Policy, systems, and environmental change are now widely accepted as critical to sustaining improvements in community health. Evidence suggests that such systems-level change is most effective when driven by community-based partnerships. Yet, after more than three decades of building community-based partnership work, health inequities have…

The most pressing social problems facing humanity in the 21st century are what systems theorist Russell Ackoff referred to as "messes"--complex dynamic systems of problems that interact and reinforce each other over time. In this article, the authors argue that the lack of progress in managing messes is in part due to the predominance of…

This report documents the development and progress of Marin City Families First (MCFF), a project undertaken in Marin City (California) in 1993 by the Far West Laboratory's (FWL) Center for Child and Family Studies. Its goal was to develop a model comprehensive child and family support system for low-income communities. In pursuing its objective…

The evaluation of three Ford Foundation supported Community Development Corporation (CDC) programs with performance relative to output targets (milestones) that are both identifiable and quantifiable are presented in this paper. The milestone targets, developed in 1973 for the following year, are targets over which the CDC would legitimately be…

A case study of the introduction of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) in Boston was conducted (1) to chronicle and analyze the changes in employment and training planning and programs as the federal policy changes from a centralized and categorical policy to a decentralized and decategorized one, (2) to examine the impact of…

A discussion paper on popular adult non-formal education in rural Bolivia, based on four months of 1982 fieldwork, focuses on the nature of popular education and its meaning in a contemporary Bolivian context, program methods and operational strategies employed, outcomes and impacts on peasant participants (many of them Indians), and problems and…

This report compiles information related to the extent, quality, methodology, and effectiveness of certain process elements in the implementation of federally funded community education projects. It is divided into four major parts: need, process, program, and evaluation. Under these headings, 24 separate components are described. These components…

The public service role of universities and components of a knowledge transfer model are considered, and two case histories of university response to public client systems are presented. In addition, the community services office is described as one strategy for a university desiring to improve its public service role. It is suggested that the…