Highlights programs that effectively address urgent civic issues in major cities, smaller urban areas, and rural communities across the United States. Lessons learned from these exemplary programs have wide-ranging applications in all categories of civic invention. Community advocates and researchers learn about solutions that involve: (1) helping young people stay in school, off drugs, and on track through programs that offer adult mentors to youth, teach basic life and work skills, and prepare youth for work and higher education; (2) creating viable economies through downtown revitalization efforts and programs linking a region’s heritage with civic renewal; (3) equipping families for success through housing-for-the-homeless programs, neighborhood transportation services, training initiatives to prepare working mothers for living-wage jobs, and counseling-based, affordable banking services; (4) improving neighborhoods via block renewal and community organizing; and (5) creating collaborative change as exemplified by task forces working to combat infant mortality, provide basic health services to low-income children, and promote interracial social contact. Taken together, the 19 community success stories reflect working programs with demonstrable results that could be replicated in other places.
