Citizenship is an important part of the development of young people. By enabling them to learn about their rights and responsibilities, to understand how society works, and develop knowledge and understanding of social and political issues, citizenship prepares them for dealing with the challenges they face in life. Through citizenship, young…

This report describes the best practices identified by eight projects in upstate New York funded to work towards increasing the number of individuals with developmental disabilities who serve in leadership roles on policy boards and planning committees of community agencies and organizations. Programs were based on the model developed by…

Citizen involvement in the public decision-making process can be facilitated if appropriate forms and functions of involvement are used. The issue cycle, which can help public officials to ensure that citizens have constructive and timely input into the decision-making process, involves awareness of some condition in the community; community…

Although parents and citizens in each community should be encouraged to participate in the educational policy-making process, it has been shown that public access to school board meetings is thwarted in many subtle ways. To gain information that would help to balance the interests of privacy and public access in every school district, the State…

This Caribbean Regional Workshop was organized to bring together representatives of private, voluntary, and community development organizations, governmental agencies, and other non-governmental organizations in the Eastern Caribbean who were concerned with environmental quality. The conference was intended to improve the level of citizen…

As a means of encouraging the formation of school-sponsored, citizen advisory committees, the Illinois Citizens Education Council embarked on a 3-year research and development project. This publication describes this project and thereby serves as a guide for organizing and using citizens' education advisory committees. Specific objectives of the…

Because most decisions that affect quality of schools are made in the community, citizens should become school partners in education. This booklet offers the following suggestions for citizen actions: (1) Get informed. As "owners" of the local school board, citizens have a right to know what students are expected to learn. Individuals should…

The 3-year Citizen Leadership Program was designed to develop citizen-directed planning in Wisconsin. The first year focused on citizen involvement in land use planning; the second year, on community goal setting; and the third year, on community development projects. A representative group of 30 citizens participated in the program's workshops…

This study examines past and present public issue forums and their role in the United States political system. The first chapter describes traditional forms of the public forum such as town meetings, neighborhood societies, lyceums, university extension programs, and settlement house networks. Analyzed next are the content, organization, and…