This theme issue focuses on programs that promote lifelong learning through literacy education, parent empowerment, or parent leadership training. "Adult Literacy Outreach Innovations: Porque Significa Tanto" (Christie L. Goodman) describes a Texas outreach project that focuses on raising public awareness about adult education and literacy, outlines four steps in outreach (or public relations), discusses the power of mass media messages, and summarizes negative "deficit" messages to avoid in literacy outreach. "Keeping the Faith: Valuing Parents" (Aurelio M. Montemayor) suggests the importance of holding high expectations for parents' commitment to their children's education, and describes three cases in which educators' actions revealed the negative assumptions they (perhaps unconsciously) held toward bilingual parents. In "Families United for Education: Conversations with Parents and Friends," participants at an educational conference organized by parents for parents discuss what they had learned in the leadership development process. A sidebar, "Mobilization for Equity Highlights" (Linda Ocasio), briefly describes the parent leadership conference. An article unrelated to the issue's theme, "Two-Way Bilingual Education: A Positive Way To 'Cry Woof'" (Frank Gonzalez), describes two-way bilingual programs and discusses the value of bilingualism. (SV)