This report is designed to help community-based organizations, youth-serving agencies, and the criminal justice and juvenile justice systems recognize their common stake in supporting healthy and positive youth development, both to revitalize their neighborhoods and to control crime. It focuses on: "The Basics: Youth, Crime and Community…

In the face of today's challenging social and family issues, many new efforts are underway to help children and families. One solution that many communities have adopted is the establishment of a collaborative partnership that involves all the relevant partners--home, school, and community--in the planning and monitoring of services for children.…

How can a busy teacher help parents sort through the (often misleading) public conversation on education to understand what truly are sound practices in the classroom? This book, which contains interviews of practicing community organizers, lays out a step-by-step plan for teachers to adapt the tried-and-true strategies of organizers working in…

Underage drinking is a major problem across the country. Many communities are trying to reduce the injuries and deaths that occur as a result of this problem. Community groups have been instrumental in working at the state level to pass stricter laws curbing underage drinking and to tighten the laws that already exist. This paper provides tips and…

Children's experience at home is the largest single factor in whether or not they will have a drug or alcohol problem early in life. The best prevention program for many people at risk is to make sure their addicted family member receives appropriate treatment. Several steps need to take place to enhance the family's role in preventing alcohol or…

The media play an increasingly strong role in transmitting values; behaviors; social norms; attitudes; and knowledge to youth and adults. Media literacy involves the ability to ask questions about what is watched, heard, or read. It involves learning what to look for, what to ask, and how to question these many influences. Media literacy also…

Substance abuse has long been recognized as a precipitating factor in many domestic violence incidents. The main type of substance abuse is alcohol usage. Forty-six percent of the offenders reported being dependent on or abusing alcohol, while another 28% were found to be dependent on opiates, cocaine, marijuana, or inhalants. Nearly two-fifths of…

This guide is designed to be a catalyst for social change, and to transform attitudes, policies, and services concerned with suicide prevention to reflect current knowledge. It involves a comprehensive and integrated approach to reducing the loss and suffering from suicide and suicidal behaviors in the United States. Representing the combined work…

These proceedings of the conference "Creating a Continuum of Excellence: A U.S. Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence Conference," produced by SERVE in collaboration with Nova Southeastern University was held in Coral Gables, Florida, 1999. It lists keynote speakers, action planning meetings, think tanks, and titles of exemplary practice sessions, as…

Suggests that the major determinant of ghetto behavior and social organization is the relationship between the local population and higher level institutions; explores the failure of an organization in a ghetto area set up to destroy abandoned houses. (Author/JM)

Described is a program initiated by the social work staff of a hospital mental retardation unit which involved locating and screening citizen advocates to serve as friend, big brother, social worker, and legal counselor to retarded patients. (GW)

Article presents an approach for use by community action groups as a means for changing society from an impersonal, super-industrial'' state to one more responsive to human needs. (Author)

President of the Washington, D.C. Teachers' Union presents the Union's recommendations for short range solutions to their extensive educational problems in testimony before the Senate Public Health, Education, Welfare, and Safety Committee on the District of Columbia. (DM)

Program whereby businesses pledge 1 per cent annual income before taxes to a college or university, to be increased as the need develops. The motivation is to ensure America's leadership role in the world. (IR)