This book offers a new approach to theory and practice. The book demonstrates how this application can be achieved and includes chapters that pertain to micro and macro practice, research, oppression, and social policy.

This book, the product of a series of 40 interviews with Israelis and Palestinians, describes everyday life in Galilee during the Mandate period. The individual narratives are skillfully embedded in larger historical and social histories by a team of authors who come from diverse academic backgrounds. It offers a glimpse into Israelis’ and Palestinians’ experiences of war and peace and sheds new light on the challenges facing Israeli society today. This work is ideal for scholars and students of the social sciences, particularly those interested in the psychological repercussions of political and social events.

Children live in a world of ever-increasing stress factors, including global terrorism, pervasive exposure to violence, increasing substance use, and economic and social instability. To help them maneuver successfully through such a challenging world to adulthood, community-based resilience interventions are becoming more important than ever. Currently, resilience-based interventions are expanding to examine not only the internal strengths children and adolescents bring to a variety of situations, but also to explore how to leverage community and family resources in the context of a culturally diverse world. Community Planning to Foster Resilience in Children reviews a variety of innovative approaches and actions that can be used at the community level to promote resilience in children and adolescents. Key themes throughout the book focus on how to: Shift the paradigm from illness to strengths and health. Assess and improve environments to minimize harmful influences and increase protection. Adapt to and build on strengths of cultural and linguistic variation in an increasingly diverse society. Move toward collaborative approaches that involve youth, families, schools, and community members who partner at all levels of program conception, implementation, evaluation, and improvement. For researchers, clinicians, and students, Community Planning to Foster Resilience in Children will be an essential tool in their efforts to promote the health and success of youth.

The story of life in inner-city America and the education of its people is often recounted as a tragedy; the ending is often predictable and usually dire, highlighting deficiency, failure, and negative trends. As with most social problems, children and youth in the inner cities are hit hardest. But this dismal view is only half of the full picture. The cities of our nation are a startling juxtaposition between the despairing and the hopeful, between disorganization and restorative potential. Alongside the poverty and unemployment, the street-fights and drug deals, are a wealth of cultural, economic, educational, and social resources. Often ignored are the resilience and the ability for adaptation which help many who are seemingly confined by circumstance to struggle and succeed "in the face of the odds." This book helps to broaden the utilization of ways to magnify the circumstances known to enhance development and education, so that the burden of adversity is reduced and opportunities are advanced for all children and youth -- especially the children and youth of the inner cities who are in at-risk circumstances. The focus is on: * raising consciousness about the opportunities available to foster resilience among children, families, and communities, and * synthesizing the knowledge base that is central to implementing improvements which serve to better the circumstances and educational opportunities of children and families. This volume is intended for a wide audience of readers, but particularly those who are in a position to shape public policy and deliver educational and human services.

Researchers and practitioners have repeatedly noted substantial variation in the behavioral functioning of youth exposed to community violence. Several studies across fields have documented the detrimental effects of exposure to violence, while other studies have considered how developmental assets promote positive youth development. However, few have examined the lives of the many youth who demonstrate resilience (that is, positive adjustment despite risk) and hardly any have examined how developmental assets may shape resilient trajectories into adulthood for youth exposed to violence. What resources and relationships can high-risk youth leverage to tip the balance from vulnerability in favor of resilience? We used generalized estimating equations, a multivariable technique appropriate for longitudinal and clustered data, to examine multilevel longitudinal data from 1,114 youth ages 11-16 from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN). We considered whether baseline family,peer and neighborhood-level protective factors predicted behavioral adjustment 3-7 years later, among youth who were victims of, witnesses of, or unexposed to violence, controlling for individual and neighborhood-level risks. Behavioral adjustment varied across waves and by exposure to violence. In the short-term, being a victim was associated with increased aggression and delinquency. In the long-term, though, both victims and witnesses to violence had higher odds of behavioral adjustment. Family support, friend support and neighborhood support, family boundaries and collective efficacy had protective effects, and family support, positive peers, and meaningful opportunities modified the effect of exposure to violence to increase the odds of behavioral adjustment over time. Policies, systems and programs across sectors that help nurture these specific supports and opportunities can promote positive behavioral trajectories and resilience into adulthood among urban youth exposed to community violence.