Communities face powerful challenges that require powerful solutions: a high-school dropout epidemic, youth unemployment, teen pregnancy. In an era of limited resources, those solutions must help communities to achieve more with less. A new kind of community collaborative--an approach that aspires to significant community-wide progress by…

As part of the Small Schools movement in Chicago Public Schools, a high school dedicated to African-centered education was chartered. The virtues of Ma'at and the Nguzo Saba, otherwise known as the seven principles of Kwanza, were the foundational principles of the school and were to be integrated into all of the practices and policies of the…

Because of the importance of nutrition during teenage pregnancies, the Illinois State Council on Nutrition held public hearings in Chicago and in Carbondale, areas having a high incidence of infant mortality. Several issues were identified: (1) effects on nutrition of low income, poor nutrition habits, and lack of understanding of the increased…

This learning guide is designed to connect personal, family, and job responsibilities for adults and out-of-school youth in economically depressed areas of the state (including transitional ex-offenders and corrections populations) so that these individuals learn to manage and balance these aspects of their lives in order to prepare for or…

This competency-based secondary learning guide on preventing teen pregnancy is part of a series that are adaptations of guides developed for adult consumer and homemaking education programs. The guides provide students with experiences that help them learn to do the following: make decisions; use creative approaches to solve problems; establish…

While most programs for prospective teenage parents address the obvious and immediate needs of the parents - prenatal care, nutrition, delivery, and financial assistance - the purpose of this paper, one of several reports forming a comprehensive policy study of early childhood education, is to identify the problems associated with teenage…

Parents Too Soon is a statewide program developed in Illinois to deter both teenage pregnancy and the negative consequences of adolescent childbearing and parenting. Clients are males and females 20 years of age and younger who wish to avoid conceiving children, are pregnant, are parents, or are at-risk of becoming parents. Included in this…

The populations of Mexican Americans and other Latinos in Berwyn and Cicero, Illinois--two of Chicago's oldest suburbs--have increased dramatically in the last decade. This needs assessment interviewed 172 people individually and in 19 focus groups. Findings indicate that education, children, and youth were the top priorities for Latinos and…

The nation's first coordinated, statewide teenage pregnancy prevention and support program, Parents Too Soon (PTS), is an interagency effort which accomplishes its goals through an integrated, cooperative effort and provides critical medical, social, nutritional, educational, and vocational services to male and female youth between 10 and 20 years…

This competency-based, individualized learning package, consisting of 10 learning guides, deals with child development. Addressed in the individual learning guides are the following topics: the safety needs of infants and children; the qualities, attitudes, and traits that increase parenthood readiness; the special needs created by teenage…

This document provides additional information for teachers and administrators who are implementing the Illinois Plan for Home Economics Education by conducting the several exploratory/orientation courses developed in the curriculum. These six appendixes contain the following: (1) the Illinois Home Economics Sequential Program; (2) a comparison of…

Addressed to policymakers and to all the citizens of Illinois, this report of the Plan of Action for Children Task Force offers 81 recommendations for addressing the serious problems faced by children residing in the state. Taken together, the recommendations lead to six conclusions: (1) focus on prevention; (2) commit resources to strengthen…

This collection of 12 educational bulletins provides background information on highly visible, "hot" issues receiving public attention. After four pages of information concerning the current state of children's services in Illinois, two-page discussions are provided of 11 general topics. Titles in the collection are (1) "Overview of…

This article recounts how a university-community collaborative challenged prevailing assumptions about parents as barriers to the provision of gender and sexuality information to their children, allowing for the recognition of parents as critical stakeholders and partners in sexual literacy work with youth. We provide evidence that parents'…

Reporting the second in a series of regional fact-finding committee hearings held across the United States, this document includes testimony from social service organizations and state offices in Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Iowa. Testimony from clients and representatives of these agencies documents efforts to ameliorate problems…