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This chapter highlights eight of the case study churches selected from the Philadelphia area. The narratives focus on how these churches define their mission, particularly in terms of the relationship between social action and evangelism, and put their theological beliefs into action through community outreach. As a complement to their stories, the chapter presents survey data on church members' motivations and beliefs relevant to outreach, as well as their reported rates of actual practices of evangelism, informal acts of compassion and civic involvement.

This chapter introduces fifteen diverse Protestant churches noted for their community outreach, in the context of their Philadelphia religious ecology. The 237 programs sponsored by these case study churches are analyzed based on definitions of the key terms “social action” and “evangelism”. Social action includes four basic categories: relief services, personal development, community development, and systemic change. While individualistic, immediate aid tends to predominate over structural approaches to social problems, the amount and type of social ministry to emerge at a given church defies easy prediction. Among the churches studied, a strong emphasis on evangelism does not necessarily preclude involvement in social concerns.

A mission orientation frames a moral order for a congregation's activity and identity. This chapter focuses on the ways that churches organize the spiritual and social dimensions of their public mission. In place of the traditional dichotomy between social activism and evangelism, a more nuanced set of orientations classifies churches as dominant social action, dual-focus, holistic, dominant evangelism, and inward-focused. This spectrum of types indicates that the religious impulses to serve and to save are not always polarized drives; rather, churches interrelate these two imperatives in their community outreach in a range of adaptable, and sometimes rather sophisticated, ways.

Religious entities play a vital though limited role in our social safety net. The majority of congregations engage in community-serving activities, though their commitments tend to be shallow. Four currents in the broader political and social setting have particular implications for understanding faith-based social services: devolution, faith-based initiatives, changing norms for religion in public life, and ambivalence toward evangelism. Shifting patterns in church-state relations have generated both opportunities and uncertainties. This dynamic context invites a fresh conceptual framework for interpreting churches' public engagement. In particular, new language is needed to describe the “faith factor” that has meaning outside of the religious community, but does not reduce faith to a product of other social variables

This chapter demonstrates how the potential for collaboration was developed in Denver and Atlanta and how it is proving appropriate and effective for both internal and external strategies of social reform. Membership size of churches in both cities varies widely; many—49% of churches in Denver and 52% in Atlanta — have between 100 and 500 members. There is a strong tendency in both cities for black churches to own their buildings rather than rent them. In addition, a majority of churches in both cities conduct at least one nonreligious community outreach program. Metro Denver Black Church Initiative was launched in Denver to improve conditions in low-income black neighborhoods through the local churches. Furthermore, the outreach to the community in Atlanta is described.

One goal of Chicago's community-policing initiative, CAPS (Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy), was to build popular confidence in the responsiveness and effectiveness of the police. This chapter examines the changing views of Chicagoans about their police as CAPS took root in the city. Police gained significant support over time, and they did so among all major groups. This can be attributed in large part to improving neighborhood conditions. Many—but not all—Chicagoans felt their neighborhoods were growing cleaner, safer, and more comfortable as places to live, and official rates of crime were declining. These improvements in quality of life benefited the police. Some of the remaining gaps between views of whites and African Americans can be ascribed to personal experience. At least some of the improved rating of the Chicago police was “earned” by improving neighborhood conditions, and a bit was earned by effective community outreach. It is necessary to consider the enduring gap between the city's whites, Latinos, and African Americans.

This chapter looks at what works to help young people overcome the barriers to Safe Passage. It summarizes the lessons learned about program components and compiles those factors that successful programs appear to have in common. It organizes the factors compiled at four different levels: individual, family, school, and community. Success factors at the individual level include early intervention, one-on-one attention, and youth empowerment. Those at the family include parental involvement and reaching across generations. Factors at the school level are educational achievement, effective principals, on-site facilitators, social skills training, group counseling, and community service. Success factors at the community level involve the location in the community, community outreach, cultural responsiveness, community police, safe havens, financial incentives, multiagency multicomponents, food, residential care, and intensive and long-term involvement in a program.

This chapter details the challenges brought about by the construction of the Second Avenue subway. Despite the extensive efforts of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to minimize impacts, the businesses and residents along Second Avenue had little patience for the construction. Residents lived with loud noises outside their windows and they also complained about dust. Moreover, water, electricity, cable, and telephone services were periodically halted. Manhattan's Community Board 8, which covers the Upper East Side between 59th and 96th Streets, served as a conduit between the community and the MTA. In response to the complaints from residents, MTA Capital Construction president Michael Horodniceanu implemented what was by far the most ambitious community outreach effort the MTA had ever conducted. Horodniceanu's efforts helped Upper East Siders understand the project's enormous scale and the MTA's extensive efforts to minimize construction impacts. Likewise, construction officials became much more sensitive to the community when they heard directly from residents and business owners at workshops.

In this chapter I use Chinese music departments in the PRC and Taiwan as case studies, exploring how the process of institutionalization has reshaped traditional music in the region and how Chinese music programs have developed responses to growing concerns about their relevance to the surrounding community. More Chinese music programs now seek to develop curricula that incorporate the practices of oral/aural tradition from local musical communities. In an effort to make traditional music more accessible to a wider audience, some institutions attempt to increase their appeal through interdisciplinary collaborations and outreach events as well. I argue that collaborations between institutions and communities will become indispensable to Chinese music programs to help ensure an appropriate representation of local music genres and its relevance to local audiences.

There has been a growing movement over the past decade or more to make a child’s entrance into kindergarten less of an abrupt experience. Transition programs and prekindergarten-to-3rd grade efforts across the country focus on bridging the gaps between what children experience before kindergarten and the routines and expectations of elementary school. These initiatives range from bringing greater alignment between preschool curriculum, teaching practices, and assessment to giving young children ample opportunities to visit kindergarten classrooms and experience the learn­ing environment before school starts. Even if a child has attended preschool, moving into an elementary school can feel intimidating for a 5-year-old. The hallways are bigger, the other children in the school are bigger, and there are many more adults involved in the whole process (Figure 6.1). Relationships among schools and the child care centers, preschools, and other community organizations that interact with parents who have young children can lead to more opportunities for young children to feel less anxiety about starting school. Several organizations, including the National Association of Elementary School Principals and the Massachusetts-based Community Advocates for Young Children, provide training and guidance to principals on adapting their schools to serve younger children. The W. K. Kellogg Foundation has also made large investments across the country aimed at creating stronger links between schools and the early-childhood community. Many of these efforts also target families whose children have not been in any formal early learning program because these children often lack the early academic and social-emotional skills needed to do well in today’s more academically focused kinder­garten classrooms. Schools of education can better prepare future teachers and administrators by including training on young children’s development and on strategies for supporting their transition into school. Children with disabilities and their parents may experience additional stress in transitioning into school. Rules and regulations regarding eligibility requirements, services provided, and community resources can be confusing and are not always readily available to parents.

So back to the basic question. What exactly is the job of someone who teaches in a college or a university? My answer is simple and follows from legal theorist Ernest Weinrib’s account of what is required if an activity is to have its own proper shape. It must present itself “as a this and not a that.” As I have already said, the job of someone who teaches in a college or a university is to (1) introduce students to bodies of knowledge and traditions of inquiry they didn’t know much about before; and (2) equip those same students with the analytical skills that will enable them to move confidently within those traditions and to engage in independent research should they choose to do so. Job performance should be assessed on the basis of academic virtue, not virtue in general. Teachers should show up for their classes, prepare lesson plans, teach what has been advertised, be current in the literature of the field, promptly correct assignments and papers, hold regular office hours, and give academic (not political or moral) advice. Researchers should not falsify their credentials, or make things up, or fudge the evidence, or ignore data that tells against their preferred conclusions. Those who publish should acknowledge predecessors and contributors, provide citations to their sources, and strive always to give an accurate account of the materials they present. That’s it, there’s nothing else, and nothing more. But this is no small list of professional obligations, and faculty members who are faithful to its imperatives will have little time to look around for causes and agendas to champion. A faculty committee report submitted long ago to the president of the University of Chicago declares that the university exists “only for the limited . . . purposes of teaching and research” and reasons that “since the university is a community only for those limited and distinctive purposes, it is a community which cannot take collective action on the issues of the day without endangering the conditions for its existence and effectiveness” ( Kalven Committee Report on the University’s Role in Political and Social Action, November 11, 1967).

From primary prevention to end-of-life care, AIDS psychiatry can make significant contributions to preventing risk behaviors and HIV transmission, mitigating suffering, and improving adherence to risk reduction and medical care. Early in the epidemic, stigma and discrimination magnified suffering and excluded persons known to have HIV and AIDS from many settings in the United States and throughout the world. Such treatment of persons with AIDS was described (Cohen, 1989) as a new form of discrimination called “AIDSism.” As we approach the end of the third decade of the HIV pandemic, in most countries education, training, and experience have mitigated AIDSism, and persons with HIV and AIDS are now seen in varieties of medical and nonmedical settings. The multimorbid medical and psychiatric illnesses associated with HIV infection have complicated the care of persons with HIV and AIDS. A primary care guideline for the care of persons with HIV is available in print (Aberg et al., 2009) and online and is updated regularly at: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/page/cid/IDSAguidelines.html. AIDS psychiatrists, psychosomatic medicine psychiatrists, as well as child, adult, and geriatric psychiatrists and other mental health professionals are in a unique position to intervene and provide both preventive and treatment interventions for children, adolescents, and adults who are vulnerable to, infected with, or affected by HIV infection. Psychiatrists generally make long-term and trusting relationships with their patients and take complete histories including sexual histories and substance use histories. Primary physicians, pediatricians, obstetricians, and HIV specialists as well as parents and teachers may also have unique opportunities to intervene throughout the life cycle. In this chapter, we provide a list of settings where educational opportunities abound and can lead to an improved understanding of how to prevent HIV transmission. These settings are summarized in Table 1.1. Since a full description of every setting with potential for intervention is beyond the scope of this chapter, we provide more specific descriptions of settings where providing education and easy access to testing, condoms, and drug and alcohol treatment can be therapeutic and lifesaving.

Rangelands in Africa (i.e., grasslands, savannas, and woodlands, which contain both grasses and woody plants) cover approximately 2.1 × 109 ha. Africa’s livestock population of about 184 million cattle, 3.72 million small ruminants (sheep and goats), and 17 million camels extract about 80% of their nutrition from these vast rangelands (IPCC, 1996). Rangelands have a long history of human use and are noted for great variability in climate and frequent drought events. The combination of climatic variability, low ecological resilience, and human land use make rangeland ecosystems more susceptible to rapid degeneration of ecosystems. From a land-use perspective, there are differences between West Africa and East Africa in rangelands use. In arid and semiarid areas of West Africa (rainfall 5–600 mm), millet (or another crop) is planted over a unimodal (one peak in rainfall per year) rainy season (three to four months); then fields remain fallow during the dry season, ranging from eight to nine months. Livestock eat crop residues. Land use is dominated by cultivation, with livestock playing a subsidiary role in the village economy. In East Africa, by contrast, areas with higher rainfall (up to 600 mm) are inhabited by pastoralists rather than farmers. In dry parts, cultivation occurs mainly where irrigation is possible or where water can otherwise be sequestered and stored for cropping. Rainfall is bimodal (two peaks in rainfall per year) in most rangelands, resulting in two growing seasons. As much as 85% of the population live and depend on rangelands in a number of countries in Africa. With emerging problems associated with the increasing population, the changes in key production areas, and the prevalence of episodic droughts and insecurity due to climatic change and ecological degradation and expansion of grazing territories, the traditional coping strategies of farmers, ranchers, and pastoralists have become inappropriate. More uncertainties require new innovations in characterizing, monitoring, analyzing, and communicating the emergence of drought to allow pastoral communities to cope with a rapidly changing environment. To this end, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded the Texas A&M University System an assessment grant to develop a Livestock Early Warning System (LEWS) as part of the Global Livestock Collaborative Research Support Program.

This concluding chapter of A Tapestry of Values synthesizes the book’s major lessons. It challenges the value-free ideal by arguing that values can have legitimate roles to play in choosing research topics, deciding how to study them, determining the aims of research, responding to uncertainty, and choosing scientific language. It shows how this view of science challenges traditional concepts in science policy, such as the linear, social-contract, and deficit models. Finally, it suggests three conditions for incorporating values into science in an appropriate fashion: (1) the influences of values should be made transparent; (2) values should reflect ethical and social priorities; and (3) values should be scrutinized via processes of engagement that incorporate multiple stakeholders.