History

The Juniper Gardens Children's Project was originally conceived in the mid 1960's during the Kennedy administration and continued during the Johnson administration's War on Poverty, and is still in operation today. Citizens of Northeast Kansas City, Kansas joined with faculty members from the University of Kansas' Departments of Special Education, Health Science, Human Development and Family Life, and the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies in order to address child development concerns within a low-income community (Hall, Schiefelbusch, Hoyt, & Greenwood, 1989).

Families living in deprived urban areas perpetuate a vicious cycle of poverty; from poor rearing practices to inadequate school adjustment usually expressed in the form of academic failures and behavior problems that lead to early school dropouts, delinquent behavior, early pregnancies and/or unstable families. These new families are very soon added to the already staggering number of individuals supported by welfare programs, resulting in a further drain on the community and involving poor prognosis for self-improvement (Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies, Planning Document, July 17, 1964).

In 1996, these shared intentions of the community and the University are still in operation [see Special Issue of the Journal Education and Treatment of Children, 1989, 12(4) devoted to the Juniper Gardens Children's Project]. Today, as in the 1960's, poverty and disability remain barriers to life improvement for too many area citizens. Together, the community and the University have designed programs to intervene and improve the caregiving and special education received by children in this community (Greenwood, Carta, et al., 1992). The initial founders, and those that have since followed, were successful in securing long-term federal funding for a number of research, training, and service grants, all based in the community and conducted with the active participation of the community residents. The disproportionate number of minorities affected by poverty and its association with unemployment, illiteracy, under-education, and poor health remains of great interest today, and new national and local initiatives to improve urban economies, environments, education, and health continue (as reflected in the Empowerment Zone effort of the Clinton Administration) as JGCP researches solutions to these problems. 

Among several honors afforded the Project was the invitation to describe the history, contribution, and work of the Juniper Gardens Children's Project within a special issue of the journal, Education and Treatment of Children [1989, Vol. 12(4)], a synthesis of research published in the American Psychologist [1992, 47, 1464-1474], and the 1996 Research Award from the Council for Exceptional Children [Exceptional Children, 1999, 66(1), 7-21].

Since its beginning, the project has concentrated on problems that local citizens (parents, teachers, and community leaders) have defined as major concerns. The JGCP's persistence in the community is testament to the fact that it has produced outcomes meaningful to the community. The effort has also been at the forefront and the crossroads of major developments in the conceptual frameworks, procedures, and practices used in the fields of applied behavior analysis and special education. Many of the early founders and participants at JGCP were pioneering (Hall, Hart, Risley, Whelan, Wolf) in that they demonstrated designs and practices that made measurable differences in the lives of children, particularly when parents and teachers were the interventionors in the home, school, clinic, and community settings. These demonstrations once unique, today are common place, and they are reflected in many aspects of contemporary special education policies and practices including, for example: the Individual Education Plan and Individual Family Service Plans, functional assessment of challenging behavior, environmental assessment, peer-mediated instruction, behavior management, intervention, mainstreaming, integration, and transition, among others.

Specifically, JGCP research efforts have produced the following outcomes along with many others:

• Procedures for increasing the availability and use of pediatric services for low-income families

• Strategies for improving the effectiveness of early intervention for young children with special needs

• Techniques for effective child behavior management

• Procedures for accelerating the development of communication skills and first and second language acquisition among young inner-city area children 

• Teaching techniques for improving literacy and appropriate social behavior 

• Strategies for improving the effectiveness of special education and for integrating children with disabilities into general education classrooms 

• Procedures for assessing child, parent, and teacher performance in school, home, and community settings

• Strategies for overcoming discrimination and achieving independence

• Strategies for in-service training of school personnel and parents in effective practices

• Strategies for promoting city development and community self-sufficiency

• Strategies for bridging the gap between research and practice

• Strategies based in proven research and technology