Home visiting connects expectant parents, new caregivers, and their young children with a support person, called a home visitor. The home visitor meets regularly with the family, develops a relationship with them, and supports them to achieve their goals and meet their needs. To reach the thousands of additional families who could benefit from…

Youth engagement is the meaningful and sustained involvement of young people in efforts to create positive social change. This approach requires youth-serving organizations to rebalance traditional power dynamics between adults and young people, allowing youths to take on decision-making responsibilities. Collective impact initiatives such as…

The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) is the nation's first federal nutrition education program for low-income populations. Without question, accelerating equity in programming has long been a priority of EFNEP. Historically underserved populations with limited financial resources are often people of color and at increased risk…

As the alarming dropout numbers have become more apparent, the long-term consequences have drawn increasing concern, as well. The number of dropouts annually can cost the United States $200 billion over the lifetime of those individuals, through greater amounts of public assistance they are likely to require to the "school-to prison…

This article describes the perceived physical and psychological health impacts of community gardening on participants in the Mississippi Delta. Themes identified include the use of gardening as an educational tool and as a means to increase self-efficacy and responsibility for personal and community health. Additional benefits of gardening as…

Students learn about the history of the civil rights movement and are empowered to create positive change in their communities, states this author, Susan M. Glisson, Executive Director of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation. She describes the efforts to build racial understanding among young high school students through the…

Community-level policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) change strategies may offer an economical and sustainable approach to chronic disease prevention. The rapidly growing number of untested but promising PSE strategies currently underway offers an exciting opportunity to establish practice-based evidence for this approach. This article…

The J. D. Williams Library at the University of Mississippi launched a pilot program during the 2010 National Novel Writing Month, hosting related events to determine community demand and how such efforts could be quantified. Using participant-submitted word counts and the event's own tools, researchers were able to ascertain that such events had…

Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans, Louisiana, on August 29, 2005. The author discusses the efforts she and other Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) colleagues made for the welfare of children who suffered from the storm. After her initial search for family, friends, and professional colleagues, she began trying…

Profiles are provided for innovative public health activities that focus on the health of children in day care. All are considered to be models worthy of replication. Profiles depict (1) child care in Arizona; (2) child day care licensing in Connecticut; (3) safeguarding children in day care in Kansas; (4) paired state and local inspection in…

This report summarizes and analyzes information on nine 1993 community integrated service system (CISS) projects to promote physical, psychological, and social well-being for all pregnant women and children, adolescents, and their families; provide individualized attention to their special health care needs; and link health care and services with…

The problems faced by 3 rural communities in Mississippi are identified, and their development programs are analyzed. Data were collected from 3 nonmetropolitan, multicounty centers, located in 3 distinct geographic regions of Mississippi. The 3 major analytical and data collecting concepts used were actions or programs; associations,…

This Child and Adolescent Service System Program (CASSP) project implemented by the Division of Children and Youth Services of the Mississippi Department of Mental Health aimed to develop a community-level program to increase knowledge about the effectiveness of different community strategies for the development of improved systems of care for…

This "special focus" journal issue consists of 13 individual articles on the theme of rural family programs relating to school, health services, church, and other institutions. It includes: (1) "Towards a Rural Family Policy" (Judith K. Chynoweth and Michael D. Campbell); (2) "Montana: Council for Families Collaborates for…

The report presents Mississippi's plan for delivering education and related services to blind and visually handicapped students. An introduction reviews the development of the report based on the work of five task forces. The task forces' reports focus on the following topics and include recommendations for state action (sample subtopics in…