Society for Community Research and Action

More than 13 million American children live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level, which is $22,050 a year for a family of four. 1 The number of children living in poverty increased by 21 percent between 2000 and 2008. There are 2.5 million more children living in poverty today than in 2000. Not only are these numbers troubling, the official poverty measure tells only part of the story. Research consistently shows that, on average, families need an income of about twice the federal poverty level to make ends meet. 2 3 Children living in families with incomes below this level - for 2009, $44,100 for a family of four - are referred to as low income. Forty-one percent of the nation's children - more than 29 million in 2008 - live in low-income families. 4 Nonetheless, eligibility for many public benefits is based on the official poverty measure. This fact sheet - the first in a series focusing on economic and material hardship - details some of the characteristics of American children who are considered poor by the official standard.

The Community-Engaged Scholarship Toolkit is designed to help community-engaged faculty make their best case for review, promotion and/or tenure.

"tools and techniques to guide practitioners, funders and evaluators as they develop and articulate their theories of change. We have also helped to clarify concepts, indicators and measures of "community building" such as civic and community capacity. More recently, the Roundtable has emphasized the learning dimensions of evaluation, advocating for evaluations to be structured so as to maximize their potential to build field-level knowledge about community change."

educational and inspirational videos about civic engagement;

"Increasing social distance between the poorest and the richest diminishes social cohesion, which in turn means more collective problems and fewer resources for solving all our other collective problems." Göran Therborn on why inequality matters.

"the best-known experts on leveraging social media for social good out there. "

This is the "front page" of a substantial action research site. The links below will take you to some of the other parts of the site, and some of its associated resources

CEO's of 6 national foundations and health care organizations released a joint letter yesterday calling for greater investment in community prevention.

According to a new report out by the Center of Excellence for Early Childhood Development , children who attended preschool and received appropriate interventions were at less risk for violence.

"The Promising Practices Network (PPN) is dedicated to providing quality evidence-based information about what works to improve the lives of children, youth, and families".

The participatory media learning materials on this site are meant to help people learn and teach the new literacies by inquiring into their significance as well as by learning their use through direct practice

The reality of homelessness is devastating. But how do the homeless fare in the realm of virtual reality? In an funky twist on The Sims 3, some gamesters are seeing how the world of computer simulation handles a predicament that is all too real... living without a home.

The e-book includes summaries of recently completed research reports as well as the best and most policy-relevant published articles from scholarly journals. The chapters have been edited to keep them at a length of 3,000 to 9,000 words and to ensure that they are accessible to a non-specialist audience. Each chapter is a separate dowloadable PDF.

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION LAUNCHES NEW COURSE ON SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH The course consists of an online tutorial with four learning units that making connections between health, and equity, social justice and human rights. It is intended to provide insight on the social determinants of health in order to encourage changes in policy that promote and protect the health of a population. The course is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese, and is targeted to WHO staff members and other health ministry officials but is free to access and fully available to the public.