The University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development (OCD) has practiced university-community engagement activities for 30 years. This has included hundreds of specific projects conducted with community partners, all funded by outside grants. Based on our experience, we describe some lessons learned regarding the operation of a…

Police trainings at museums have been a small but strong program within the museum field. Programs that provide youth and police the opportunity to engage one another in structured learning environments can enable those participants to share personal experiences, explore negative stereotypes, and discuss mutual perceptions of controversial topics…

Behaviors that warrant school discipline (e.g., fighting, victimizing peers) is detrimental to school climate and the learning process. This study examines the effectiveness of preventing school disciplinary incidents in middle school through an experiential, social and emotional learning (SEL) program. A community youth development organization,…

This report analyzes case studies of "more and better learning time" efforts around the country. With support from the Ford Foundation, America's Promise Alliance looked in Grand Rapids, MI; Louisville, KY; Memphis, TN; and Rochester, NY to see how time spent out of the classroom improved outcomes for students in low-income neighborhoods…

Compares the Schools Reaching Out programs at two elementary schools in Roxbury (MA) and New York City with four similar projects elsewhere. Describes how an intervenor not involved with the ordinary operation of the school can help design, direct, motivate, and assess a school outreach program. (DM)

Presents an inner city early intervention program based on a social competence conceptualization. Key elements of the school-based program and an evaluation are described. The program focuses on children's competencies and problems in assessment, intervention, and evaluation. Ratings by teachers indicated interventions improved competencies, but…

Chronic school absenteeism has been identified as a precursor to undesirable outcomes in adolescence, including academic failure, school dropout, and juvenile delinquency. In spite of its effect on adolescent functioning, little research has been conducted to identify effective methods of truancy reduction, particularly among elementary-aged…

The four initial general goals of the projects, funded under Title I of the 1965 Elementary Secondary Education Act, are: (1) to raise the achievement level of the target group children; (2) to increase the overall participation of parents in school related affairs; (3) to attempt to influence parents' competence in dealing with their everyday…

Through forming a collaborative relationship to develop, pilot and evaluate an innovative bio-psycho-behavioral (BPB) HIV prevention intervention, capacity was built in developing an effective intervention and conducting community based research at both the California Prostitutes Prevention and Education Project (CAL-PEP) and the University of…

This policy paper, prepared for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and focused on institutional strategies for prevention of juvenile delinquency, begins with a definition of delinquency prevention and a framework which classifies delinquency theories according to the individual, social institutions, or social interaction.…

The study evaluated the effectiveness of a community-based court intervention aimed at reducing truancy in a large urban school district. A quasi-experimental design was used to assess attendance outcomes for 567 truants matched on demographics and drawn from three categories of intervention (no court referral, traditional court referral, and…

This speech describes the School-Community-Pupil Program of the Jane Addams Graduate School of Social Work designed to adjust not only the child to school, but also the school to the child. The program educates social work students to team up with other professionals to effect changes needed for groups of children. Through courses emphasizing the…

The DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program teaches students decision-making skills, shows them how to resist peer pressure to experiment with drugs and alcohol, and provides positive alternatives to drug use. This report looks at one state's DARE programs. Included are an overview of the implementation process, a program appraisal with…