Describes the evaluation of the Fighting Back initiative, in which communities across the country receive funding to combat alcohol and drug use. The evaluation has been designed to be responsive to national policy agendas and local community contextual differences so that it yields important insights at both levels. (Author/SLD)

Explores the ways in which shifting meanings of childhood and constructions of sexually abused children and the structuring of team practice pose problems for multidisciplinary team members. Argues that understanding child sexual abuse and developing community-based practice approaches must be informed by broader perspectives. Suggests a model of…

One Oregon community applies a set of community justice principles and philosophies that have produced tangible and successful programs to build community, reduce risk, and repair harm. Describes some of the county's community justice history and programs, including revamped victim assistance programs, victim-offender mediation, and a community…

Examines the ritualistic nature of community art, distinguishing elements and qualities essential for it to effectively generate private, organic relationships in settings where public independent relationships prevail. Research on two community art projects indicates that community art provides a ritual framework for social interaction by…

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of a tutoring intervention provided by community tutors to kindergarten students at risk for reading difficulties. The 73 students were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: (a) tutoring 4 days a week, (b) tutoring 2 days a week, or (c) a control condition that provided…

The Yellow School Bus Project (YSBP) was created to provide homeless children with the supplies and clothes they need to succeed in school and feel good about themselves. When given these gifts, they receive the explicit message that they are smart and worthwhile, the implicit message that there are people in the community who are invested in…

Nursing home programs committed to providing quality care need to investigate innovative ways to meet today's budget challenges. The purpose of this article is to describe a creative collaboration between a nonprofit nursing home facility and a suburban university. Through service-learning, undergraduate students planned and implemented…

In this article we describe an instance of free-choice learning in the context of an eelgrass mapping and stewardship project (the "Project") that covers over 500 kilometers of coastline in British Columbia, Canada, and involves 20 volunteer groups. In this ethnographic case study we sought to (a) explicate the relationship between…

In the small ex-mining village of Langold, North Nottinghamshire, no one could have predicted the disruption a discovery of bats would cause, halting building work on the new Sure Start centre in West Bassetlaw. Further uproar ensued when it became clear that re-housing the bats would be an expensive--and, for many, a pointless--exercise. At the…

How can educators ensure that a good parenting program continues to be offered in the community year after year? A project in Wisconsin illustrates one way to create this sustained commitment and funding. This project has worked well, has been fairly easy and inexpensive, and has even led to new opportunities for parenting education. The project…

This paper analyses a community theatre project initiated in 1991 in Ratones, a community in Southern Brazil. It began as an extension project of the State University of Santa Catarina and became an independent project coordinated by former participants, still in collaboration with the university. Aiming to evaluate the benefits of this theatre…

The Central Valley Partnership (CVP) was the centerpiece of the Civic Culture Program area of the James Irvine Foundation headquartered in San Francisco. Initiated in 1996 as a "partnership for citizenship," CVP had three objectives: (1) assisting and supporting immigrants seeking citizenship; (2) promoting active civic participation…

The "Colorado Children's Budget" presents and analyzes investments and spending trends during the past five state fiscal years on services that benefit children. The "Children's Budget" focuses mainly on state investment and spending, with some analysis of federal investments and spending to provide broader context of state…

A Pilot Project Proposal, presented to the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension Service, was carried on from June 15, 1970 to September 5, 1970. The proposal contained a design for an action research program to be conducted among black teen-age males of the South Park Area in Tucson, Arizona. The purpose of the project was to gather data…

An urban American university, Georgia Institute of Technology, established a campus-community coalition to reduce high risk drinking, its harms and second-hand effects among university students and residents of the Atlanta community. The Atlanta-based institution was part of a ten-year, ten-university project, A Matter of Degree (AMOD),…