Jim Robertson – författare

In all of her 19 years, Sweet Alice Nelson had never been happy in southwest Mississippi. White people treated her awfully, and there was nothing she could do about it. She had dreamed of getting away, but there was no money for that or anything else. On the last day of August in 1959, however, a strange event occurred, and Sweet Alices life took a turn she didnt expect. A young teacher named Jimmy Burletson had her to help him do something she never believed any white man would do. Then, as if she didnt have enough new things to deal with, Jimmys best friend Jay Stevens started coming around. Before she knew it, she was having thoughts that she knew she wasnt supposed to have.

Community involvement is now at the centre of the UK government's social inclusion, neighbourhood renewal and health development programmes, resulting in many challenges for managers involved in such work. The bestselling first edition of this book discussed the meaning, principles and application of managing community practice, focusing on the role and skills needed by managers. This will be required if ambitious regeneration and social inclusion programmes are to work in partnership with the active involvement of communities and exploring a wide range of examples from practice. Since the first edition, there has been a perceptible increase in the structured involvement of communities in developing, delivering and evaluating public policies and projects. In this new edition all chapters have been fully updated in the light of recent developments and new case examples have been included to illustrate such changes. A new chapter on The Managers Role in Community Research has been added and a new concluding chapter explores key challenges which need to be addressed.This book is an essential resource for operational and strategic managers in local government, housing, health and other service delivery agencies, social inclusion and community regeneration projects. It will be essential reading for tutors and students on a wide range of undergraduate and Masters courses.