This report describes economic development programs operated by California Community Colleges during fiscal year 1998-1999. Report highlights include: (1) 60 of 107 community colleges (48 of 72 districts) operated an economic development program; (2) eight economic development programs engaged primarily in delivering training and technical…

Conventional notions of leadership have focused on the leader alone rather than on the situation that leaders must enable. The common threads to successful rural community development in Australia over the last few decades lie in the way the community develops its stores of social capital, which is based on trust, shared values, networks, and…

After-school programs help to improve student academic achievement, keep children safe after school, keep children out of trouble, and build self confidence. This pamphlet summarizes the benefits of after-school programs, provides suggestions for locating a program, and delineates features of quality programs. The pamphlet also briefly describes…

The development of community-based programs to support inexperienced parents through home visits by experienced mothers, who are in turned facilitated by child health and development professionals, has become an increasingly common approach in Europe and the United States. This edited volume presents proceedings from an invitational conference on…

Many faith communities partner with schools to provide tutoring, safe havens, after-school programs, mentoring, and summer activities; they also inspire their membership to volunteer on behalf of children, youth, and families in the nation's schools. This booklet describes several faith community initiatives in a variety of areas that support…

Within the past decade, the movement toward family and community empowerment in literacy has grown dramatically. It is readily accepted that students' academic performance at school is closely related to the family literacy environment. Community-based programs that celebrate diversity and personal strength while strongly supporting literacy have…

AEL's contract with the U.S. Department of Education includes work partnering with faith-based organizations in Kanawha County, West Virginia, to (1) build their capacity to better serve at-risk youth and (2) document what best helps such organizations to successfully impact youth and their families. One of the first faith-based organizations with…

This paper suggests that research has shown that street youth are running from homes characterized by domestic violence, parental drug and alcohol abuse, or child abuse or neglect. This packet describes federal support for helping runaway and homeless youth and reviews implementation of the "Street Outreach Program" and best practices.…

This kit is a tool for enabling communities to work together to motivate children and families to make food choices for healthy diets. Team Nutrition is the implementation tool for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's School Meals Initiative for Healthy Children. Its goal is to empower schools to serve healthy meals and motivate students to make…

Sustainability is a critical issue for the vast array of community initiatives that promote healthy children, strong families, and safe communities. Noting that sustaining an initiative over time requires maintaining sufficient fiscal resources as well as a combination of nonfiscal resources from the initiative itself and the broader community,…

This handbook provides guidance to schools operating Community-based Vocational Education (CBVE) programs for students with disabilities and encourages the adoption of CBVE programs by schools not presently using this approach. By following the information and examples contained in this handbook, schools can proceed with confidence to operate…

Plain Talk is a community-based initiative designed to assist neighborhood groups and residents in creating and implementing locally acceptable and effective strategies to protect sexually active youth from pregnancy. Plain Talk aims to affect individual, neighborhood, and community behavior through a process that focuses on helping adults develop…

The Child First Authority (CFA) is a Baltimore (Maryland) community-wide after-school program that seeks to improve the quality of life in low socioeconomic status communities. The CFA, which is funded by local government agencies and coordinated by Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD), established after-school programs in 10…

This report focuses on service and service-learning in high schools. The report compares data from 1984 research with information from two studies of service and service-learning completed in 1997. The data suggest that community service and service-learning in 1984 was available in slightly more than one-quarter of all high schools (primarily to…

This guide presents a five-step approach to planning, conducting, and evaluating a community-school health advisory council. The five steps are: (1) convening an advisory council (learning about community-school health advisory councils, obtaining support from the school district, identifying potential members, organizing and conducting the first…