Background: Schools, school districts, and communities seeking to implement the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model should carefully and deliberately select planning, implementation, and evaluation strategies. Methods: In this article, we identify strategies, steps, and resources within each phase that can be integrated into…

Service provision to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) older adults is a dynamic and sensitive area, requiring rigorous and extensive inquiry and action. Examining the readiness and assets of organizations serving GLBT older adults requires not only heart and sensitivity but also resources and a clear vision. The Community Readiness…

Making Connections was the Annie E. Casey Foundation's signature place-based, community-change initiative of the 2000s. It sought to build on previous work and launch an effort focused firmly on the framework of family strengthening. The Foundation started Making Connections in 22 places, focusing eventually on first 10, then seven sites. It…

This article describes the opportunities and challenges encountered in the service-learning adaptation of an early childhood primary prevention program through the University of Southern Maine's Lewiston Auburn College. In the face of economic and social challenges confronted by many communities, service-learning models are proposed as essential…

The paper describes and analyses the design and implementation of a higher education student placement program in the community services sector. Principally ideas about partnerships and social learning informed the design. The placement program represents a significant innovation in work-integrated learning, achieved through collaboration between…

Community visioning is based upon principles that maximize group participation in a creative problem-solving process. The process itself is structured to solicit and use the full range of interests and expertise within a given community to develop an implementation plan that specifically addresses the needs of the community and that fosters change…

The Center's policy and practice analyses have shone a light on how school improvement efforts deal with the various factors interfering with students having an equal opportunity to succeed at school. Unfortunately, the picture that has emerged is rather bleak. Given the continuing difficulties related to reducing dropout rates and closing the…

Both the organizational studies literature and the community psychology literature discuss the importance of readiness when implementing change. Although each area emphasizes different characteristics, several common themes are present within the literature. The current study integrates and applies organizational and community psychology…

Based on the evidence that early intervention and support can reduce family breakdown, strengthen children's school readiness, and benefit society in the long term, the Sure Start program in England is designed to offer support enabling parents to strengthen their relationship with their children and to access more fully local community services.…

This paper describes a successful model of supported employment developed by a single small agency previously providing services as a segregated day activity center. Included is discussion of the service agency, program methodology, barriers to successful community-based employment, manner in which barriers were overcome, program outcomes, and…

This report explores the potential for and obstacles to comprehensive community-level approaches to preparing young people for occupational and academic advancement. Chapter I introduces the New Workforce strategy based on a pathways design and a community framework and strategic plan. Chapter II includes the following: overview of the shaping of…

This publication brings together ideas, techniques, and designs that have been encountered by designers of school community centers. It is intended as a guide to creating a school community center that will meet the needs of a particular community and help make it a more vibrant, healthy, desirable place in which to live. Part I (encompassing…

This report reviews approaches that federal, state, and local governments have used to integrate the delivery of health and other educational and social services to at-risk families, and examines barriers to designing and implementing integrated service delivery systems. The report contrasts "system-oriented" integration efforts, which…

Designed to help parents and teachers think beyond the ordinary ways in which parent-family involvement in education is considered and approached, this book describes 34 operational parent-family involvement programs in preschools and in elementary, middle, and high schools. It also describes programs run by school districts and communities. Among…

This document explains the concept of sectoral employment strategies and profiles 13 successful work force development programs based on such strategies. The first half of the document examines the increasing need for sectoral employment strategies and their key characteristics, role in achieving systemic change in work organizations, and…