Interviews with 28 community coalitions in the Healthy Communities initiative should that:(1) communities must recognize their interdependence; (2) ownership of community agendas should be shared; (3) coalitions should broaden representation; and (4) sustainability may be enhanced by support infrastructures and a bottom-up perspective. (SK)

Youth-adult partnerships (Y-APs) are an innovation being used increasingly as a key strategy for promoting youth development, as well as for building strong programs and communities. This article discusses three pitfalls that can undermine their effectiveness: (1) the assumption that youth should do everything of importance; (2) the belief that…

Communities are telling inspiring stories about what happens when they use public dialogue and action to involve large numbers of citizens--with the greatest diversity possible--in a search for common ground to resolve tough issues like race, community police relations, and education reform. These efforts, often called "study circles," are…

The term "sports-based youth development programs" is coined and defined in the context of the community youth development framework. Sports-based youth development programs are out-of-school-time programs that use a particular sport to facilitate learning and life skill development in youth. Community youth development programs use a community…

Rural sociologists figure prominently in the move towards public sociology. The paper takes up Michael Burawoy's call for public sociology and discusses what rural sociologists have to offer to publics and how we stand to gain as a discipline in working with publics. The paper argues that rural sociologists' ability to adopt a cosmopolitan view…

This article presents an interview with Katrina Bledsoe, a senior research associate with Planning, Research & Evaluation Services (PRES) Associates in Washington, D.C. Dr. Bledsoe was a faculty member in the Psychology Department at The College of New Jersey. She was trained under Stewart Donaldson at Claremont Graduate University (CGU) and…

The state of Vermont closed its only institution for persons with intellectual disabilities in 1993 and moved to a totally community-based model of services. Here we describe the characteristics of the near exhaustive statewide sample of adult male sex offenders with intellectual disabilities (N = 103) who received these services between 1993 and…

The "Research & Action Report," published twice a year, is a window on the activities and initiatives at the Wellesley Centers for Women. The report typically features news about the Centers, interviews with researchers, commentary on recent events or social trends affecting women and girls, announcements of new publications, and…

This report to Congress provides critical information about the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and their Families Program (CMHI), including the characteristics of children, youth, and families as they enter the CMHI; the outcomes attained for children and youth, and their caregivers and families after entry into the…

Although widely available, little is known about the effectiveness of youth cessation treatments delivered in real-world settings. The authors recruited a nonprobability sample of 41 community-based group-format programs that treated at least 15 youth per year and included evidence-based treatment components. Data collection included longitudinal…

This article reports the findings of a study exploring the effects of using videoconferencing (VC) to deliver dance instruction to rural communities. The context of the study is a university community partnership run through blended live and VC instruction with elementary and middle school students in Eloy, Arizona. This research is part of a…

The Duke Endowment launched its Child Abuse Prevention Initiative in 2002 by funding two program sites, the Durham Family Initiative in Durham, North Carolina, and Strong Communities in Greenville, South Carolina. Both sites aimed to reduce rates of child abuse, improve parenting practices and behaviors, strengthen community service systems, and…

This case study explores how a community-based truancy prevention program mediates against absenteeism, truancy, and dropping out and positively transforms the lives of Black and Latina/Latino middle school youth. Findings suggest that community-school partnerships are critical in the quest to combat truancy and the alarming dropout rate among…

Part 1 of this paper briefly describes the Service Learning 2000 partnership that joined Stanford University, K-12 schools, and community organizations in a collaborative effort to promote service learning throughout California. In part 2, the paper examines how the Service Learning 2000 Center has established a niche for service learning at the…

The goal in this collection of 22 essays is to consider youth policy based on the themes of promoting youth development, building supportive communities, and reforming systems/linking services. These themes arise from the editors' and contributors' belief that policy makers, program planners, practitioners and researchers need to recognize and…