Describes Cheney's successful use of volunteers in parks and recreation programs. They raised funds, worked for park maintenance and improvement, and organized sports programs and special events. Reports survey results from Washington communities on voluntary efforts of fraternal and social organizations, businesses, and senior and youth groups.…

Objectives: To present a framework for classifying research-practice gaps to increase clarity in the discourse on evidence-informed practice and policy as it applies to child mental health. Method: The development of the framework was informed by the research literature about the effectiveness of clinic- and community-based interventions for the…

This article describes how the Visiting Moms Program in Chelsea, Massachusetts, has taken the paraprofessional model one step further to respond to the needs of refugee and immigrant new mothers, by employing paraprofessional home visitors who are also immigrants or refugees themselves from countries in Central America, South America, and…

Many young people in the District of Columbia are failing to make a successful transition to adulthood. Their challenges include poor preparation for the high-skills labor market and long-standing health problems. Recent District government efforts have centered around school reform and early childhood, but these areas are not sufficient to…

Six Aboriginal languages have been designated as official languages of the Northwest Territories (Canada) along with English and French. However, more than legislation is needed to support efforts to reclaim Aboriginal languages and culture. Both missionary schools and federally administered public schools (1940s-60s) disrupted the transmission of…

This first annual report of Minnesota KIDS COUNT focuses on key indicators of children's well-being and details the condition of children in each of Minnesota's 87 counties. Minnesota KIDS COUNT--as part of a campaign by Children's Defense Fund-Minnesota and Congregations Concerned for Children to end child poverty in Minnesota--collects,…

This volume describes actual programs that are based on the idea that family connections are substantial resources for healing and recovery even when the family is a very troubled one. With a focus on severely damaged families, these programs attempt to keep children connected with their own families even when circumstances prevent their living…

The Student Literacy Corps of Fitchburg State College, Massachusetts, in cooperation with the surrounding community, implemented a successful literacy program whose primary goal was to nurture and develop literacy opportunities and awareness of cultural diversity for area youth and adults. College students (for whom this is an elective course)…

This book gathers facts about Hispanic families in the United States and describes the Intercultural Development Research Association's distilled experience involving families in their children's educations. Researchers conducted focused interviews with a variety of Hispanic parents, and asked a school administrator and a principal who have…

Noting the improvement in the quality of schools and education that occurs when parents are actively involved in their children's schools, this activity guide provides ways that parents can forge partnerships with schools on a variety of levels. Following an invitation from the United States Secretary of Education for parents to participate in the…

Corporate funding is now being used to invest in the improvement of community dependent care. This strategy benefits the firms by: (1) ensuring that employees will be absent from work less frequently due to childcare responsibilities; (2) providing a flexible strategy for meeting a variety of community needs; (3) improving community-firm…

In 1978 a complaint was filed by New Hampshire Legal Assistance against Laconia Developmental Services, New Hampshire's only public institution for children and adults with developmental disabilities. The decision from the Federal district court judge in August 1981 ordered the state to devise a plan for: institutional improvement; development of…

A study explored the experiences of four adult students who served on the board of The Learning Center, a community-based literacy program. The adult education literature touched on the challenges, benefits, and limitations of participatory practices, but the three were seldom juxtaposed, raising the question of whether the limitations equaled or…

This study is a follow-up to a 1990 needs assessment of American Indians with disabilities in the Denver (Colorado) region. The study involved a content analysis of transcripts of three focus group meetings of Project Advisory Committee (PAC) members, American Indians with disabilities, and service providers. Overall, PAC members and service…

This document uses interviews with 18 practitioners as the basis for an examination of the barriers to and promise of strategies intended to build effective, comprehensive, community-based service initiatives for children and families in a deregulated policy environment. Four major barriers are identified: (1) structural/legal barriers, reflected…