This guide presents useful research findings and best practice information about developing parent and family involvement programs. The first chapter focuses on reporting research findings on parent involvement and highlights pertinent findings on how parent involvement benefits students, parents, teachers, school quality, and program designs.…

Home Start programs, designed to provide child development services to children in their homes, are located in 15 states. (DS)

Describes a Venezuelan project whose aim is to help poor rural families bridge the gap between the actual and required levels of income. (AN)

Proceedings are summarized from the four-day conference "Parents and Children: A Family-Focused Approach to Service Delivery," held in Williamsburg, Virginia, July 1982. (MP)

Praises Worthington's article "Religious Faith across the Life Span" (1989) for providing framework for including religious faith as part of professional and scientific endeavors. Stresses importance of willingness of counseling psychologists to provide consultation and collaboration to clergy. Suggests areas (family enrichment programs…

Describes a program developed by the Children's Aid Society of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, called Intergenerational Support System (ISS), in which senior volunteers serve as support persons for problem families. (SAK)

Five educational programs to strengthen marriage and family skills were delivered in 2 states to 244 participants. Two to 5 months later, 50-88% made positive behavioral changes; 73-100% approved of tax-dollar support for the programs. The communication program significantly increased self-esteem and family functioning. (SK)

Examines the current understanding of the most promising and effective means of serving families. It highlights the family-centered service approach, explaining family support services and family preservation services. Evaluations of the two types of family-centered services are reviewed, and issues related to planning and service delivery are…

Reviews two books: (1) "Advancing Family Preservation Practice" (E. Susan Morton and R. Kevin Brigsby, editors) which summarizes Intensive Family Preservation Services in the United States over the past decade; and (2) "Marketing Strategies for Nonprofit Organizations" (Siri Espy) which discusses marketing and its application…

Articulates how the family support movement emerged in the last 20 years, and describes the philosophical premises, principles, and practices that currently guide it. Considers the inability of current family support program typologies to guide outcome evaluations, and introduces a typology that deconstructs family support programs into their…

Scottish Premier League (SPL) Reading Stars uses the motivational power of football to attract families who need support with literacy into a positive and friendly learning environment. It ran for the first time between March and August 2009 and attracted 225 children and 190 adults to take part in a series of inspirational learning sessions in 23…

In March 2008, the National Early Childhood Transition Initiative released a document developed collaboratively over several months titled "Designing and Implementing Effective Early Childhood Transition Processes". The document was created as a resource for improving state and local performance on the State Performance Plans (SPP) and…

Informal science is a burgeoning field that operates across a broad range of venues and envisages learning outcomes for individuals, schools, families, and society. The evidence base that describes informal science, its promise, and effects is informed by a range of disciplines and perspectives, including field-based research, visitor studies, and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine factors predicting parental participation and retention in a Swedish version of the Strengthening Families Programme (SFP). Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on data from a randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effects of the Swedish version of the SFP. The sample involves 441…

Family support has been found to influence both career self-efficacy beliefs and career decision making. The purpose of this study was to verify whether career search self-efficacy could mediate the relationship between family support and career indecision. Using a sample of 253 Italian youth, the study found that, for male adolescents attending a…