This manual describes the "New Hampshire Leadership Series," a leadership training program designed to assist individuals with disabilities and their families to create a vision for themselves and to achieve positive futures. The manual is divided into six major sections. The first section, "Introducing the New Hampshire Leadership…

Visits were made to selected respite care and crisis nursery programs in order to describe the programs and services they offered to families of young children with special needs and to learn more about the families who used the services and the staff who provided them. The visits to 10 crisis nurseries and 24 respite care programs resulted in…

Smart Start is North Carolina's partnership between state government and local leaders, service providers, and families to better serve children under 6 years of age and their families. A formative evaluation of the Smart Start process, to inform the current state-level decision-making processes for future Smart Start efforts, was devised from a…

This issue of a monthly newsletter is devoted to an overview of employee benefits that assist families, including child care, extended unpaid personal leave, and flexible work options. Findings are discussed from a recent study analyzing the distribution of two of those family benefits (child care assistance and flexible work practices) among…

The project staff for "Teaching Parents to Be Primary Sexuality Educators of Their Children" designed a curriculum for multisession courses, implemented the curriculum with diverse parent groups around the country, and evaluated the impact of the course. Other programs nationwide were also reviewed and guidelines were developed for designing,…

The manual is intended to provide persons working with the families of young handicapped children a basic structure to 1) guide an intake interview, 2) assess the extent to which community support services are being used, 3) formulate action plans, and 4) monitor the accomplishment of treatment objectives. Introductory information includes self…

This report presents an evaluation of the Intensive Services Project in Lincoln and McCook, Nebraska, which was designed to demonstrate that caseworkers with smaller child protective caseloads could offer more effective home-based services. The background of the project is described focusing on staffing and service setting. Service principles and…

Presents follow-up data on 29 youths and their families served by the Court Related Youth Services, which combines placement of problem youths in short-term foster homes with outreach efforts to engage families in family counseling. Results demonstrate positive feedback by parents and a reduction in the number of youths needing institutional…

This report highlights the input of leaders at a national meeting in October 2001 to discuss an evaluation framework for the family support field. The meeting marked the beginning of the Evidence Along the Way National Family Support Evaluation Project, an initiative to develop a comprehensive framework for evaluating how well the family support…

Families First is a family preservation program aimed at providing therapeutic and practical help for families in the Netherlands faced with imminent placement of one or more of the children in out-of-home care. In 1994, the demonstration projects took place in four locations in the Netherlands. Participating were 320 children from 234 families…

To help guide family literacy program developers in shaping their curriculum, and educators and community leaders in creating independent parenting programs, this digest describes the parenting education component of successful urban programs. In general, family literacy programs have three basic components: adult education, parenting education,…

In 1993 the Minnesota Legislature provided funding to establish local collaborative initiatives to integrate services and improve outcomes for children and families. This report is based on the individual outcome reports mandated for the 24 collaboratives that first received implementation grants in 1995 or 1996. Information from a variety of…

The implementation of a collaborative approach to evaluating family literacy programs was studied using a conceptual framework and applied to 36 family literacy programs from a midwestern state. Evaluation participants learned how results could be used to develop curriculum in addition to reporting to funding agencies. (SLD)

Profiles six noteworthy web sites on literacy-related information, including sites that deal with issues addressing literacy and deafness, literacy development, family literacy program development, evaluation of family literacy programs, and encouraging young children with deafness to read. Online addresses of the web sites are provided. (CR)

A study of the Kentucky Family Resource Centers explores the effect of family-school interactions on school-linked service programs. Findings suggest the need to connect discussions of integrated services to reform efforts in school-family-community networks. (SLD)