The Prevention Initiative Demonstration Project, funded by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), is a community-specific strategy delivered through eight regional networks designed to address the full spectrum of community-based prevention. This article summarizes a strong and meaningful pattern of improvements…

Describes and assesses the impact of the Friends of Black Children project which enlists the aid of local communities and public adoption agencies to further the adoption of black children by black families. (Author/NH)

Matching Needs and Services (MNS) is a practice tool intended to help people who work with vulnerable children use rigorously assembled information on needs as a guide to design, implement, and evaluate more-effective services. To do this, MNS focuses on needs but links them to outcomes and thresholds before dealing with the services to achieve…

Critically reviews conventional community education programs on child abuse/neglect and describes a practice model used by the Supportive Child/Adult Network (SCAN), which is said to be effective because it encompasses specific goals and strategies. (Author/CM)

Briefly reviews general grouping of methods of program evaluation, discusses considerations in selecting a method, and comments on the roles and responsibilities of the public and voluntary sectors in the process of planning, evaluating, and implementing programs. (SS)

Describes the Family Reception Center Program of Brooklyn, New York, with emphasis on the evaluation procedures that are built into the program. (DP)

A demonstration program of a system coordinating the wide variety of services provided for neglected and abused children in a metropolitan area has produced many gains in the handling of such cases: notably, avoidance of institutionalization. (Author/CS)

An educational workshop was developed in Monroe County, New York on teen depression and suicide. The workshop used a proactive, preventive-educational approach, including both primary and secondary prevention modalities, directly available to teens, parents, and youth professionals. The program subsequently developed new partnerships between…

A questionnaire survey intended to clarify the status of educational arrangements in Illinois institutions serving disturbed, delinquent or predelinquent, or dependent/neglected children. Information on patterns of service, potential needs for specially trained teachers and related professional personnel were related areas of interest. (CS)

Provides step-by-step guidance on planning and implementing effective, site-based intensive family preservation program research and evaluations. Discusses research processes and describes appropriate research designs and methodologies. Considers issues in collaborating with university researchers and other stakeholders in the process. (JPB)

Describes the development and evaluation of a community-based program that provided an alternative to residential care by providing "wraparound" services to children with moderate to severe emotional difficulties. Program goals were preventing admission to residential care, maintaining children in the area, and assisting in early…

Describes a program of early mental health services intervention for younger elementary school students who demonstrate moderate to severe behavioral and/or emotional problems. (Author/DB)

Describes the evaluative model used to examine unsuccessful family reunification. Discusses findings regarding parental ambivalence and its effect on child placement reentry and implications of the findings for individual case assessment and for permanency services in general. (BB)