Today and every day, in neighborhoods and communities throughout Philadelphia, young people are making decisions that will change their lives forever. Some will decide to stay in school, graduate, and prepare themselves for college and careers. Others, who left school without a diploma, will summon the courage to seek out educational programs they…

Mentoring programs are increasingly popular as preventive and/or supportive interventions for youth with various needs. A meta-analysis of mentoring program effects conducted by DuBois, Holloway, Valentine, and Cooper (2002) suggests that youth from backgrounds of risk (defined broadly) have the capacity to benefit from mentoring, especially when…

In only recent history, illicit use of methamphetamine, once isolated to urban areas on the West Coast, has spread into rural areas of the Midwest and southern United States. Although past and current methamphetamine legislation has increased penalties for methamphetamine manufacturers and tightened restrictions on sales of known precursors, the…

The US Constitution, federal and state legislatures, courts, and regulations permit physical restraint for both therapeutic (i.e., behavior change) and risk prevention purposes. Although most venues limit restraint as punishment, no government entity prohibits use of physical restraint as a response to imminent danger. This paper provides a…

Despite huge prevention efforts the number of HIV infections worldwide continues to increase dramatically. Among other strategies, the HIV test offers an important chance for targeted prevention, provided quality counselling is offered. Several studies have revealed that HIV testing is often performed in less than optimal conditions and is often…

The goal of this study was to describe HIV risk behaviors, perceptions, testing, and prevention exposure among urban American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN). Interviewers administered a questionnaire to participants recruited through anonymous peer-referral sampling. Chi-square tests and multiple logistic regression were used to compare HIV…

Developing an effective vaccine remains a critical long-term approach to HIV prevention. Every efficacy trial should be responsive to the concerns of participating communities because the successful development of an HIV preventive vaccine will require long-term involvement of people who have been marginalized and who distrust the government and…

Efforts to increase senior secondary retention rates and improve schooling for marginalized students have been influenced by the school effectiveness perspective. This paper outlines several problematic aspects of this perspective and proposes an alternative orientation centred around "care". Drawing on research with students and…

Internalizing disorders are a public health issue affecting up to 20% of school-age children, yet few receive assistance. Internalizing difficulties can emerge in the preschool years, with stability from this time onward. To inform prevention programs, knowledge is needed about early internalizing indicators in community samples. This study…

This report summarizes recent research on collaboration and integrated service delivery for schools and communities in North Carolina. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction commissioned three research projects to determine the general state of affairs in service delivery for school-age children and their families and to identify ways…

A practicum was designed to reduce disruptive behavior of students riding school buses in a small multicultural community. It was determined that many students were disruptive when riding the school buses, making it difficult for the bus drivers to ensure riders' safety. The practicum implemented a school bus safety education and public awareness…

This packet contains a textbook, an instructor's guide, and a student workbook for a course on conducting financial investigations to detect and solve crimes. The topics covered in the 11 chapters of the textbook and the ancillaries are the following: (1) why financial investigation?; (2) laws related to financial crimes; (3) evidence; (4) sources…

Hundreds of prospective students engage the Owens Community College (OCC) three-step admission process each semester before voluntarily disengaging the institution. A study was conducted to assess student motivation to engage or disengage OCC based on factors related to student disposition, institutional motivation, and student situation, and to…

Roughly 600,000 families are homeless today in America, while over 2.7 million children are in foster care or out-of-home placements. Few policymakers have examined these issues together, or understood that they are interrelated and must be addressed jointly to break the cycle of family disintegration, violence, and poverty. A recent survey by the…

Nearly one million adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 are victims of violent crimes each year, and this has been true since at least 1985. Children are becoming involved in violence at ever younger ages, both as victims and as perpetrators. The threat of firearms is the greatest concern in adolescent violence, but no single factor can be…