Families First, an early intervention program implemented in Marin City, California, was designed to integrate and coordinate the provision of a wide range of services to families of children in a low-income, mostly African-American community, from the third trimester of pregnancy to 8 years of age. The program is intended to enhance the…

Contributions to this collection emphasize pragmatic approaches to community health problems and focus on the health needs of ethnic minority children. The following papers are included: (1) "Introduction" (Kedar Nath Dwivedi); (2) "Culture and Personality" (Kedar Nath Dwivedi); (3)"The Immigrant (West Indian) Child in School" (Waveney Bushell);…

This guide for managers of programs for people with developmental disabilities outlines key principles and issues in the decision-making process, and offers tips for building coalitions and negotiating the interests of consumers, families, board members, employees, and community leaders. Ten to 25 guidelines are offered for each of six…

Intended for professionals working with people with mental retardation and their families, this manual begins with a summary of the principles and philosophy concerning family participation and agency responsibilities of the South Carolina Department of Mental Retardation (DMR). The importance of family involvement in determining the least…

A critical element in South Carolina's Early Childhood Development and Academic Assistance Act is the parenting and family literacy component that targets families of children aged birth to 5 years, with a special emphasis on serving parents and families of children at risk for school failure. This manual offers guidelines for developing parenting…

Institutions have been slow to respond to changes in family life, and service delivery has mostly been limited to responding to crises and to treating problems. Family resource and support programs began emerging in the 1970s to fill parents' expressed need for more support. As part of this trend, the federal Family Preservation and Support…

This manual was designed to provide school administrators, counselors, teachers, parent groups, and community members with a comprehensive school-based program for preventing alcohol problems. Detection and intervention before the onset of alcohol and drug problems is stressed. Modeled after employees' assistance programs used to identify and aid…

This curriculum is designed for parents and adolescents participating together in a program for parents who wish to be the primary sexuality educators of their children. The curriculum consists of units on: (1) exploring and understanding one's own sexuality; (2) adolescent sexuality; (3) sexuality in the home; (4) values; and (5) communication…

Fifty strategies developed and used over the past 20 years in school districts throughout New York and California for meeting the needs of single parent families are identified in this brief listing. A single descriptive line is devoted to each of the strategies, which are grouped into seven categories: curriculum/instruction, general, parent…

The manual discusses home based approaches to support families of developmentally disabled children. The first section presents in question and answer format the rationale for such support services. Succeeding sections address the following aspects: respite care, sitter/companion services; parent counseling, education, and training; in home…

Traditional mental health approaches for serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders often fail to yield successful results. However, one method, Multisystemic Therapy (MST), which represents a departure from traditional treatment strategies, is described. MST was designed to provide communities with affordable and effective remedies for…

This kit is a tool for enabling communities to work together to motivate children and families to make food choices for healthy diets. Team Nutrition is the implementation tool for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's School Meals Initiative for Healthy Children. Its goal is to empower schools to serve healthy meals and motivate students to make…

Shifting to results-based accountability is a difficult stage in reforming family and children's services. Heretofore, these services have been more concerned with the number of clients seen or papers processed than in their clients' quality of life. This document should help communities find the data they need to measure qualitative outcomes. It…

Sustainability is a critical issue for the vast array of community initiatives that promote healthy children, strong families, and safe communities. Noting that sustaining an initiative over time requires maintaining sufficient fiscal resources as well as a combination of nonfiscal resources from the initiative itself and the broader community,…

This article confronts concerns in providing family intervention services to the growing population of non-White, non-Anglo families. Strategies are offered for gathering information about these families while respecting their nonmainstream culture, values, and beliefs. Alternative perspectives on child rearing, disability, medicine, intervention,…