First Lady cheers Chicago's CeaseFire

First Lady Laura Bush traveled to Chicago and gave a thumbs up to a program called CeaseFire, which was started in 1995 and now has an outreach to 11 Chicago neighborhoods at high risk of being hit by gang violence. For more information, go to http://www.ceasefirechicago.org/. To read the Chicago Tribune's account of the First Lady's visit, go to http://www.edwoj.com/civic/FirstLady_Trib_060305.htm/.

Trib praises Project Safe Neighborhoods

The Chicago Tribune, in an editorial, cites the success of a federal-local initiative called Project Safe Neighborhoods for help in reducing the homicide rate in Chicago. For more information, go to www.psnchicago.org. To read the complete editorial in the Tribune, go to www.edwoj.com/civic/safe_05082005.mht .

"Civic engagement" or "social capital"?

There is a lack of clarity in concepts and terms in the scholarship of civic engagement, Ed Wojcicki (2001) concludes. For a scholarly look at the history of the terms "social capital," "civic engagement" and "civil society," click on the link http://www.edwoj.com/Articles/thesis3.doc.