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The purpose of a more comprehensive study was to develop an understanding of what factors meaningfully contribute to an individual's active participation in structured physical activity across the life span. This paper draws on such insights and reports on the factors influencing individuals aged 16-18 years (youngest age cohort in this cross-sectional study of four progressive age categories) that contribute or inhibitactive participation in institutionalised physical activity (PA), including sport-related activities. Participants. A total of 246 adolescents(49% boys and 51% girls) from poorly-resourced schools participated in the questionnaire. Materials and methods.The learners completed questionnaires that captured information related to their lived experiences and current PA practices within the three target communities within the Pretoria and Johannesburg municipalities. Results. There are several factors that influence adolescent learners' active participation of which the most influential relate to a sense of enjoyment of the type of activities and engaging with other participants that translate into a sense of belonging and positive social environment. Inhibiting factors include the lack of access to resources and enabling environmental factors. Such factors present a differential gender profile and demonstrate existing gender inequalities.Conclusions.Adolescent learners living in impoverished communities are influenced by a myriad of factors that either inhibit or contribute towards active participation in institutional physical activity and sport. Local stakeholders and civic society agents from institutional settings need to harness such insights develop nuanced policies, guidelines and programmes to address to optimise equitable PA practices in the promotion of an active lifestyle.

Production of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) was banned in the US in 1970s. However, susceptible populations especially those living at/around the contaminated sites continue to be at a risk of elevated exposure to PCBs because information about the contamination (of the environment) and its associated health risks may not reach these populations. A recent study found the second highest concentration of PCBs ever recorded worldwide in the sediment samples of Guánica Bay, located in the southwestern part of Puerto Rico. PCB levels in fish from the bay were also higher than the tolerance limit of Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which motivated this research to initiate a school-based campaign to bring community awareness about the contamination of the bay and engage students in preventive strategies to reduce their exposure to PCBs. Surveys before and after the campaign were administered in the high school as well as in the communities of Guánica Municipality. The analyses of the survey data suggest that the campaign was effective in bringing awareness among schoolchildren (6.6% before versus 69.7% after the campaign; χ 2 ~ 60.4; p < 0.001) and strategies to reduce PCB exposure and its toxicity such as removing adipose tissues from seafood/fish and exercising. In the community, there was a significant decline in the consumption of seafood/fish harvested from the bay after the campaign (54.6% before versus 33% after the campaign; χ 2 ~ 10.85; p < 0.001). However, the awareness did not result in significant behavior modifications among schoolchildren, such as avoiding swimming and fishing in the bay. Given hazardous levels of PCBs and some students use the bay for various purposes, including one-third of community members still use seafood/fish harvested from the bay, attention of different stakeholders is warranted for clean-up efforts as well as engaging children and communities in PCB exposure avoidance strategies.

This paper is the third and final part of a study attempting to analyse associations and communities in cereal crops of the Łuków Plain. It contains a description of intermediate and impoverished communities established in cereal crops of the Łuków Plain. Patches with phytocenoses without the combination of species characteristic of cereal associations were frequently observed. Impoverished communities of the alliance Aperion spicae-venti established in winter cereal crops. In turn, in spring cereal crops phytocenoses including species characteristic of tuber and root crops were found; they represented either a community with species characteristic of Panico-Setarion or an intermediate community with species characteristic of Aperion spicae-venti and Polygono-Chenopodion. Such communities are established, among others, because of production intensification which changes habitat conditions. Some patches found in the study area were intermediate between the two most frequently observed associations Arnoserido-Scleranthetum and Vicietum tetraspermae.

Drawing on two years of ethnographic fieldwork in two impoverished California communities-one made up of recent immigrants from Mexico, the other of U.S.-born Chicano citizens-this book provides an invaluable comparative perspective on Latino poverty in contemporary America. In northern California's high-tech Silicon Valley, author Daniel Dohan shows how recent immigrants get by on low-wage babysitting and dish-cleaning jobs. In the housing projects of Los Angeles, he documents how families and communities of U.S.-born Mexican Americans manage the social and economic dislocations of persistent poverty. Taking readers into worlds where public assistance, street crime, competition for low-wage jobs, and family, pride, and cross-cultural experiences intermingle,The Price of Povertyoffers vivid portraits of everyday life in these Mexican American communities while addressing urgent policy questions such as: What accounts for joblessness? How can we make sense of crime in poor communities? Does welfare hurt or help?

Presence of communities without species characteristic for cereal associations was observed in the cultivations of the Podlaski Przełom Bugu mesoregion. Community Scleranthus annuus and community with species characteristic for alliance Aperion spica-venti were observed in winter cereals. Phytocoenoses similar in floristic composition to root cultivations were noted in spring cereals of the studied area. Plots of communities with participation of species characteristic for alliance Panico-Setarion were observed on loose soils while on more compact and fertile habitats community with species characteristic for Polygono-Chenopodion was noted.

Asset building is helping impoverished families save for education, home ownership, microenterprise, and other community revitalization purposes. These community development programs are built in part on the idea that assets have multiple positive effects on well-being. A system of individual development accounts is often used to structure and subsidize asset accumulation. Studies that evaluate the implementation, performance, and effects of asset building will be critical in assessing the potential of community development based on special savings accounts. This article summarizes findings from studies addressing the effects of assets on personal well-being, economic security, civic behavior, women's status, and children's well-being. Implications for demonstration and evaluation of asset-based community revitalization initiatives are discussed.

Background: Quality early childhood programmes have proven to be highly cost-effective in reversing the detrimental consequences of poverty on children’s development. However, these programmes can only influence developmental outcomes of poor children if their needs are considered. Aim: The purpose of this article was to inquire into the experiences of two early childhood development (ECD) practitioners working and living in impoverished and marginalised predominantly white communities where the involvement of volunteers from charity organisations was prominent. The researchers argued that the practitioners’ experiences regarding their work should inform the kind of complementary volunteer aid and support sought for. Setting: The research sites were two informal predominantly white settlements where unemployed residents lived in makeshift housing. Methods: A narrative inquiry, nested in the social constructivist paradigm, was employed to explore the experiences of two practitioners. Data were collected from narrative interviews, observations, documents, photographs and artefacts. Results: Both participants knew well that the needs of the children in their care differed significantly from those of their more affluent peers and believed that training would equip them better for their task. Although both centres (and communities) benefitted from volunteer support, this well-intended aid was often misguided as the volunteers were not qualified educators and did not understand the context. Conclusion: The volunteers did not empower the practitioners to use their insight and experience to deliver a quality programme fit for context. Instead, they left the practitioners with a sense of disempowerment by dictating the programmes and practice to be followed in the respective ECD centres, even though they were not qualified to do so.

This article reviews the experience of the Phipps Houses Group, a nonprofit housing developer, in its attempt to foster a sense of community and family well-being in housing developments in an impoverished community. Drawing on the professional literature; interviews with tenants, staff, and members of the community; and a review of workers' records, the article discusses the community development program and gives a profile of tenants. Phipps Houses Group is presented as a contemporary exemplar of social service practice principles that can be applied in other sites in deteriorated neighborhoods: integration of housing and social work services, unified staff vision of program purpose, importance of on-site service provision, dual focus on individual families and buildingwide community, extension of service to the surrounding neighborhoods, and need for ongoing program evaluation. The authors suggest that this private-sector model of linking housing and social services should become more common as direct federal housing development diminishes.

There is growing recognition among practitioners and policymakers of the fact that the needs and circumstances of individuals and families living in impoverished communities are interconnected. Consequently, many current approaches to addressing poverty in such communities focus, in part, on attempting to promote \"comprehensive\" development. These efforts seek development strategies that address the social, physical, and economic needs and circumstances of community residents. This article outlines the rationale for this approach, explores historical and current approaches to its realization, and examines the experience of the Ford Foundation's Neighborhood and Family Initiative. Obstacles to the implementation of comprehensive development and the factors that can overcome these obstacles are discussed.

This article reviews policy approaches to and legislation for community revitalization and discusses how early federal policies contributed to the segregation and isolation of poor neighborhoods. The article describes how new community-based programs counter the urban disinvestment practices that have led to segregated communities and points out approaches and policies that transcend people-place dichotomies by recognizing the need for comprehensive community-building strategies. Two national policy initiatives, the Empowerment Zone Program and the Urban Revitalization Demonstration Project (HOPE VI), which reflect the five guiding principles of community building, serve as examples of this trend and as a framework for future social policies and social work practice.