Describes the activities of two Head Start programs, Murray Head Start in Murray, Kentucky, and Inn-Circle in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Both programs integrate families into wider communities, and bring community resources into their programs to better serve parents and children. Both programs illustrate how Head Start can become a community hub for…

Describes proposals intended to strengthen the American family, specifically initiatives to improve child immunization programs, expand Project Head Start, advance the Family Preservation and Support initiative, reform welfare programs, and adopt a national health care program. (MDM)

Describes new services offered by the Community Action Agency of Franklin County, New York, after carefully listening to Head Start families. The agency now operates programs that successfully address problems Head Start families and other members of the community are having with housing, nutrition, domestic violence, and emergency assistance.…

Describes the efforts of Kathryn Wauters at the Lincoln Learning Center in Phoenix, AZ, which operates an exemplary early childhood program that offers integrated services, is the first hospital-based Head Start program, and works with area elementary schools to provide school-based health services. (DR)

Examines the nature and extent of interagency liaison in the context of two community nurseries providing integrated education, health, and social services in the Strathclyde region of Scotland. Concludes that effective liaison can significantly reduce the number of young children taken into residential care. (MDM)

Describes a paradigm for identifying male involvement in Comprehensive Child Development Programs (CCDP) that is based on 4 years of service delivery for 40 adult males participating in Project EAGLE, a federally funded CCDP in Kansas City (Kansas). The paper addresses issues of diversity of characteristics and participation patterns of the males…

Highlights a Beacon Colleges Grant-funded project conducted by six Oregon community colleges to foster interagency cooperation among social and welfare services, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations. Offers such guidelines for collaborative projects as focus on individual needs, foster independence from agency services, and…

This paper argues that early interventionists' awareness of their own cultural beliefs is an essential first step in developing effective collaboration with culturally different families. Areas of potential dissonance between professionals and families include interpretation of the meaning of disability, concepts of family structure and identity,…

Describes a caseload weighting system used by a voluntary child welfare agency which successfully increased caseworker-client contact and improved the quality of the delivery of child and family services. (BB)

Academic objectives are important, but more attention must be given youngsters' social, physical, emotional, and moral development. Schools are struggling to teach children whose home life is anxiety-ridden and learning-unfriendly. Because taxpayers resist generosity to poor families alone, we must design social programs to help all families and…

An ongoing parent education/support group for Mexican-origin Latino parents of young children with Down's syndrome was developed. The paper discusses culturally mediated concepts related to group structure, membership, and leadership; problems affecting maintenance and growth of the group; and potential value of such support groups for this parent…

This article examines Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSPs) developed with parents with special needs/mental retardation in a model early intervention program. Results suggest that such parents can participate fully in the IFSP process when the process stresses relationship building, empowerment, interagency collaboration, and program…

Notes on planning for successful parent and family weekend programs at colleges and universities include discussion of the event's purpose, scheduling, use of a planning committee, funding, effective promotion, attention to program detail, tailoring programs to subgroups and target populations, event ideas, and family involvement in other campus…

Discusses the crisis in day care availability, the economic necessity of working mothers, and government responsibility for child care. Proposes changes that would return responsibility for child care to the family, including federal tax deductions and credits, reduction of state government policing of families, and creation of voluntary sector…

Discusses the developmental risks to children of extensive day care. Suggests the following federal family policy: (1) parental-leave policies that enable one parent to remain at home during the child's first critical months; (2) parental option to work part time during the child's first year; and (3) greater availability of quality child care.…