The first goal of the America 2000 initiative was to have all young children able to start school ready to learn by the year 2000. This paper summarizes the efforts of six communities to meet that goal through increased collaboration between health care providers and educational institutions, on the assumption that children's health is directly…

This report describes the development of a community-based service for the implementation of augmentative and alternative communication strategies with regard to children with severe disabilities in South Africa. The intervention process was developed by the Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication of the University of Pretoria. The…

Many rural youth in Russell County, Virginia, are at risk of becoming dropouts due to economic and social factors seen throughout Appalachia. These influences include high levels of unemployment and poverty, adult illiteracy, low self-esteem, and lack of role models that demonstrate the value of educational attainment. United Way of Southwest…

This paper presents a five-year plan for the improvement of Pennsylvania's system of services for people with mental retardation and their families. It was developed over an 18-month period by 70 people, including people with disabilities, family members, advocates, providers of service, legislative staff, and county and state government…

This document is part of a series of monographs on community-based services for children and adolescents who are severely emotionally disturbed. The series is the product of a national study of community-based service approaches, which identified over 200 programs serving emotionally disturbed children and included visits to several programs…

This booklet addresses issues concerning community-based rehabilitation (CBR) services for people with mental handicaps, especially in Africa. The first section explains CBR services, with subsections on overcoming exclusion, a definition, normalization and community participation, family participation, CBR and mental handicap projects in Africa,…

Developed as part of a project to integrate youth with disabilities into regular recreational and leisure activities, this report attempted to identify several programs and specific types of leisure activities that children, adolescents, and young adults with and without disabilities can enjoy together regardless of skill level. Case studies are…

Family support and education programs are community-based efforts that offer sustained assistance to families at various periods in their development. Support is provided to promote parental competencies and behavior that lead to healthy and positive development of parents and children. These programs take many forms, such as drop-in centers,…

This report describes an outreach program that provides service coordination and home-based early intervention for disabled infants and toddlers on the Navajo and Hopi reservations in Arizona. Developed by the Institute for Human Development (IHD), the outreach program uses paraprofessional instructional aides that are based in six northern…

Intended for use by school administrators and community leaders serving families of students in the middle grades (6-8), this booklet describes eight family resource programs that illustrate a broad range of practices that attempt to match specific services to those unique needs of the adolescents and families served in each community. Each of the…

This report outlines emerging paradigms of service for mentally retarded adults emerging from a nationwide search for innovative programs and practices. It was prompted by the consistent finding of a Pennsylvania longitudinal study that mentally retarded school completers tend to live indefinitely with parents or guardians. The study found the…

Varied development projects in several countries are described in this newsletter, which also provides current reviews of development books, and publications available from the Non-Formal Education Information Center at Michigan State University and ERIC. The following articles are included: (1) "From Oral Traditions to Elementary Textbooks:…

Penn State York has a history of collaboration with the York community. The campus became involved in two university-community collaborative efforts to identify and take action to resolve living and learning needs of children and teachers in York County. This article presents stories of two initiatives, and the lessons that emerged from reflection…

Urban universities are often characterized as economic engines--directly and indirectly serving the needs of the communities within which they are situated. However, the relationship between urban universities and their neighbors is often strained. Reflecting on the University of Illinois at Chicago's Neighborhoods Initiative (UICNI) and its…

In response to a state budget deficit, the University of Minnesota Extension restructured its field staff, establishing a new regional and county delivery system, shifting all supervision of field staff to campus faculty, and encouraging greater field staff specialization, program focus, and entrepreneurial efforts. Nine economic concepts and…