A group of staff and parents in a Pennsylvania community developed a district strategic plan stressing character education. The original study group found three reasons for involving schools, including schools' historical commitment to character development, recognition of values education as an intrinsic part of teaching, and increasing crime and…

Discusses potential applications of computer technology to enhance participatory democracy and considers the effects of advances in computer technology, including increased power and decreased costs, on political and community activists. Constraints are described, including international inequity and the commercialization of government data; and…

Clarifies the concept of free space--a setting in which people can meet for public talk and contribute to solving public problems--and the need to integrate it into extension leadership and public policy programs. Offers two case studies and insights about how lessons learned from them can be applied to extension education. (JOW)

Describes the humanitarian efforts of St. Luke's Parish to reach out to the community and help others. Its attempts to spread justice and peace have made it a healing presence in southern society. (YKH)

Five case studies of individual and collective learning projects in India demonstrate that (1) the impetus for civic action arises from local conditions; (2) transformative action requires sustained adult learning; and (3) civil society is a complex concept reflecting diverse priorities and perspectives. (SK)

Individualism may hinder or enable community action, depending on whether adult education is offered in a liberal or liberating mode. It also depends on whether adult educators view learning and action as inseparable and decide to emphasize or not behavior geared toward community transformation and development. (SK)

Four main resources for creating a sense of community are city government, media, schools, and civic infrastructure. A school that is itself a healthy community can make an important contribution to community building. (SK)

Discusses the history and problems of the Community Action Program and the War on Poverty from the 1960s-1980s, highlighting San Antonio, Texas, and the San Antonio Neighborhood Youth Organization. Suggests that the War on Poverty's historical significance was more political than economic, and it emerged as a program that Hispanic and Black San…

The Institute for Community Peace has conducted two demonstration projects to determine whether communities can be engaged to prevent violence as it is identified and defined locally and link primary prevention across multiple forms of violence. The projects present evidence that community engagement can effect primary violence prevention; the…

This guide suggests that public awareness campaigns can be an important part of a community's strategy to fight substance abuse. They can call attention to problems, and they can be a mobilizing force to unite different groups. The numerous public awareness campaigns that other communities use can be models for local efforts. This Action Kit lists…

A case study of a voter's referendum on charter revision of the Hartford, Connecticut, City Council in 1972 is presented as a basis for analyzing forces operating in a community referendum as it relates to educational policy-making and to identify some effective strategies employed in the campaign. (EH)

This paper describes a grassroots effort by one mid-sized midwestern community which led to the development of a voluntary cooperative network of community service providers offering court-referred divorce mediation services to highly conflicted divorcing families. Issues addressed in this paper are: (1) the difference between a court-referred…

Reviews the activities of the National Campaign for Nursery Education designed to press for increased provision of educational and play facilities for children under five in England and Wales. (CS)

The need for personnel trained in understanding environmental impact statements has become apparent. In an attempt to fill this need, the University of California developed a program designed to produce a select number of graduates qualified to assess environmental impact statements. (MA)