This 11-section report focuses on examples of community-based collaborative efforts in Michigan which address the needs of children and youth in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Section One provides an introduction to the report. Section Two looks at the status of Michigan's children, youth, and families, and includes a summary of sociodemographic trends. Section Three provides a framework for understanding and action, describing community collaborations as applications of ecological theory. This section also introduces a research project initiated in 1991 designed to find out to what extent communities might be applying this ecological model to address the needs of children, youth, and families. Section Four describes the method of analysis used in the project; Section Five presents an overview of 45 collaborative efforts in Michigan identified through the project's preliminary survey; and Section Six gives an in-depth view of 13 of these collaborations. Section Seven focuses on some of the challenges for collaborations identified by the project, Section Eight considers common elements among collaborations, and Section Nine looks at unique elements of the collaborations. Section Ten discusses implications for community collaborations and Section Eleven focuses on the current status and future outlook for collaborative efforts. Twelve figures and seven tables supplement the text. Contains 46 references. (NB)