Describes a 22-week family intervention program designed to prevent antisocial behavior in urban minority children. Presents a theoretical model for strengthening critical family processes related to the emergence of antisocial behavior. Describes specific intervention goals, modalities, and activities. Provides recommendations for development,…

Three alumni officers offer ideas for developing unique and appealing alumni events for colleges and universities with large proportions of nontraditional students. They include family events, networking and mentoring opportunities, brown-bag lunches, evening courses and events, travel programs, and programs geared to those professions in which…

Factors that make autism a vexing public policy issue are identified, including incidence increases, lack of consensus on etiology and methodology for clinical intervention, coincidence of the age of diagnosis with the upper age limit of early intervention programs, a shift to a family-centered decision-making paradigm, and litigation. (Contains…

A study of nine families and three service coordinators examined whether a family's level of satisfaction improves when the service coordination they receive adheres to a family-centered model. Results indicate a high degree of family satisfaction and a low degree of dissatisfaction when the model was adequately implemented. (Author/CR)

Describes the Support at Home for Early Language and Literacies (SHELLS) project, an early literacy intervention for families of children between birth and age 3 in rural Australia. Findings from monitoring suggest that this collaborative, flexible model has the potential to assist families from a range of social, cultural, economic, and…

A widower describes a week-long camping trip he and his two sons took at the Audubon Family Camp at Hog Island (Maine). Scientists and educators provided lectures, games, art projects, and field courses on subjects ranging from oceanography to forest ecology. Spending time in nature proved healing for the family as well. (TD)

Describes development of the Sure Start program in the United Kingdom, focusing on the level of government support, policy development, and implementation. Maintains that the program is a prime example of "joined-up government" and evidence-based policy making. Outlines the program's evaluation strategy, including indicators of success.…

Toronto's highly successful, school-based parenting centers provide poor parents, many of them recent immigrants, with parenting support and education; access to community resource information; information on how to support their young children's learning; and classes in literacy, numeracy, and English as a second language, as needed. (SV)

Assessed effects of Head Start and Head Start plus Family Empowerment Transitioning Programming for family risk and child developmental outcomes. Analyzed change in parent-centered, child-centered, and family economic risk and progress in personal-social, adaptive, motor, communication, and cognitive skills. Found that, overall, both programming…

This article reports on data collected as part of a four-phase study initiated to strengthen practice in the field of smoking cessation during pregnancy. It focuses on the perceived support pregnant smokers would receive for quitting smoking and how this support could be effectively used by incorporating the education of partners/family in smoking…

Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) teams are by definition comprised of professionals from a variety of disciplines who are trained to determine recommendations for the services they deliver. Research indicates that when more people are on the IFSP team, families may feel less supported, and diminished child outcomes can result. However,…

We present a discussion of the literature addressing retention of ethnic minority samples in longitudinal studies. In addition, we describe the retention procedures implemented in the Parents Matter! Program (PMP), a community-based sexual risk reduction intervention for African American families. Finally, the results of PMP's retention strategies…

In April 2002, the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health was created by executive order to study the mental health care delivery system in our nation and to make recommendations for improvements so that individuals with serious mental disorders can live, work, learn, and fully participate in their homes and communities. In its…

The authors, directors of the Chicago-based Pritzker Early Childhood Foundation, advocate "replication," the adaptation of a successful model program or practice to new locations or to new populations. Studies have shown that successful replications of early childhood programs that help at-risk children and their families can have long-term,…

The results of a qualitative study funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation indicate that a promising path to improving the lives of disadvantaged families is through more holistic, comprehensive approaches to family support. These approaches combine traditional family support activities with the development of human and economic capital. The…