Homelessness prevention is an essential element of any effort to end homelessness either locally or nation-wide. To close the front door of entry into homelessness, the central challenge of prevention is targeting our efforts toward those people that will become homeless without the intervention. This book identifies elements of community homelessness prevention strategies that seem to lead to reductions in the number of people who otherwise would become homeless. The contributing elements include targeting through control of the eligibility screening process; developing community motivation; maximising mainstream and private resources; fostering leadership; and ensuring the availability and structure of data and information used to track progress, improve on prevention efforts, and facilitate outcome-based contracting. Evidence from the six communities studied indicates that those employing the most elements seem to be more successful at prevention and better able to document their achievements. This book also identifies four promising homelessness prevention activities that may be used alone or in combination as part of a coherent community-wide strategy: (1) supportive services coupled with permanent housing, particularly when combined with effective discharge from institutions, especially mental hospitals; (2) mediation in Housing Courts; (3) cash assistance for rent or mortgage arrears; and (4) rapid exit from shelter. This study provides insight into approaches that will help prevent homelessness. It is an important contribution to our understanding of how to help homeless Americans.

Search skills of today bear little resemblance to searches through print publications. Reference service has become much more complex than in the past, and is in a constant state of flux. Learning the skill sets of a worthy reference librarian can be challenging, unending, rewarding, and-- yes, fun.

Includes, beginning Sept. 15, 1954 (and on the 15th of each month, Sept.-May) a special section: School library journal, ISSN 0000-0035, (called Junior libraries, 1954-May 1961). Also issued separately.

Divided into dedicated categories about the subjects most meaningful to librarians, this valuable resource reviews 500 texts across all major fields. Drawing on their collective experience in reference services and sifting through nearly 30,000 reviews in ARBAonline, editors Steven Sowards, associate director for collection at Michigan State University Libraries, and Juneal Chenoweth, editor of American Reference Books Annual, curated this collection of titles, most of which have been published since 2000, to serve collections and reference librarians in academic and public libraries. From the Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences and Encyclopedia of the Civil War to the Encyclopedia of Physics, Encyclopedia of Insects, and Taylor's Encyclopedia of Garden Plants to the formidable Oxford English Dictionary, The Reference Librarian's Bible encompasses every subject imaginable and will be your first stop for choosing and evaluating your library's collections as well as for answering patrons' questions.

Foundational topics such as history, ethics, and principles of primary prevention, as well as specific issues such as consultation, political issues, and financing. The second section addresses such topics as abuse, depression, eating disorders, HIV/AIDS, injuries, and religion and spirituality often dividing such topics into separate entries addressing childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.

This in-depth examination reviews fundamental changes of the past decade that have reduced homelessness in the United States and other Western democracies. Focusing on the last decade, Modern Homelessness: A Reference Handbook examines the issue in the United States and in other nations that have adopted new strategies to address homelessness—and achieved notable results in preventing and ending it. The handbook covers the unprecedented reductions first announced in 2007 and the crucial shifts in strategy and investment, and the results that brought them about. These fundamental changes are analyzed to identify the factors that proved most effective in altering the national and local dialogue and response relative to this daunting issue. In addition to a brief history of homelessness in contemporary times, the handbook examines key developments of the past decade in research, policy, housing models, and service delivery that have been shown to decrease homelessness. These include active partnership among the governments of the United States, Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, and others that moved the discussion in a new direction. The story is brought up to date with a consideration of the effects of the 2008 economic crisis.

The Research Handbook on Homelessness presents a comprehensive account of the current knowledge and understanding of homelessness, the substantial challenges it presents and the latest developments in responding to the issue. Bringing together 54 of the worldÕs leading scholars in this field, this multidisciplinary Research Handbook acknowledges the increasing interest in homelessness across various academic disciplines and highlights the constant evolution of this issue, as well as the research methods that accompany it.