Community service and learning experiences are booming as we enter the 21st century. This practical guide assists college students and other constituents as they psychologically prepare for volunteering, service-learning, practicums, fieldwork assignments, and internships in a diverse and ever-changing world. Though created with the novice community worker in mind, this book will also assist professors, teachers, administrators, and agency personnel in understanding and preparing workers for community service and learning in schools, child care centers, soup kitchens, and shelters for the homeless. Written in a practical, conversational style, this book offers the voices, issues, concerns, and resources of more than 200 previous community workers. This book includes their struggles with the initial adjustment process, as well as ongoing gender, race, and class issues encountered in various service learning environments. Topics range from choosing a community service site to appropriate methods of bringing closure to the experience when it is time to say good-bye. This book in essence, provides hundreds of role models, scenarios, and worker perspectives that will help less-inexperienced workers prepare for the real-life, hands-on experiences of community engagement.

"Reaching Out to Children and Families is intended primarily for college students but may be useful to high-school, international, or nonstudent volunteers, and to those who organize or manage student-volunteer programs." - The Chronicle of Philanthropy

"The book will be most useful for students who participate in community learning, and for university or college faculty who work with setting up and supervising community learning experiences." - Readings:Ajournal Of Reviews and Commentary In Mental Health