Today, the emphasis in social work is on community renewal trough shared reponsibility. In Community Building, you will discover the latest proven programs for working with community members toward goals of positive change that is initiated, developed, and emplemented within the community.

You will learn how you can help community members identify their needs in areas that include the physical environnement, housing, economic opportunity, safety, education, and health care...and begin the initiatives that will enable them to meet these needs.

Special features:

-Emphasize the shift from community organisation directed by professionals to community building directed by community members.

-Gives examples of a range of working programs for community renewal for a variety of populations.

-Features collaborative programs between and among community members, social work practitioners, corporations and government.

Contents

Part I. Comprehensive community initiatives

• The revitalization of impoverished communities / Patricia L. Ewalt
• Countering Urban disinvestment through community-building initiatives / Arthur J. Naparstek and Dennis Dooley
• Implementing comprehensive community development: possibilities and limitations Robert J. Chaskin, Mark L. Joseph, and Selma Chipenda-Dansokho
• Youths and communities: toward comprehensive strategies for youth development / William H. Barton, Marie Watkins, and Roger Jarjoura

Part II. Economic revitalization and community self-sufficiency

• Asset building as a community revitalization strategy / Deborah Page-Adams and Michael Sherraden
• Effects of assets on attitudes and behaviors: advance test of a social policy proposal / Gautam N. Yadama and Michael Sherraden
• Problems and prospects of self-employment as an economic independence option for welfare recipients / Salome Raheim
• Role of Latina-owned beauty parlors in a Latino community / Melvin Delgado

Part III. Community action through collaborations

• Nonprofit organizations and innovation: a model of neighborhood based collaboration to prevent child maltreatment / Elizabeth A. Mulroy and Sharon Shay
• Strengthening neighborhoods by developing community networks / John D. Morrison, Joy Howard, Casey Johnson, Francisco J. Navarro, Beth Plachetka, and Tony Bell
• Assessing the impact of community violence on children and youths / Neil B. Guterman and Mark Cameron
• The little village project: a community approach to the gang problem / Irving A. Spergel and Susan F. Grossman

Part IV. Community action through affiliations

• Elizabeth Ross Haynes: an African American reformer of womanist consciousness, 1908-1940 / Iris Carlton-LaNey
• Making a difference: women of action in the community / Marceline M. Lazzari, Holly R. Ford, and Kelly J. Haughey
• The politics of the Indian Child Welfare Act / Lou Matheson
• Kinship Care: the African American response to family preservation / Maria Scannapieco and Sondra Jackson
• Inner-City youths helping children: after-school programs to promote bonding and reduce risk / Julie O'Donnell, Elizabeth A. Michalak, and Ellen B. Ames
• Community asset assessments by Latino youths / Melvin Delgado
• Strengths-based practice with Puerto Rican adolescents: lessons from a substance abuse prevention project / Melvin Delgado
• Sociopolitical antecedents to Stonewall: analysis of the origins of the gay rights movement in the United States / Cynthia Cannon Poindexter

Part V. Housing initiatives

• Building Community: Principles for social work practice in housing settings / Carol S. Cohen and Michael H. Phillips
• Social support and depression among older adults living alone: The importance of friends within and outside of a retirement community / Marilyn K. Potts

Part VI. Schools and community development

• Community practice and policy issues revisited / Edith M. Freeman
• Alternative stories and narratives for transforming schools, families, communities, and policymakers / Edith M. Freeman
• Public schools and the revitalization of impoverished communities: school-linked family resource centers / David R. Dupper and John Poertner

Part VII. Community health partnerships

• Building community capacity to promote social and public health: challenges for Universities / Dennis L. Poole
• The SAFE project: community-driven partnerships in health, mental health, and education to prevent early school failure / Dennis L. Poole
• Partnerships for improved service delivery: the Newark Target Cities project / M. Katherine Kraft and Janet E. Dickinson
• An empowerment-centered church based asthma education program for African American adults / Marvella E. Ford, Gloria Edwards, Juan L. Rodriguez, Rose C. Gibson, and Barbara C. Tilley
• Retooling for community health partnerships in the primary care and prevention / Dennis L. Poole and Mary Van Hook
• Addressing at-risk pregnant women's issues through community, individual, and corporate grassroots efforts / Judy Balsanek
• Social support networks of confidants to people with AIDS / Stephen Jankowski, Lyn Videka-Sherman, and Karen Laquidara-Dickinson.