Presents six steps for organizing community forum programs: establish forum steering committees; enlist community organization cosponsors; involve local media; develop related activities and community events; provide for panelist and moderator practice sessions; and develop forum promotional plans. Includes action steps for the forum coordinator.…

In spite of polls showing lack of confidence in public schools, the author suggests that schools are not doing a bad job, but that they are not doing a good job of communicating the rationale and goals of school programs. A good vehicle for communication is the community school. (KC)

Two small school districts (one K-12, the other 9-12) reorganized their high school programs so they operate as a single entity and without closing either site. One site serves as an English and humanities center, the other as a mathematics and science center. Collaboration has improved the academic program and cut expenses. (MLF)

Describes the Los Angeles Project of the School of Politics and Economics at Claremont Graduate University. This project seeks to understand the conditions that have enabled a blossoming of public-private collaboration and development projects to take place in Los Angeles despite institutional, financial, and community obstacles. (EV)

Describes the goals and service components of Educare, a collaborative community project in southeast Missouri since 1995, to enhance school readiness of children from birth to 3 years from low-income families. Discusses working with families, community agencies and local services, and early childhood professionals. Also explores…

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) created the Relocation Program in 1952 to sever Indian federal trust status and impose Euro-American values on Indians all under the guise of benevolence. Led from reservations to urban areas, Indians found the problems of their reservations in their new locations: few employment opportunities, poor housing…

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impacts of participation in mental health Consumer/Survivor Initiatives (CSIs), organizations run by and for people with mental illness. A nonequivalent comparison group design was used to compare three groups of participants: (a) those who were continually active in CSIs over a 36-month period (n =…

The main objective of this Handbook is to build the capacities of facilitators and other literacy and non-formal education personnel to promote learning and development at the community level. It aims at developing their skills and knowledge in literacy training, while sensitising them to issues that are at the very heart of adult literacy and…

The purpose of the meeting summarized in this report was to provide participants an opportunity to share information on their school-community collaboratives, discuss successful strategies and ways they have overcome barriers, and address significant other issues related to interagency collaboration. Fifteen school and agency…

The Truancy Diversion Program began as a community focus on the problem of local students who did not complete their high school education. Representatives of local social and court services, the schools, and the Pittsburg State University Family Counseling Training Problem worked to develop a united effort to deal with children at risk of being…

This paper first considers the importance of housing as a component of rural quality of life. Rural-urban housing differences are then evaluated, with both advantages and disadvantages cited for rural areas relative to urban areas. A strategy to improve rural housing by increasing the number of housing choices is presented, with human service…

This manual describes an educational program for helping rural, small community leaders, decision-makers, and residents analyze their communities, think about alternatives, and plan economic development action strategies. The program is an effort to help communities explore short- and long-term development strategies, gain a vision of their…

Since its founding in 1983, The Jefferson Foundation has engaged increasing numbers of Americans in study and discussion of the U.S. Constitution. Through participation in Jefferson Meetings on the Constitution citizens will come to a fuller understanding of how the Constitution was made, why it designed the national government the way it did, and…

Many communities are unaware of the power they have and are therefore unfamiliar with how to use it. This document, by the Regeneration Project in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, is directed toward helping community leaders identify and develop opportunities that will help them expand their businesses, employment, and tax base, and improve their overall…

The City-Wide Educational Coalition was founded to serve the needs of parents working to effect major change in the Boston school system. An account of the program activities of the Coalition during the 1976-77 school year is presented in this document. The responsibilities and work of various projects are described. Staff members of the projects…