Making progress toward a more sustainable world will require education programs that foster informed, empowered, and just societies and opportunities for lifelong learning. Non-formal community education is an important component of lifelong learning and is crucial to raising awareness, building partnerships, and influencing action to engage…

During the 1890s and the first three decades of the 20th century, social work in the United States developed a community-based direct practice approach to family assistance and social reform. The basis for this method was a situational view of social life that emphasized the use of interpersonal and transactional methods to achieve social and…

This paper describes and analyzes an undergraduate course entitled Public Interest Research in which students learn research methods by conducting research on behalf of one or more community organizations. Students' work is conceived of as community action learning, a combination of participatory action research and service learning, emphasizing…

This article presents a case study on the use of social indicators to guide community action and influence policy decisions around children and families in Los Angeles County California. Since the early 1990s, the Children's Planning Council has incorporated strategic use of data in all of its planning and community organizing. The Council has…

Aframework for understanding and working with local decision-making systems is provided. Guidelines are given in: (1) identifying the participants in the decision-making system; (2) determining the decision-making structure; and (3) following the stages in the process of decision-making. A list of typical participants includes people in local…

A special effort undertaken by the parents of school age children in an urban area to improve the academic status of their offspring is discussed. (CK)

Summarizes conference discussions on the need for public involvement in demanding science and technology respond to societal needs, and the need for scientists to broaden their concept of their role. (AL)

The objective of this article is to evaluate the level of institutionalization of a community action program targeting licensed premises in Stockholm. Five key factors were identified for institutionalization: adoption, sustainability, key leader support, structural changes, and compliance. A scale was developed to assess the strength of each…

In May 2007, leaders from national organizations and local communities gathered to renew their commitment to deepen their organizations' dedication to community schools. They developed a strategic plan, described herein, that will achieve the goals of sustaining and strengthening existing school initiatives; grow new community schools initiatives;…

This 11-section report focuses on examples of community-based collaborative efforts in Michigan which address the needs of children and youth in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Section One provides an introduction to the report. Section Two looks at the status of Michigan's children, youth, and families, and includes a summary of sociodemographic…

Two discussion papers, commenting on the main article, are included: (1) "Community Action: The Limits of a Developmental Framework by Martin Rein, and (2) "For the Advocate and the Innovator by Franklin M. Zweig.

Examines the personal life of Oscar Zeta Acosta as revealed in his work "The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo," tracing Acosta's involvement in the Chicano social movement in Los Angeles in the late 1960s and his development of cultural identity and political consciousness. (DMM)

Discusses community education and its value in terms of determining what people want and need to improve their lives and then helping them to achieve their goals effectively. (JOW)