An ideal introduction to community planning for students, planners, local officials, community leaders, and citizens. Two experienced educators offer a general introduction to planning, including the elements of the comprehensive plan, and the tools of plan implementation. Each chapter includes a continuing case study of Rivertown, a fictitious community used for planning exercises. Practical examples and case studies from across the United States supplement the text.
Program evaluation is not among the most popular of exercises, since it carries risks for all associated with it. Because every important program has friends and enemies anxious for its prosperity or demise, the investigators and their findings will normally be attacked from at least one side and not infrequently from both. But this is an occupational hazard, dutifully accepted by its practitioners; for some it even adds a zestful touch of danger. However, the program's sponsors and its participants require an unusual degree of courage, since negative or indifferent results are not infrequently used to impugn their wisdom or dedication. We applaud the courage of all those who, in the interest of improving policies and programs to further their clients' well-being, assumed the risks of introducing scientific program evaluation: Primary credit goes to the sponsor of the current research, the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), in particular the Mediterranean and Middle East Branch and its chief, Roushdi El Henedi. Special thanks go to Dr. Habib Siddiqui for his stimulus in launching the study. His efforts were followed by those of M.A. Abu-Nuwar, whose bureaucratic and diplomatic skills were much appreciated, and Sylvia Rhodes, who was of assistance near the close of the project. UNFPA staff in Egypt, in particular Hamed Fahmy, were most helpful in the field. Needless to say, neither these individuals nor the UNFPA necessarily agree with the conclusions reached in this book.
Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.
The evaluation of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) by the Disease Control Priorities, Third Edition (DCP3) focuses on maternal conditions, childhood illness, and malnutrition. Specifically, the chapters address acute illness and undernutrition in children, principally under age 5. It also covers maternal mortality, morbidity, stillbirth, and influences to pregnancy and pre-pregnancy. Volume 3 focuses on developments since the publication of DCP2 and will also include the transition to older childhood, in particular, the overlap and commonality with the child development volume. The DCP3 evaluation of these conditions produced three key findings: 1. There is significant difficulty in measuring the burden of key conditions such as unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion, nonsexually transmitted infections, infertility, and violence against women. 2. Investments in the continuum of care can have significant returns for improved and equitable access, health, poverty, and health systems. 3. There is a large difference in how RMNCH conditions affect different income groups; investments in RMNCH can lessen the disparity in terms of both health and financial risk.
• New York Times bestseller • The 100 most substantive solutions to reverse global warming, based on meticulous research by leading scientists and policymakers around the world “At this point in time, the Drawdown book is exactly what is needed; a credible, conservative solution-by-solution narrative that we can do it. Reading it is an effective inoculation against the widespread perception of doom that humanity cannot and will not solve the climate crisis. Reported by-effects include increased determination and a sense of grounded hope.” —Per Espen Stoknes, Author, What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming “There’s been no real way for ordinary people to get an understanding of what they can do and what impact it can have. There remains no single, comprehensive, reliable compendium of carbon-reduction solutions across sectors. At least until now. . . . The public is hungry for this kind of practical wisdom.” —David Roberts, Vox “This is the ideal environmental sciences textbook—only it is too interesting and inspiring to be called a textbook.” —Peter Kareiva, Director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, UCLA In the face of widespread fear and apathy, an international coalition of researchers, professionals, and scientists have come together to offer a set of realistic and bold solutions to climate change. One hundred techniques and practices are described here—some are well known; some you may have never heard of. They range from clean energy to educating girls in lower-income countries to land use practices that pull carbon out of the air. The solutions exist, are economically viable, and communities throughout the world are currently enacting them with skill and determination. If deployed collectively on a global scale over the next thirty years, they represent a credible path forward, not just to slow the earth’s warming but to reach drawdown, that point in time when greenhouse gases in the atmosphere peak and begin to decline. These measures promise cascading benefits to human health, security, prosperity, and well-being—giving us every reason to see this planetary crisis as an opportunity to create a just and livable world.
This booklet is based on the Estimates and Projections of Family Planning Indicators 2019, which includes estimates at the global, regional and country level of contraceptive prevalence, unmet need for family planning and SDG indicator 3.7.1 "Proportion of women who have their need for family planning satisfied by modern methods".
"Finally a book that contextualizes community and neighborhood development and planning in a progressive but realist fashion. Peterman provides community and neighborhood planners with preassessment criteria and a methodological tool-kit to help ensure future success. This book is invaluable to neighborhood and community development planning courses and will provide a useful adjunct to social planning and social work courses." --Mickey Lauria, University of New Orleans "Bill Peterman has written a passionate treatise on neighborhood planning tempered by more than 20 years of front line experience. The result is a powerful praxis that can guide planners, community activists, and theoreticians who are concerned with making community-building a reality." --Barbara Ferman, Professor of Political Science, Temple University "Bill Peterman′s critical analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of America′s expanding community development movement should be required reading for all community activists, urban planners, policy analysts and municipal officials! Peterman′s rich insights and thoughtful recommendations regarding how community-based planning and development can lead to a broader popular movement for greater social equality deserve the immediate attention of all those concerned about the future of U. S. cities." --Kenneth M. Reardon, Associate Professor in Urban and Regional Planning, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign " Bill Peterman offers important insights from his long experience in Chicago on neighborhood planning and community-based development. His case studies offer very useful lessons on success and failure. This is a valuable addition to the literature on urban neighborhoods." --W. Dennis Keating Professor and Associate Dean College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University This book explores the promise and limits of bottom-up, grass-roots strategies of community organizing, development, and planning as blueprints for successful revitalization and maintenance of urban neighborhoods. Peterman proposes conditions that need to be met for bottom-up strategies to succeed. Successful neighborhood development depends not only on local actions, but also on the ability of local groups to marshal resources and political will at levels above that of the neighborhood itself. While he supports community-based initiatives, he argues that there are limits to what can be accomplished exclusively at the grass-roots level, where most efforts fail. Neighborhood Planning and Community-Based Development should be of special interest to individuals who are directly involved in neighborhood planning and development activities. With case studies that include the issues of gentrification, public housing, government-sponsored development of sports facilities, housing management control and racial diversity, the book takes a look at accomplishing successful neighborhood-based planning and development.
Experts estimate that nearly 60 percent of all U.S. pregnancies--and 81 percent of pregnancies among adolescents--are unintended. Yet the topic of preventing these unintended pregnancies has long been treated gingerly because of personal sensitivities and public controversies, especially the angry debate over abortion. Additionally, child welfare advocates long have overlooked the connection between pregnancy planning and the improved well-being of families and communities that results when children are wanted. Now, current issues--health care and welfare reform, and the new international focus on population--are drawing attention to the consequences of unintended pregnancy. In this climate The Best Intentions offers a timely exploration of family planning issues from a distinguished panel of experts. This committee sheds much-needed light on the questions and controversies surrounding unintended pregnancy. The book offers specific recommendations to put the United States on par with other developed nations in terms of contraceptive attitudes and policies, and it considers the effectiveness of over 20 pregnancy prevention programs. The Best Intentions explores problematic definitions--"unintended" versus "unwanted" versus "mistimed"--and presents data on pregnancy rates and trends. The book also summarizes the health and social consequences of unintended pregnancies, for both men and women, and for the children they bear. Why does unintended pregnancy occur? In discussions of "reasons behind the rates," the book examines Americans' ambivalence about sexuality and the many other social, cultural, religious, and economic factors that affect our approach to contraception. The committee explores the complicated web of peer pressure, life aspirations, and notions of romance that shape an individual's decisions about sex, contraception, and pregnancy. And the book looks at such practical issues as the attitudes of doctors toward birth control and the place of contraception in both health insurance and "managed care." The Best Intentions offers frank discussion, synthesis of data, and policy recommendations on one of today's most sensitive social topics. This book will be important to policymakers, health and social service personnel, foundation executives, opinion leaders, researchers, and concerned individuals. May
In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.
