Safe Passage Making It through Adolescence in a Risky Society: What Parents, Schools, and Communities Can Do

Children today face daunting obstacles on the path to adulthood--failing schools, dangerous streets, drug abuse, teen pregnancy. But the good news, according to child advocate Joy Dryfoos, is that there are many programs out there that work--models that we can apply to our own communities and our own children. In Safe Passage , Dryfoos helps us find them. Indeed, this book examines hundreds of successful programs, ideas that have worked in the real world--in a very tough real world at that--such as the Turner Middle School in Philadelphia, a model of a "university assisted" community school. Dryfoos examines the new trend toward full-service schools, programs that make the school the hub of the community, serving as enrichment centers and neighborhood safe havens. She evaluates programs that try to cope with sex, drugs, and violence--revealing which ones work and what aspects of these programs are most effective--and she also dissects programs that have failed, such as the highly touted drug program, DARE. Dryfoos concludes with a passionate call for action, outlining what must be done if our young people are to be assured safe passage to the future. Whether they live in a room down the hall, a house across town, or a tenement a thousand miles away, these are our children. This book shows us what we can do to give them a better chance to succeed in life, to grow up to be healthy and productive adults.

Joy G. Dryfoos is an independent researcher and writer whose work is supported by the Carnegie Corporation. She lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.