Historically, religion and spirituality have been major influences in the social, cultural, and political lives of African Americans. Spirituality is deeply embedded into their rich cultural heritage, and it is intertwined into all aspects of their life, including beliefs about health and illness. For African Americans, health and illness are a…

Children's lead and pesticide exposures are used as examples to examine social disparities in exposure reduction efforts as well as environmental policies impacting children in poverty and minority children. The review also presents an estimate of the effect of social disparities in lead exposure on standardized test performance. Because including…

Another Road to Safety (ARS) is a prevention and early intervention program of family support services for children who are at high risk for abuse and neglect in Alameda County, California, funded by Proposition 10 of the Children and Families Act of 1998. ARS is a collaboration between First 5 Alameda County's program Every Child Counts, the…

This article summarizes an original conference, organised by the Child Care Research Forum (http://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/ccrf/), which brought together experts from all over Northern Ireland to showcase some of the wealth of research with children and young people that is going on in the country today. Developed around the six high-level outcomes of…

This document describes Hawai'i's Healthy Start Program, a statewide, multisite home visitation program designed to screen, identify, and work with at-risk families of newborns. Goals of the program include: (1) reducing family stress; (2) improving family functioning; (3) enhancing child health and development; and (4) preventing abuse and…

Programs targeting at-risk young adolescents, aged 10 to 15 years, were studied through a literature review and examination of issues related to evaluating programs for at-risk youth, and site visits to 9 programs at 6 locations. Chapter 1 introduces the study and its objectives, and chapter 2 reviews the literature on youth at risk. Chapter 3…

As part of an effort to correct major social problems, the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) was created in the State of Washington. The ECEAP offers comprehensive, quality preschool programs for children of families who have an income at or below the federal poverty level. An introductory section of the report provides…

This report examines the extent and nature of states' participation in the At-Risk Child Care Program (ARCCP) and describes their problems and successes with it. The ARCCP was enacted in 1990 to provide child care services for children of low-income families who do not receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children and who need child care in…

Family resource programs seek to foster the development of emotionally stable children and parents. Two underlying assumptions of family resource programs are that programs should focus on family strengths, not weaknesses; and that programs should empower families, not create dependence on professionals. Education of the public about the need and…

This monograph is intended to provide a foundation for communication programs for the prevention of alcohol and other drug problems among high-risk American children. The book offers guidelines for program planners at the national, state, and local levels. Chapter 1 provides a comprehensive look at the priority target audience, youth from…

This technical report is part of a series on AIDS/HIV (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome/Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and is intended to help link various legal advocacy organizations providing services to persons with mental illness or developmental disabilities. Such persons, especially adolescents, are at risk for exposure to HIV because…

Providing disadvantaged youth with the training to continue their education or to obtain meaningful, long-term employment has been hampered by lack of funding, inability to meet the multiple needs of at-risk youth, and the difficulty of recruiting at-risk youth to participate in programs. This report describes and recommends nine employment…

This document reports on a project of the Illinois Planning Council on Developmental Disabilities to assess needs of current transition practices in Illinois for preschool children with special needs. The project involved: analysis of a comprehensive review of the relevant research literature; recommendations from advisory board members, workshop…

This research brief highlights studies of nationally- and locally-based youth mentoring programs. The programs were evaluated on an experimentally based design which compared a group of youth randomly assigned to a mentoring program with a group of youth who were not so assigned. The study found overall that mentoring programs can be effective…

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is a federally funded preventive health and nutrition program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through state and local agencies and provides services to nutritionally at risk low-income pregnant women, postpartum women, infants, and children up to…