Schools have long recognized the importance of creating climates that are peaceful, laying the groundwork for good student academic learning. This article explores the work of a large urban school district as it applies a community violence prevention model developed by the local county public health department to create peaceful communities.…

Increasingly, governments in wealthy countries are designing early intervention initiatives around principles of "community regeneration" or "place management". Because these initiatives are multi-site, aimed at long-term systemic change, and implemented amidst a range of other initiatives, assessing their quality and outcomes…

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…

Several studies have demonstrated the efficacy of falls-prevention programs designed for community-dwelling seniors using randomized designs. However, little is known about the feasibility of implementing these programs under natural conditions and about the success of these programs when delivered under such conditions. The objectives of this…

As the environmental landscapes continue to shift, schools face the rising challenge of providing engaging environmental education programs for their students. These programs must be multi-faceted and foster environmental awareness and understanding while facilitating action. As children are spending increasingly less time outdoors interacting…

The Durham Family Initiative (DFI) is one of two community-based child abuse prevention efforts that comprise The Duke Endowment's Child Abuse Prevention Initiative. Beginning in 2002, the Endowment provided support to the Durham Family Initiative (DFI) in North Carolina and Strong Communities in South Carolina to develop a comprehensive approach…

CenteringPregnancy Smiles[TM] (CPS) is a partnership between the University of Kentucky, Trover Health System, and Hopkins County Health Department. The purpose of the partnership is to: (1) establish an infrastructure to address health problems requiring research-based solutions, (2) develop a model for community partnership formation, and (3)…

The school dropout rate is a problem which educators cannot solve alone. It will take a total societal effort to design solutions. This document presents the ideas and strategies discussed at a conference on dropout prevention attended by leaders of national education organizations. Theoretical as well as practical suggestions are given to begin…

This article describes the significance of academic enrichment and English as a second language in a community-based professional development middle school. As an example of a university-school partnership that is responding to the needs of its students, parents, and community, the Baylor University School of Education has partnered with the Cesar…

In 1996, United Way of America (UWA) developed and began disseminating the most widely used approach to program outcome measurement in the nonprofit sector. Today an estimated 450 local United Ways encourage approximately 19,000 local agencies they fund to measure outcomes. The authors first describe and then assess the strengths and limitations…

This article is a reflection of English teaching in Chiclayo, Peru, at a not-for-profit cultural center. It starts with a brief explanation of the authors' desire to help transform the community through English teaching. The article then explains the concept of civic education and offers a three-tiered approach that has been designed to help the…

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…

This study examined a community-university partnership model for sustained, high-quality implementation of evidence-based interventions. In the context of a randomized study, it assessed whether implementation quality for both family-focused and school-based universal interventions could be achieved and maintained through community-university…

This paper reviews the process of disseminating health promotion programs, identifies factors critical to successful dissemination, uses a community-based heart disease prevention study to illustrate how programs can be disseminated across a community, and suggests ways these methods could be applied to an adolescent drug use prevention program.…

Reports on the first intensive evaluation of the Private Sector Initiative Program. Recommends that Congress and the Labor Department should refrain from changing PSIP's structure, allow time for it to develop fully at the local level, continue to observe local developments closely, and learn from the experience. (CT)