Imagine it. Plan it. Make it. That’s the basic formula for the popular after-school and summer classes offered by Leonardo’s Basement, a Minneapolis, Minn. program started by hands-on guy Steve Jevning seven years ago. Harvey Meyer takes a look.

Can 21^st century schools build community by turning to traditional events like homecoming? Some educational leaders think so. Rob Capriccioso reports.

Wakanheza is a word for child in the Dakota language. Literally, it means "sacred being." It's also the name of a public awareness and training program in Minnesota that aims to reduce child abuse by building support for parents struggling with kids behaving badly in public. Andrea Grazzini Walstrom reports.

Rum River Health Services promotes and maintains health behaviors that assure optimum quality of life for residents in the Rum River Area, providing direct health care services as appropriate.

NEAT strengthens, engages and empowers St. Paul public school parents, parent organizations and community members working to improve public education in St. Paul.

MCCCA's mission is to promote leadership, advocacy and quality standards in the delivery of an array of services for troubled children and their families.

The mission of the CDF is to Leave No Child Behind and to ensure every child a Healthy Start a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities in Minnesota.

60 policymakers and numerous low-income constituents in Colorado, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio, Washington, and West Virginia are spending a month together "walking a mile" in each other's shoes to learn from one another about poverty, public policies and politics. It's part of the national Walk a Mile (WAM) project based in Seattle. Among the object lessons: policymakers will try to feed their family on the amount of money they would receive in food stamps for their family size.

High-quality early childhood programs can produce broad, long-term societal benefits -- including increased employment and associated tax revenue, reduced crime, and reduced dependency on social welfare systems. Many states are moving toward providing universal pre-K to all children. This RAND report describes eight states' efforts to create statewide systems of high-quality pre-K.