In recent years, grand challenge initiatives have emerged nationally with the goal of addressing large, multidisciplinary public problems. The advent of university-led grand challenge initiatives offers an important opportunity to reflect on how institutions of higher education design, implement, and orient externally relevant activities at a time…

Community-based research (CBR) is an increasingly familiar approach to addressing social challenges. Nonetheless, the role it plays in attaining community impact is unclear and largely unstudied. Here the authors discuss an emerging framework aimed toward fostering community impact through university and community civic engagement. They describe…

Modern society as it has evolved is fragmented, but its ever increasing complexity has developed so many interfaces that reintegration has become mandatory. Cable television (CATV) can serve as an integrating force which can help members of the community to pool their resources in a variety of problem-solving efforts. This can only happen,…

This paper describes how a small group of people representing one community both identified and set in motion a strategy to deal with the perceived drug problem in their community. The emphasis of the paper is on the process by which this group moved rather than on the specific details of their efforts. The paper is actually a case study of one of…

ISSUES, an intermediate-grade social studies program, actively involves 2,000 Kansas City students of their urban communities. Psychological and sociological perspectives on urban problems stress helping children to better understand social realities, their peers, and themselves. The students spend approximately half of their social studies time…