ABSTRACT
Over the past several decades, both research and practice have revealed the complex challenges involved in fostering academic achievement and healthy development in children and youth. In response to this complexity, major societal institutions have recognised the need to partner with one another to design and implement effective prevention and intervention programmes. The last three decades, in particular, have seen a proliferation of partnerships among four of the major institutions – family, school, community and university. While a wide range of prevention and intervention programmes have emerged from these partnerships, there is not a significant amount of data about the effectiveness of various programmes. The complexity of the partnerships and the programmes they have designed has challenged traditional evaluation approaches.
