LAUSR

With this issue, the new editorial team (Anna Maria Santiago, Richard J. Smith, Paul Stuart, and Ana Sanroman) for the Journal of Community Practice officially begins its term, although we have been working conjointly with the former editors for the past 6 months. The vision guiding our work for the next few years focuses on four key areas. First, we will continue to build interdisciplinary and international perspectives on community practice grounded in social work, particularly in the areas of education, research, and macro practice. Starting with Volume 26, authors will be able to submit four types of manuscripts: full-length original research, From the Field, From the Classroom, and Innovations in Community Research. Second, we aim to strengthen our connections to the growing field of community-based research and evidence-based macro practice within the Society of Social Work Research, the grand challenges, and other disciplines through scholarly engagement and debate. Third, we will continue to extend our worldwide visibility to macro-practice faculty members who are seeking connections to a network of allied scholars, educators, and practitioners: For example, our recent call for papers on ecosocial work and social change in community practice is one illustration of this commitment. Finally, we will work diligently to enhance the Journal’s visibility nationally and internationally within social work, as well as other disciplines and sectors concerned with community and organizational practice. We have begun this outreach work with our publisher. Our inaugural issue builds upon previous work published in the Journal. About 10 years ago, guest editors Checkoway and Gutiérrez (2006a) compiled a set of articles about youth initiatives that underscored how youth are not problems to be solved, but rather active participants shaping solutions that improve community life. Authors in that special issue wrote about youth mobilizing for civil rights, environmental justice, and school reform. Since then, youth and community practice has evolved tremendously. In this issue, we include articles that weave together the different ways in which youth and adults are working together to realize community change. This work manifests itself in projects and activities such as community gardens, youth advisory councils, power organizing, experiential learning and curriculum enhancements, the use of photovoice, and drama-based youth development. These articles illustrate how youth serve as leaders within all types of communities, including those who are experiencing homelessness or emerging sexual identities. In “Examining the Relationship Between Level of Participation in Community Gardens and their Multiple Functions,” Booth, Chapman, Ohmer, and Wei analyze the level of participation in community gardens on participants’ health and well-being with a sample of youth and families who live near community gardens in zip code classified as a food desert. Through participant observation, the authors observed youth and families eating the vegetables they grew as evidence of the importance of community gardening to increased food access. Consistent with social capital theory that recognizes the strength of social ties to be contingent on the frequency and intensity of interaction, they find that the level of community participation (frequent, occasional, none) matters in terms of improved JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PRACTICE 2018, VOL. 26, NO. 1, 1–4 https://doi.org/10.1080/10705422.2018.1421126