NCJ Number
147082
Editor(s)
L B Schorr,
D Both,
C Copple
Date Published
1991
Length
126 pages
Annotation
A 1990 workshop on services for young children, sponsored by the National Forum on the Future of Children and Families, acknowledged the deteriorating circumstances under which disadvantaged children grow up; the ineffectiveness of past efforts to reverse such outcomes as school failure, teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, and violent crime; the fact that available knowledge, institutions, and programs to strengthen children and families are not being used; and that problem solutions involve multiple systems and disciplines.
Abstract
Workshop participants recognized that a great deal is known about how to make early education, health, and social services more effective for three key populations: children who live in poverty at some time during their childhood, children who come to the attention of public agencies requiring special help, and children who live in geographic areas of concentrated poverty and social dislocation. Workshop participants also identified attributes of effective services and addressed strategies for the future, practice-based training for managers and practitioners, technical assistance, interagency cooperation, program evaluation and accountability, and educational efforts targeting policymakers and the public. Background papers presented at the workshop focused on program and policy developments in providing effective services for young children, State financing strategies to promote effective services, challenges of service integration, the need for training and technical assistance, services for disadvantaged families and children, and service outcomes. An appendix contains the workshop agenda and a list of participants. References and tables