We propose a framework for understanding the relationship of participation in block associations to a wide range of block-level variables (demographics, the built environment, crime, and the transient social and physical environmenO. Data were obtained from 48 New York City blocks using (a) a telephone survey of residents (n = 1,081), (b) the Block Environmental Inventory (BEI), (c) police records of reported crime, and (d) a survey of block association members (n = 469).

The prevalence of pregnancy, substance abuse, violence, and delinquency among young people is unacceptably high. Interventions for preventing problems in large numbers of youth require more than individual psychological interventions. Successful interventions include the involvement of prevention practitioners and community residents in community-level interventions. The potential of community-level interventions is illustrated by a number of successful studies. However, more inclusive reviews and multisite comparisons show that although there have been successes, many interventions did not demonstrate results. The road to greater success includes prevention science and newer community-centered models of accountability and technical assistance systems for prevention.

Social exchange and political economy theories are applied to the examination of voluntary organization participation and viability to understand individual and organizational empo werment. In the Block Booster Project, 29 block associations were examined via organizational assessment questionnaires from 381participants and interviews with 28 leaders. More-active participants reported more social~communal and personal benefits than less-active participants. Least-active participants reported more so-1This article is based on the first author's dissertation in Clinical

No abstract

Introduces the special section by proposing that empowerment theory and practice can be enriched through concepts and methods drawn from studies of citizen participation, voluntary community organizations, and community development. Descriptions, examples, and major findings from each domain are related to empowerment concepts and issues. Several rationales for a profitable convergence of research in these domains with empowerment and community psychology themes are offered. Describes the two large research projects from which the five articles in the special section were drawn, relates these articles to themes found in previous work, and points to the special contribution of each article.In a 1989 Gallup poll, Americans rated drugs as the number one problem in America. Other top problems in recent polls include education, homelessness, crime, affordable housing, and child care. A focus on single ~We thank Richard Price and Marc Zimmerman for their excellent review comments on earlier drafts of the articles and for their patience and timeliness. We also acknowledge Roger Mitchell and David Altman for their helpful comments on the introduction. Other acknowledgments are contained in individual articles. Finally, we thank the Editor for his visions of this section and for helpful comments. zCorrespondence should be addressed to Paul Florin,

No abstract

As research evidence for the effectiveness of community-based prevention has mounted, so has recognition of the gap between research and community practice. As a result, state and local governments are taking a more active role in building the capacity of community-based organizations to deliver evidence-based prevention interventions. Innovations are taking place in the establishment of technical assistance or support systems to influence the prevention and health education activities of community-based organizations. Several challenges for technical assistance systems are described: (1) setting prevention priorities and allocating limited technical assistance resources, (2) balancing capacity-building versus program dissemination efforts, (3) collaborating across categorical problem areas, (4) designing technical assistance initiatives with enough "dose strength" to have an effect, (5) balancing fidelity versus adaptation in program implementation, (6) building organizational cultures that support innovation, and (7) building local evaluative capacity versus generalizable evaluation findings.

No abstract