Book Description

Book Description

21st Century Revision of a classic! The basics of a volunteer recordkeeping system: the why and how of application forms, volunteer data files, assignment records, time and activity reports, proving impact. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

While adults are accustomed to seeing young people as victims or problems to be solved, more and more recognize young people as valuable resources for the community.Young people are taking on new roles as decision makers - in their schools, neighborhoods, and civic organizations - roles that used to be reserved for adults.And they're performing these new roles with all the thoughtfulness, dignity, and sense of purpose that you would expect to see from any decision maker.Adults, in turn, are reaping the benefits that come from working WITH rather than FOR young people.These benefits include new ideas and energy, and decisions that reflect the real world in which young people live.

In most communities, however, the idea of having young people serve on boards or as advisors or program developers is still very new, and there may be some apprehension on all sides.Younger Voices is a clear, conversational guide for laypersons and staff on how to involve young people in decision making, and do it successfully.It was commissioned by the Promise Project of the YMCA of Greater Kansas City, a regional organization formed to promote youth/adult partnerships.

Along with important issues like liability, evaluation, and how to assess readiness, the book explores the important relationship issues that arise when young people and adults share control.Younger Voices was itself written by an adult and a young person, and includes e-mail they wrote to one another during the process of writing the book.The often-humorous letters put a human face on partnerships, and provide a glimpse into how attitudes change when young people and adults work together.This, along with practical tips and information will be a great benefit to board members, staff, and young people. ... Read more

Book Description

Community service is increasingly recognized as an important vehicle for promoting positive development among adolescents. This book provides teenagers, parents, teachers, professionals, and concerned adults with current and useful information. Included are resources for middle school, high school, and college students. ... Read more

Book Description

This book includes an Introduction by Tennessee First Lady Martha Sunquist, and features a perspective on community service by Fred Cole, a biography of longtime Red Cross volunteer Margaret Gooch Duffy, a history of volunteerism in Tennessee, and a guide that shows how and where to volunteer. Cover art by Red Grooms. ... Read more

Book Description

The voluntary and non-profit sector is an important and emerging feature of Japanese society. It is a response both to the changing nature of this society and to political and social trends that have encouraged the Japanese government to see this sector as a potential provider of public services. It is also part of the emergence of 'civil society' in Japan. This book explores the roots of the societal challenges that voluntary and non-profit organisations face in Japan and evaluates their future impact on Japanese society. It is an essential text for any student of Japanese studies or the international non-profit sector. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Skills in Neighbourhood Work is a practice handbook. It explains the skills, knowledge and techniques needed by community workers and other practitioners to work effectively in and with communities. While the principles and methods it describes have stood the test of time, the political, economic and social changes which have taken place since the book was first published have made a new edition essential.Completely rewritten and updated, the third edition retains all the practical information needed by the student or practitioner but sets it in contemporary context.It includes a European perspective and views from America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Unique Perspective on Urban Development
Wille opens a window into the usually closed back room dealings behind major urban renewal projects. Having apparently unlimited access to the developers allows her to see the entire process of urban renewal from conception to fruition from the inside. The size of this project is unique for a private development: Dearborn Homes originally was meant to encompass the entire area directly south of Chicago's loop. Its backers were alos unique--the real movers and shakers of Chicago's business community between the late 60's and the early 80's.

The fact that deveklopment of Dearborn park spanned so many administrations in Chicago (including Daley I, Harold Washington, and Daley II) means that the politics involved were complex. Dearborn Park also became the focus of several intense community struggles--sometimes directly related to the development, and sometimes the development was only part of a much larger struggle over the general direction of development in Chicago.

The weakness of Wille's book derives directly from its strength. While Wille provides an unmatched view of the development porocess from the developer's prospective, Wille gives short shrift to the perspective of politicians and other City officials (who come accross as shallow people who stand in the way of the development for no apparent reason), and woefully short shrifts the very powerful grass roots movement which challenged the City's concentration on developing middle and upper income housing, at the expense of low cost housing.

Ultimately, Dearborn Park can only be understood as part of this larger debate on the direction of the City of Chicago. Wille has produced a book unmatched for its insights into the actions and motivations of one set of players in this debate--Chicago's major financial and real estate institutions. The book does not, however, tell the story from any other perspective.

A Must-Read for anyone who cares about our cities
This book is every bit as good as "Boss" without Mike Royko's acid pen. It should be required reading for urban planners, architects, city zoning officials, and anyone who thinks they know how people should live better than the people themselves.

It's a graphic depiction of how a wonderful, noble idea (the transformation of abandoned railyards and boarded-up industrial and skid-row buildings into the vibrant residential neighborhoods known as Dearborn Park and Printers Row) was nearly destroyed by partisan politics and petty differences. I had the opportunity to see the physical changes firsthand over the last 25 years, and they were painfully slow. I had no idea of the behind-the-scenes sleight-of-hand that made it all possible, and Lois Wille makes what could have been something boring into a page turner.

I won't give away the climax. I will say that the children of this brand-new central-city neighborhood were robbed, and "robbed" is the only word that adequately describes what happened.

If you're a longtime city resident you already care about our cities. If you're a NIMBY suburbanite or small-town resident, or if you live on a farm and can see the half-finished frames of yet another subdivision marching toward you, you should care. Why? When cities become unlivable and people pack up and leave, guess where they go?

Whoever you are, buy and read this book.

Great insight into the politics of urban renewal
I have loved every minute of this book. This is a great summary of the entire South Loop development, including Printers Row, Dearborn I and II, Central Station, River City...

What has been most fascinating is the insight into Chicago politics beginning with Richard M. Daley's administration and continuing to Richard J. Daley's current City Hall. Readers gain a real appreciation for what goes on in Chicago to get neighborhood projects developed and financed.

While certainly an informative read for South Loop denizens, this book offers great Chicago development stories that any Chicago area resident will appreciate. Plus, anyone that doubts the clout of City Hall in Chicago will quickly learn otherwise. ... Read more

Book Description

The Tinker is a proposal to establish and an invitation to join an order of itinerant house guests, charmed "tinkers" who apprentice American domiciles in order to conserve residential space and energy and explore human dependency requirements (people, machines, substances), so as to understand, motivate and improve nuclear family child rearing and geriatric care. ... Read more

Book Description

In a readable, coherent, and succinct account, this book surveys the changes that have taken place in U.S. foundations in the 20th century and describes our foundations as they exist today. Opening with historical information on the emergence of large foundations at the beginning of the century, the book then discusses the major characteristics of foundations, emphasizing that they are organized to give away rather than make money, and identifies and discusses the major changes since 1950. In considering those changes, the book considers such topics as growth and expansion, governmental oversight and supervision, and the increasing movement of foundations into the international sphere. ... Read more

Book Description

In the United States, public talk about charity for the poor is highly moralistic, even in our era of welfare reform. But how do we understand the actual experience of caring for the poor? This study looks at the front lines of volunteer involvement with the poor and homeless to assess what volunteer work means for those who do it. Rebecca Allahyari profiles volunteers at two charities-Loaves & Fishes and The Salvation Army-to show how they think about themselves and their work, providing new ways for discussing charity and morality.

Allahyari explores these agencies' differing ideological orientations and the raced, classed, and gendered contexts they provide volunteers for doing charitable work. Drawing on participant observation, intensive interviewing, and content analysis of organizational publications, she looks in particular at the process of self-improvement for these volunteers. The competing visions of charity Allahyari finds at these two organizations reveal the complicated and contradictory politics of caring for the poor in the United States today. ... Read more

Book Description

There is a mistaken assumption in many social sciences that knowledge will automatically translate into action. Based on this assumption, textbooks for basic oral communication, a required course in many college campuses, attempt to ameliorate students' communicational behaviors by teaching them knowledge about communication: theories, concepts, and terms. Not only failing their attempt, these textbooks also estrange students by belaboring what is "common sense" in students' perception.

However, in reality, numerous social problems are not because of a lack of knowledge, but because of a lack of action or a lack of practice of the knowledge. In an effort to shift attention from knowing communication to doing communication, Cases of Problematic Communication confronts its readers with realistic cases of problematic communication and offers questions to facilitate your reflection and communicational action. Promising to transform the students' learning from one of passive cognition to one of reflective action, this booklet can also serve as a resource for commercial textbooks for oral communication. ... Read more

Book Description

Local nonprofit organizations are often small, loosely structured, and democratically governed, and therefore do not fit conveniently into traditional theories of organizational behavior that are rooted in administrative science and bureaucratic structure.Treating community organizations as parts of larger systems--organizational fields or ecologies and communities--this collection of papers presents various perspectives on local nonprofit organizations from the standpoint of organizational theory. The essays draw on an array of methods and theoretical approaches taken from population ecology theories of organizations, laying the foundation for the structural analysis of community organizations. ... Read more

Book Description

Radest reviews the history and present practice of community service in the United States. While appreciative of the genuine contributions of community service programs to the development of schools and society, the author believes that hidden behind good intentions and willing energies there is a strain of ambivalence that cannot be ignored (such as when a citizen is sentenced by the court to perform a number of hours of "community service"). He analyzes philosophically and psychologically this ambivalence, employing his experience in the field, his observations of school and community-based programs around the country, as well as his point of view as an educator and social critic. ... Read more

Book Description

By examining several philanthropic programs of the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations in public health, medical education, agriculture and science in South, East and Southeast Asia in the 20th century, this volume addresses the success and failure of Western philanthropy, and their long-term implications for those societies. It provides a thorough analysis of Asian perspectives on philanthropy based on predominant religious values, and their influence on the emerging philanthropic foundations in the region. Contributors to this volume include such prominent scholars and practitioners of philanthropy as Barnett F. Baron (Asia Foundation), Warren F. Ilchman (Center on Philanthropy, Indiana University) and Kathleen D. McCarthy (Center for Philanthropic Studies, City University of New York), as well as a number of Asian experts from around the world. ... Read more