The last decade has seen an explosion of interest in "youth development" as both a policy and a community approach to helping children achieve healthy outcomes as young adults. Despite the success of frameworks which have shifted the focus from intervening with teenagers who exhibited "high risk" behaviors to improving developmental outcomes as…

This supplement summarizes the National Commission on Excellence in Education's final report "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform" and offers guidelines for citizens interested in forming their own commission on excellence. Resource organizations and publications for local commissions are listed. Theses and recommendations of…

This guide accompanies Join Together's recommendations for drug and alcohol abuse prevention for policymakers and communities. It presents strategic examples of how major institutions and residents in communities have paid attention to substance abuse and worked to overcome its effects. Part 1 contains the recommendations and key policies…

This booklet was created to help communities (especially in Minnesota) to build community partnerships through community education. Such partnerships are needed in order to identify and meet community needs that are no longer being addressed by the Federal Government. The booklet is organized in three sections. The first section outlines the need…

While much of the drinking water in the United States is safe for consumption, protecting its quality and assuring its availability are becoming increasingly difficult. This booklet is written for individuals and groups who are concerned about the drinking water in their communities. It provides a general introduction to the complex issues of…

This document explains how to establish study circles for public dialogue and community problem solving with the aim of building strong neighborhoods. The foreword explains the value of study circles in addressing the challenges currently facing all kinds of neighborhoods and presents 10 specific guidelines for organizing study circles in a…

This document is a step-by-step guide to organizing a study circle program to serve as a vehicle to achieve communitywide dialogue for action and change. Part 1 provides an overview of communitywide study circle programs, with special emphasis on their operation and impact. Part 2 details the following steps in organizing a communitywide study…