Community organizing groups that have built coalitions for local change over the past few decades are now involving young people as leaders in efforts to improve quality of life. The current study explores a particularly effective youth organizing initiative through review of organizational documents and collection and analysis of qualitative…

Youth-adult partnership (Y-AP) in community decision making and collective action has gained momentum as a key element of prevention programming. There is now a solid body of evidence demonstrating that these partnerships have developmental benefits for youth. There is also an increasing awareness that Y-AP may also produce positive…

Describes the organization of a community telephone referral service, built and run by community volunteers assisted by staff members of the community mental health center. Principles of community project development are discussed. (AN)

Author first outlines what constitutes community action" and then suggests three broad categories into which most examples of such action may be placed. (Editor/MB)

Clarifies the value-laden meanings of "community" in community work discourse. Centers on the concepts of Gemeinschaft (community), Gesellschaft (association), and Bund (league or federation). Examines the insights of community studies and the practice of community work within the Judeo-Christian value system. (SK)

Provides an overview of the issues facing community development in Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Discusses possibilities for international cooperation across Europe in the 1990s. (SK)

Argues that those activities variously called community development, organization, action, or education involve the imposition of the values and beliefs of community workers or agencies upon their clientele and that community work has a strong, albeit unintentional, manipulative or exploitative aspect. (SK)

Explores why service-learning students have only rarely been engaged directly as neighborhood organizers, then employs John Dewey's understanding of democracy to analyze one program which has succeeded in making widespread use of college students as front-line organizers. Describes how the complementarity between what students do at their…

The article reports on a three-year community development project in rural Louisiana involving seven small communities under the supervision of the local extension community resource development agent. The community development principles presented focus on methodology rather than program content, and may thus be used by extension agents and…

British local authority and decision making procedures are described for community developers. Included are potential ways of influencing the authority system, and problems and areas of weakness that may be encountered in dealing with the system. (ABM)

Today, more Americans volunteer through religious organizations than through any other type of organization and 92 percent of faith-based charities report the ability to take on additional volunteers. The Corporation for National and Community Service is dedicated to ensuring that faith-based and community organizations have the capacity, tools,…

Involvement of the church in rural community life was investigated by examining the "Fifty-Year Index to Rural Sociology." Findings revealed that 43 separate articles were published from 1944 to 1977 under categories of community life (7 articles); ministers: elite control (4); attitudes (5); beliefs, practices (6); churches (6); church…

THIS REPORT OUTLINED THE EXPERIENCES OF EIGHT UNIVERSITIES--CALIFORNIA AT BERKELEY, DELAWARE, ILLINOIS, MISSOURI, OKLAHOMA, PURDUE, RUTGERS, AND WISCONSIN--AND A NONACADEMIC COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ORGANIZATION, ACTION-HOUSING, PITTSBURGH, WHICH HAD RECEIVED FORD FOUNDATION GRANTS FOR URBAN EXTENSION PROGRAMS. EACH ORGANIZATION USED THE APPROACH…

The author discusses the growth of community action in Northern Ireland and the significance of adult education to further social change during a time of conflict. He describes two different approaches to community education: adult education as the "education arm" of the activist movement, and adult education as a general community…

R. Benjamin Wiley has led the Greater Erie Community Action Committee (GECAC) in Erie, Pennsylvania, since 1969, creating a wide range of human services programs. His passion for education is reflected in the GECAC Learning Center, which offers numerous training and educational programs for residents of all ages, and in the GECAC Community Charter…