The local enhancement of antiferromagnetic correlations near vacancies observed in a variety of spin systems is analyzed in a single framework. Variational calculations suggest that the resonatingvalence-bond character of the spin correlations at short distances is responsible for the enhancement. Numerical results for uniform spin chains, with and without frustration, dimerized chains, ladders, and two dimensional clusters are in agreement with our conjecture. This short distance phenomenon occurs independently of the long distance behavior of the spin correlations in the undoped system. Experimental predictions for a variety of compounds are briefly discussed.PACS numbers: 64.70. Kb,75.10.Jm,75.50.Ee Studies of ladder compounds continue producing fascinating results. In addition to the discovery of a spin gap in undoped even-leg ladders [1], superconductivity at high pressure in Sr 0.4 Ca 13.6 Cu 24 O 41.84 , with 2-leg ladders and chains in its structure, has been recently reported [2]. Both properties, predicted by theoretical arguments, [3] indicate a close interplay between the spin and charge degrees of freedom leading to a rich phase diagram. More recently, the doping of ladders with nonmagnetic impurities (replacing spin 1/2 Cu 2+ by spin 0 Zn 2+ ) has revealed another surprising property: the spin gap is rapidly suppressed as the Zn concentration increases, and an antiferromagnetic (AF) phase is stabilized [4]. A similar behavior has also been observed in spin-Peierls chains [5], which have a spin gap produced by dimerization. The phenomenon is interesting since a spin ordered state is generated by the random replacement of spins by vacancies, an apparently disordering procedure. These results have been recently addressed with one dimensional (1D) spin models using field theory [6] and numerical techniques. Computational studies found that the AF correlations near a vacancy in dimerized chains [7] and 2-leg ladders [7,8] are enhanced with respect to the undoped case. It was conjectured that this local enhancement may trigger the 3D AF order in Zn-doped dimerized chains and ladders. In-gap weakly interacting S = 1/2 localized states were found near Zn [9]. However, the microscopic origin of the local AF enhancement near a vacancy is still not intuitively understood.Independently of these recent developments, related phenomena have been discussed in a variety of contexts: 1. A staggered moment appears near a vacancy for 1D S = 1 Heisenberg systems [10]; 2. The undimerized 1D S = 1/2 Heisenberg model has an enhanced spin structure factor S(π) near vacancies according to boundary conformal field theory and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations [11]; 3. Near a vacancy injected into a 2D Néel ordered state, the staggered moment increases with respect to the undoped system [12].In this paper it is proposed that all these examples of locally enhanced antiferromagnetism near a vacancy, which have been studied independently in the literature, may have a simple common explanation. The unifying picture relies on the res...