Describes a middle school that features the study of the environment as the curriculum core; provides direct experiences with nature and cultural diversity; and uses local greenspaces, parks, and community resources as educational resources. Other activities include establishing historical and cultural gardens on the school grounds, growing native…

A pilot project in rural Mississippi provided supported employment services to five handicapped persons. The project combined professional resources available through a community-based developmental disabilities program with existing community resources and social network systems. Project components, project development, and individual client…

Reports survey responses from administrators of 23 urban and 25 rural, federally funded, primary health care projects in 6 midwestern states. Compares urban and rural projects regarding patients' social problems, staffing patterns, referrals to other agencies and community groups, and present and projected social services. Contains 16 references.…

In rural Auglaize County, Ohio, adolescent mothers receive home visits in which their parenting needs are assessed, an individualized curriculum is taught, and information about community resources and services is provided. Of 233 teens referred, 164 completers significantly increased parenting knowledge and behavior as well as use of community…

Argues that, because the resources of most contemporary nuclear families for monitoring and providing alternative incentives are not sufficient to compete with the positive contingencies associated with substance use, communities must support parent's efforts by supplementing them. (LKS)

Describes the children's museum movement, exhibits common to children's museums, and the role of children's museums in providing interactive environments for young children to complement the learning that goes on in classrooms and at home. Provides contact information for five children's museums. (DR)

This article describes a Des Moines (Iowa) program in which approximately 100 people or organizations have given 600 hours of time to gifted students. It identifies creative ways to use community resources, where to find community resources (professional organizations, service clubs, school staff, retired persons, parents, students, and…

Guidelines are offered for accessing local grant and foundation monies to fund special and innovative activities in gifted education programs. Descriptions of six projects funded by grants from local foundations demonstrate the variety of projects that can be funded. (JDD)

Addresses the role of children's museums, recounting both positive experiences of meaningful interactions and negative encounters in which such interactions were discouraged or were too cursory. Suggestions for scaffolding children's discovery and problem-solving learning with children's museum activities are offered. (DB)

Highlights seven documents and seven journal articles in the ERIC database about service learning projects, social studies projects that build on local resident experience, teacher and university research and collaboration efforts to enrich adolescents' education, and other ideas that might be adapted to middle school environments. (DLH)

Community Opportunities for Older Learners (COOL) in Leicester, England, was a pilot project that developed a guide and web-based database identifying learning resources for older adults. The project was based upon best practices of adult learning and inclusion of elders' perspectives in planning and development. (SK)

Today's thriving art museums--and the various processes that deliver both their overt and covert missions--are likely to have a greater impact on society than ever before. With such potential, it seems especially important at this juncture to examine critically the art museum as process; to deconstruct that which has been "constructed as a symbol…

The Rural Education Bureau of the New Mexico Public Education Department has established a program to address the special needs of schools and communities in the extensive rural areas of the state. High poverty rates, depopulation and a general lack of viable economic opportunity have marked rural New Mexico for decades. The program underway aims…

These proceedings document the sixth year of the "Brick and Click Libraries Symposium," held annually at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri, on November 3, 2006. Thirty-four peer-reviewed papers and abstracts, written by academic librarians, and presented at the symposium are included in this volume. Many of the…

This guide presents principles of person-centered planning, an approach to organizing and guiding community change in alliance with people with disabilities and their families and friends. The approach focuses on the individual's desired future, his or her present reality, necessary services, and currently available community resources. Individual…