Engaging parents and family members in their children's lives is critical to youth's success in school and life (Terzian & Mbwana, 2009; Mbwana et al. 2009). When families are involved, youth receive higher grades, attend school more frequently, perform better in standardized testing, show improved behavior and are more likely to graduate (Marks…

The Auckland City Council arts team has managed several successful youth arts projects across the city of Auckland. The council aims to establish a best-practice standard for community artists in line with international standards of community cultural development. This reflective paper explores the processes, impacts and outcomes of some of the…

If learning is a journey between worlds, school governing bodies have a crucial role to play in mediating them. By establishing a public space for the voice of different communities to be expressed and deliberated governing bodies enable schools to understand and engage the cultural sources that motivate young people to learn. This article draws…

This article is an account of a return to education course set up to cater to the needs of recovering heroin addicts in a Dublin rehabilitation project in the summer of 2008. It begins with a brief outline of the HSE Soilse rehabilitation and recovery programme and the rationale for seeking association with the Department of Adult and Community…

The development of a series of theoretically based interventions for newcomer (immigrant) parents was undertaken over a 10-year period through an iterative method of designing and analyzing a series of ethnographic studies of its implementation. The results of three such interventions are reported here. The work was based on the critical theory of…

There are many assumptions made about the beliefs behind abstinence-only until marriage (AOUM) sex education, yet comparatively little research examining the views of abstinence education providers. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 21 abstinence grantees throughout New York State, I examine how individuals working in abstinence organizations…

Background: Surveys of community-based programs are difficult to conduct when there is virtually no information about the number or locations of the programs of interest. This article describes the methodology used by the Helping Young Smokers Quit (HYSQ) initiative to identify and profile community-based youth smoking cessation programs in the…

In this commentary the authors share their experiences on the design and implementation of community-centered early intervention programs in Prince George's County, MD. Their aim in designing community-centered programs was to provide infants and toddlers opportunities for learning, language, and motor development in natural environments with…

In this article, the impact of two major disasters (Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil rig fire and subsequent oil spill) on residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are discussed. An overriding concern as expressed by the recently released report issued by the National Commission on Children and Disasters, 2010 "Report to the…

Family-focused prevention programs for community samples have potentially broad, clinically relevant implications but few studies have examined whether any program benefits continue to be observed over the long term. Although benefits of a marital conflict focused parent education program, the Happy Couples and Happy Kids (i.e., HCHK) program,…

Background: Community participation has been defined as performing daytime activities by people while interacting with others. Previous studies on community participation among people with intellectual disability (ID) have mainly focused on the domestic life aspect. This study investigates the variation in community participation in the domains…

Although the concept of communities of practice (CoPs) has been applied to many fields, the application within the context of the senior citizens' interaction must be different from those in the vocational arena. In Toy Clinic Shops (TCSs) in Taiwan, senior volunteers together sharpen their skills of repairing toys for school children, which can…

Aim: To effectively provide clinical placements for students and increase healthcare options for rural communities, an investigation of university clinics was conducted. Method: This project adopted a consultative inquiry strategy and involved two processes: (1) a review of literature; and (2) interviews with existing health sciences clinic staff.…

This study explored whether a hip-hop dance program was associated with improved well-being for adolescents living in a multicultural, socio-economically disadvantaged urban community in Ottawa. Sixty-seven youths between 11 and 16 years of age participated in a 13-week program. A primarily qualitative approach was used to assess perceived impact…

In the current economic crisis, higher education graduates need transferable professional skills more than ever. They need resourcefulness, an ability to work reflectively, a sense of civic awareness and an impressive curriculum vitae. This case study analyses how Dublin Institute of Technology's Programme for Students Learning With Communities…