ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors describe the important benefits of cohesive neighborhood communities for disadvantaged children-especially poor children-but he also put forward ideas about new community structures and strategies that will be more responsive to these children's needs. In addition, many schools, partly in response to the perceived loss of traditional communities, have undertaken major structural reorganizations that seek to create "villages" within the school building. While some urban villages are clearly large and diverse, many disadvantaged families also live in confined neighborhoods that seriously limit their social relationships. Many children, too, are endangered because they live in isolated neighborhoods that severely circumscribe their social relationships, and low-income children especially are often harmed because they are growing up in villages that provide them virtually no exposure to diverse social or economic worlds. The problem is that most schools and religious institutions appear to be doing little to expand and diversify the communities available to low-income families.
