ARTICLES & MEDIA

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Who Is Naming and Claiming Our Kids?
Article Published in: Policy & Practice
March 2007 (Making Things Happen) by John A. Calhoun

As President of the National Crime Prevention Council, I sat on Attorney General Janet Reno’s U.S. Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Thirsty to learn, Reno would hold meetings in places where she could witness what was going on in local communities. At one of our meetings at a school in Southeast Washington, D.C., a minister described what his church was doing to help prevent crime, referencing Head Start, mentoring, family counseling, and after-school programs.  He concluded: “We also go out into the streets to get to know the kids by name.” 

Read More — Who Is Naming and Claiming Our Kids?.pdf
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Faith and Funding Simplified
Issue Addressed: Faith and Public Policy
Editorial Published in: The Washington Post
August 2001 by John A. Calhoun

The issue of funding faith-based public services is simpler than some would think. We are not talking about the gamut of faith-related services. Faith-linked programs, run by and/or in religious facilities, have been providing effective community services with public money for years.  They should continue.

Read More — Faith and Funding Simplified.pdf
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Pain Must Not be Wasted
Published in: Children's Voice
May 2001 (Child Welfare League of America) by John A. Calhoun

I met Gerda Weissmann Klein at the White House Conference on Teenagers in May 2000.

We sat next to each other in an afternoon breakout session on the Youth as Resources program. We spoke briefly about how we happened to be at this conference where we spoke of the human spirit and of our shared mission — to recognize the resilient spirit in youth, to claim it and nurture it, and to encourage communities to use and celebrate it.

Read More —
Pain Must Not be Wasted.pdf
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The Way to Help Teen-Agers
Editorial Published: The New York Times
May, 1986 by John A. Calhoun  

Society does not pay much attention to adolescents until they cross a pathological line into violent crime, teen-age pregnancy, psychiatric distress, running away or suicide attempts. Then, we focus on attempts to fix the problem.

Read More —
The Way to Help Teenagers.pdf
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The Deeper Principles of Prevention
Editorial Published: Foundation News and Commentary
July/Aug 2000 (The Council on Foundations, Inc.) by John A. Calhoun

Many successful prevention programs are driven by deeply held moral or religious beliefs. We shouldn’t be afraid to admit that. Public policy does not get us up in the morning; our core beliefs do. It’s the principles we do not articulate every day that nonetheless motivate us to be our finest.

Read More —
The Deeper Principles of Prevention.pdf
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The Ledge
Published in: Town & Country November 2007 by John A. Calhoun

A curtain, descending over that lustrous mind,
That mind that drew rich laughter
from almost everything,
That mind now expressed as pinched face,
furrowed brow,
Clenched jaw all fighting to understand,
Synaptic wires trying to find data bases,
swinging unplugged,
Her face desperate to connect.
My son? Yes, my son. Lives? Lives? In New York!
He lives in New York!

Read More —
The Ledge.pdf