Community Matters
Beginning in August 2001, IFNL has produced Community Matters, a 15 minute segment of Clemson University's Your Day program on ETV Radio.
Your Day is regulary webcast live at http://yourday.clemson.edu and programs for 2008 and 2009 are archived on the website. Here are the most recent segments of Community Matters:
April 21, 2008
Strong Communities CAN Keep Kids Safe. Kerry Coffey, director of public information at the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life (IFNL) at Clemson University talks with IFNL Director Dr. Gary Melton about the success of Strong Communities. Listen at http://yourday.clemson.edu/?q=/node/230.
April 28, 2008
An act of faith: sheltering children in need of hospitality. Dr. Gary
Melton, director of the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life
(IFNL) at Clemson University talks with Dr. Patricia Motes, IFNL
Research Professor, about the success of Strong Communities efforts
such as Strong Families designed to help children and families in
crisis. SC ETV presents Give me Shelter, a week-long series of
television programs focusing on homelessness in South Carolina, April
27-May 3.
Listen at http://yourday.clemson.edu/?q=/node/230.
May 5, 2008
Housing: a child protection issue. Kerry Coffey, director of public information at the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life (IFNL) at Clemson University talks with IFNL Associate Director Dr. Jim McDonell in a follow-up to SC ETV’s Give me Shelter series of television programs focusing on homelessness in South Carolina.
Listen at http://yourday.clemson.edu/?q=/node/229.
January 29, 2009
A mentor who's made a difference. In recognition of National Mentoring Month in January, Rev. David Taylor, Co-Pastor of Eastminster Presbyterian Church talks with Clemson University freshman Chardee Anderson and her mentor Carol Stewart, participants in Building Dreams, a program of mentors for children of incarcerated parents sponsored by the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life (IFNL). Listen at http://yourday.clemson.edu/?q=node/115.
April 27, 2009
Safe families and other child welfare actions. Dr. Gary Melton, director of the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life talks with David Anderson, executive director of the Lydia Home Association, a child-welfare agency based in Chicago for over 90 years. Listen at http://yourday.clemson.edu/?q=node/207.
April 13, 2009
A long view of the prevention of child abuse and neglect. Dr. Gary Melton, director of the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life (IFNL) at Clemson University talks with Richard Krugman, Dean of the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Listen at http://yourday.clemson.edu/?q=node/207.
May 11, 2009
The mental health of children in post-war Kosovo. Dr. Gary Melton, director of the Institute on Family and Neighborhood Life talks with Kosovo psychiatrist Ferid Agani, and his daughter Natyra Agani. Listen at http://yourday.clemson.edu/?q=node/218.
May 25, 2009
The child’s perspective on family adversity. Dr. Gary Melton, director of the Institute for Family and Neighborhood Life (IFNL) talks with Anne Smith, professor emerita of education at University of Otago. Listen at http://yourday.clemson.edu/?q=node/218.
Fact Sheets and Websites
Here are fact sheets or internet links for other topics discussed on Community Matters.
African American Neighborhood and Family Life.
To see an example of neighborhoods that work, visit the website of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods at http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/PHDCN/
Bowling Alone
Robert Putnam's phrase for the decline of social connections in American Neighborhoods. Learn more at http://www.bowlingalone.com/
Child Care
Quality Childcare: What Does it Look Like? For information about quality childcare, go to www.naeyc.org. This is the web page for the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
What Should Parents Look For in Child Care? For more information on how to evaluate child care or to locate child care providers, call 1-800424-2246 (Child Care Aware) or go to www.childcareaware.org.
Child Care Resource and Referral Programs. There are over 400 Child Care Resource and Referral Programs in the United States and four of these are in South Carolina. You can locate the agency nearest you by putting in your zip code on the Child Care Aware web page. For information about the Child Care Resource and Referral agency affiliated with the Trident United Way, go to www.tuw.org.
For information about South Carolina quality standards, go to the SC Department of Social Services (www.state.sc.us/dss) or the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (www.dhhs.state.sc.us)
Child Poverty and Welfare
To learn more about child poverty visit the website of the National Center for Children in Poverty at http://www.nccp.org.
Civic Knowledge and Civic Engagement of Youth
Citizenship and Education in Twenty-Eight Countries: Civic Knowledge and Engagement at Age Fourteen is a report that contains the results of a cross-national study that examined the civic knowledge, engagement, and attitudes of 14-year-old students in 28 democratic countries. The report, written by Judith Torney-Purta (University of Maryland, College of Education), Rainer Lehmann, Hans Oswald, and Wolfram Schulz, is available online at http://www.terpconnect.umd.edu/~jtpurta/.
Coping With Disaster
For more information on helping children cope with disaster, visit these web sites.
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
American Psychological Association
The National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Carolina
The National Institute of Mental Health
PrepareRespondRecover.com
Read a fact sheet on helping children cope with disaster here.
Creating Safe and Humane Schools
Learn more about keeping children safe at school.
The Bullying Prevention Program: Background and Program Overview.
Organized Youth Sports: How Do They Affect Children and Adolescents?
School Climate and Student Stress: What Can Be Done To Support Children?
Faith-Based Organizations and Community Development
Read about the role of church and faith-based organizations in community development here.
Families Facing Exceptional Challenges
Families of Children with Developmental Disabilities -- for more information, visit the American Association on Intellectual and Devleopmental Disabilities (AAIDD) website or the Beach Center on Disability website at the University of Kansas.
Families of Adults with Mental Illnesses and Children with Emotional Disturbances -- for more information about the National Alliance of the Mentally Ill, visit their website. Also, the National Alliance of the Mentally Ill in South Carolina has a toll-free Helpline for Families number, 1-800-788-5131.
Other information can be obtained at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law website.
Grandparents and Grandchildren
For a free "Tips for Grandparents" brochure, call Prevent Child Abuse Greenville at 1-800-917-KIDS (5437).
International Issues
Here are several interesting sources on international issues
Changing Demographics of the United States
Greenville Japanese Saturday School
International Law, Human Rights, Women, Children and Families
Literacy
Read these fact sheets to learn more about literacy.
Adult Literacy
Family Literacy
Health Literacy
Neighborhood Watch Programs Protect Neighborhoods
The National Sheriff's Association has a page on its website about neighborhood watch programs called "USA on Watch." You can click here for information (www.usaonwatch.org).
Parish Nursing
For more information about parish nursing, go to the Health Ministry page of the Partner's for a Healthy Community website (www.healthy-community.org).
Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect
For more information, see the following
The Crisis in Child Protection: How the System Developed and How It Should Be Reformed Need
The Child Protective Services System: Who's In It, and How Can They Be Helped?
Healthy Families South Carolina
Rural Issues
Here are several facts sheets on rural issues.
Rural Life: An Overview
Rural Life Today: Defining "Rural"
Rural Life Today
Rural Crime Facts
Teen Pregnancy Prevention
Here are several resources on teen pregnancy.
Adolescent Pregnancy and Parenting
Results of Pathways Teen Mother Support Project Continue to Look Promising
Visit the website of the South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy
U.N. Special Session on Children, May 2002
For more information about the United Nations General Assembly's Special Session on Children, visit the following websites.
Child Rights Information Network
UNICEF
What's Happening in 4-H?
For more information about the 4-H program, click here.
Why Are Our Kids Unhappy?
Today's young adults are living in the age of anxiety, according to a study by Jean Twenge that was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. For a copy of a news release about this article written by staff at Case Western Reserve University, click here. (broken link) For the full text of the article, courtesy of the American Psychological Association, click here.
Youth Gangs in South Carolina
For a report on youth gangs in South Carolina, go here.
Youth Participation
For information on youth participation, go here.
Youth Spiritual Development
Here are several resources on spiritual development among youth.
Children's Spiritual Development
Youth Participation in Religious Activities