This article on the use of community resources by families of young children with special needs discusses the rationale for the use of community resources in federal legislation, strategies for building resources, barriers to the use of community resources, and recommendations for increasing the use of community resources. (CR)

Describes the mentorship programs of the Midtown Education Foundation (MEF), Chicago (Illinois), an initiative that began as an outreach of the Catholic Opus Dei movement. The MEF emphasis on biblically based character development, taught by role models, and embedded in an academic curriculum, is very popular. Early evaluation indicates that best…

Shares the story of how dance and writing brought together a group of elderly and high-school-age women, through a 12-week program that used dance and writing to draw from personal stories and to inspire personal expression. (SR)

Addressing the "death of hope" in rural Nebraska during the 1980s farm crisis, the "School at the Center" project engages rural schools and communities in active learning projects: housing or historic-building repair, environmental repair, microenterprise development, exploration of local cultural heritage, and technology…

This article describes a model of participatory action research and service-learning conducted with urban, high school African American, West Indian/Caribbean, and Puerto Rican/Latino youth and adult facilitators, in a nonclassroom setting, in a mid-sized northeastern city. Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) integrates critical theory,…

This paper presents the results of two qualitative studies, conducted independently in two Early Head Start programs, exploring the reasons given by mothers and home visitors for family success or lack of success in achieving program goals and for engagement in the mother-home visitor relationship. Several patterns pertaining to family issues and…

A new program in California partners the California Department of Corrections with a non-profit drug treatment agency on behalf of pregnant or parenting women who are drug offenders with substance abuse histories. The women are sentenced to the family foundations facility for one year and receive a range of special services to prepare for…

What are "full-service community schools," and what do they have to do with youth development? Community schools are those that have been intentionally transformed into neighborhood hubs and that are open all the time to children and their families. In these buildings, a range of support services is provided by community agencies to help…

American higher education is being asked to do more with less at a time when more students with different backgrounds, experiences, and expectations are seeking the support they need to improve their personal, professional, and civic lives. Learning communities (LCs) support the success of diverse learners, and learning community literature argues…

Few communities have developed successful strategies for attracting large numbers of older youth to their out-of-school-time programs. Older youth are a challenging population to serve programmatically for several reasons: (1) Demanding schedules mean that young people's participation on a regular basis can be challenging; (2) Teens are not…

The National Blueprint: Increasing Physical Activity Among Adults Age 50 and Older was designed to develop a national strategy for the promotion of physically active lifestyles among the mid-life and older adult population. The Blueprint identifies barriers to physical activity in the areas of research, home and community programs, medical…

This article describes The Community Perinatal Care Study, a community-based study of pregnancy support that was conducted in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, between 2001 and 2004. The study was conducted to learn how to improve community-based pregnancy care and to improve prenatal care and healthy births, particularly for women with increased…

Youth violence in Asian Pacific Islander (API) communities is growing at an alarming rate as a result of many factors, such as immigration history, intergenerational conflicts, mental health and substance abuse problems, and socioeconomic context. Unfortunately, the issues of API youth are often ignored due to their small population and a general…

This paper discusses the El Paso Collaborative for Academic Excellence and how it helps improve the literacy skills of all children in El Paso, Texas. The goal of the collaborative is to ensure that all children are successful in school and are prepared to enter and be successful in a four-year college. Its role is to expand leadership and…

This series of articles focuses on the provision of special recreation services in the community for a variety of populations including the elderly, latch-key kids, cardiac patients, physically and mentally disturbed children, adolescents, adults, juveniles, and the multihandicapped. The quest for "recreation for all" on a national level requires…