The development of community-based programs to support inexperienced parents through home visits by experienced mothers, who are in turned facilitated by child health and development professionals, has become an increasingly common approach in Europe and the United States. This edited volume presents proceedings from an invitational conference on innovative community-based support programs for children and their parents, held in Amsterdam in 1996. Focusing on program implementation, research, development and dissemination strategies, specific target groups, and the role of lay persons in service delivery, the chapters are: (1) "Community-Based Innovative Practices in Child Health Care: Early Childhood Care and Development Programs" (Marian Hanrahan); (2) "The Mothers' View on Community Based Programs" (Carolina Kleinjan-Rens); (3) "The Community Mothers Programme in Dublin" (Brenda Molloy); (4) "Effective Strategies of Psychosocial Prevention: A Conceptual Analysis" (Jo Hermanns); (5) "Community-Based Early Childhood Development: Wider Implications of the New Movement" (Walter Barker); (6) "Rural Families, Rural Strength and Hope" (Barbara Clinton, Judy Matthews-Taylor); (7) "Parenting Programs in South Wales" (Maria Gallagher, Joy Mason, Jill Rossiter, and Miskey Sandison); (8) "National Parent Support Program in Ireland" (Chris Sheridan, Joan Roberts, Aidan Warner, Anne Coyle, and Pat O'Rourke); (9) "Mothers Inform Mothers: An Innovative Child Care and Development Program in the Netherlands" (Marian Hanrahan, Bert Prinsen, and Yvonne de Graaf); (10)"Research to Fit Practice: Innovative Action Research in Health Promotion" (Maria Koelen and Marian Hanrahan); (11) "Increasing Coverage of Programs for Children: Approaches, Strategies and Conceptual Issues" (Nico van Oudenhoven and Rekha Wazir); and (12) "Issues of Program Design and Implementation" (Bert Prinsen). Most chapters contain references. (KB)