, and argues that schools contribute to the problems of today's urban youth and that schools must do a better job of educating students. It recognizes that schools are burdened by the urban environment but…

A report on hate-crimes in the 1980s in Los Angeles County (California) found that these acts had increased in number. Hate crimes are defined as criminal acts directed at an individual, institution, or business expressly because of race, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation. Over the period 1980 to 1989, religiously motivated hate crimes…