In most middle- and upper-income homes across the United States, children, youth, and their families have access to the world's information-technology resources at their fingertips, while in low-income communities, access to technology and the opportunities it provides are often limited to brief periods of computer use and Internet access at…

This report finds that adolescent smoking, drinking, misusing prescription drugs and using illegal drugs is, by any measure, a public health problem of epidemic proportion, presenting clear and present danger to millions of America's teenagers and severe and expensive long-range consequences for the entire population. This report is a wake-up call…

Six Aboriginal languages have been designated as official languages of the Northwest Territories (Canada) along with English and French. However, more than legislation is needed to support efforts to reclaim Aboriginal languages and culture. Both missionary schools and federally administered public schools (1940s-60s) disrupted the transmission of…

This first annual report of Minnesota KIDS COUNT focuses on key indicators of children's well-being and details the condition of children in each of Minnesota's 87 counties. Minnesota KIDS COUNT--as part of a campaign by Children's Defense Fund-Minnesota and Congregations Concerned for Children to end child poverty in Minnesota--collects,…

This volume describes actual programs that are based on the idea that family connections are substantial resources for healing and recovery even when the family is a very troubled one. With a focus on severely damaged families, these programs attempt to keep children connected with their own families even when circumstances prevent their living…

Noting the improvement in the quality of schools and education that occurs when parents are actively involved in their children's schools, this activity guide provides ways that parents can forge partnerships with schools on a variety of levels. Following an invitation from the United States Secretary of Education for parents to participate in the…

Corporate funding is now being used to invest in the improvement of community dependent care. This strategy benefits the firms by: (1) ensuring that employees will be absent from work less frequently due to childcare responsibilities; (2) providing a flexible strategy for meeting a variety of community needs; (3) improving community-firm…

In 1978 a complaint was filed by New Hampshire Legal Assistance against Laconia Developmental Services, New Hampshire's only public institution for children and adults with developmental disabilities. The decision from the Federal district court judge in August 1981 ordered the state to devise a plan for: institutional improvement; development of…

A study explored the experiences of four adult students who served on the board of The Learning Center, a community-based literacy program. The adult education literature touched on the challenges, benefits, and limitations of participatory practices, but the three were seldom juxtaposed, raising the question of whether the limitations equaled or…

This study is a follow-up to a 1990 needs assessment of American Indians with disabilities in the Denver (Colorado) region. The study involved a content analysis of transcripts of three focus group meetings of Project Advisory Committee (PAC) members, American Indians with disabilities, and service providers. Overall, PAC members and service…

This document uses interviews with 18 practitioners as the basis for an examination of the barriers to and promise of strategies intended to build effective, comprehensive, community-based service initiatives for children and families in a deregulated policy environment. Four major barriers are identified: (1) structural/legal barriers, reflected…

This Program Focus discusses the strategies of the Beacon Community Center Program (the Beacons), the history of its crime prevention programs, and general operations. It focuses on the activities of one particular program, Red Hook in Brooklyn (New York City), before analyzing the Beacons' potential for preventing crime. A core concept of the…

This newsletter theme issue describes a state-local team partnership model for interagency transition efforts for young adults with deaf-blindness. Excepts from a presentation by Jane M. Everson identify key aspects and characteristics of effective state and local interagency partnerships. These include: (1) strategies for initiating and…

This final report describes activities and achievements of the Community Inclusion Project for Young Children with Disabilities, a New York State project which provided outreach training to early intervention staff, community early childhood staff, and families on the inclusion of young children with disabilities in early intervention, special…

This paper recounts the Macomb-Oakland (Michigan) Regional Center's 17-year successful experience in eliminating institutional care for children with developmental disabilities (many of them with severe disabilities) and providing all such children with specialized foster home placements. A paper by the Center's director, Gerald Provencal,…