Child advocates have succeeded in getting child abuse recognized as a serious social problem requiring governmental response. Ironically, this success now threatens the viability of child abuse programs: 65 percent of all reports are ultimately dismissed. This flood of unfounded reports violates parental rights and overwhelms the limited resources…

A college junior's personal narrative tells how, with the help of a handful of caring adults, he managed to overcome a life of poverty with no parental support. He states that adults can help troubled adolescents by emphasizing their creativity and intellect, not their bad habits or inescapable backgrounds and history. (Author/MKA)

The majority of parents now living in homeless shelters, typically young single mothers with one or two children under the age of six, have spent their lives spiraling downward through a complex and self-perpetuating cycle of family violence, community violence, and poverty. Sixty-three percent of homeless parents, a survey has found, live with…