Promising Practices

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Urban

Goal: The goals of this program are to provide a stable learning environment that will promote scholastic development, to enhance parent-child relationships, and to prevent delinquency.

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Transportation, Children

Goal: The goal of Clean School Bus USA is to reduce both children's exposure to diesel exhaust and the amount of air pollution created by diesel school buses.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The original goal of the Community Action Model has been to improve the health and environment of a community by reducing tobacco influences while building community capacity. It can be applied to a variety of health and welfare issues and has been used successfully in many communities with multiple topics of intervention.

Impact: The Community Action Model has resulted in new tobacco control policies within San Francisco, many of which serve as models for other communities.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: Community Voice is a grassroots program that utilizes community residents to provide factual perinatal information throughout the community in an effort to reduce African American infant mortality.

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Adults

Goal: The program's mission is to improve the quality of early learning programs by focusing on increasing the quality, effectiveness, and retention of early educators.

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce gang violence.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of cooperative learning is to establish positive interdependence among students. When positive interdependence is established in group learning situations, the quality of peer interaction improves. Instead of competing with or ignoring one another, students are more likely to promote the success of one another through mutual assistance, emotional support, and the sharing of ideas or resources. These positive social interactions, in turn, encourage greater social acceptance and the development of positive relationships among students and, in educational contexts, promote greater academic motivation and achievement (Johnson & Johnson, 1989, 2005). In fact, research on social interaction suggests that gains in social skills alone are insufficient to reduce social problems among students and encourage more positive peer relations. Only positive interdependence, and the subsequent positive social interactions that arise from it, can motivate youth to re-evaluate previous conclusions regarding the social desirability of others (Bierman, 2004).

Impact: Cooperative learning can have positive effects on adolescent bullying, alcohol use, and tobacco use.

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Urban

Goal: Corporation for Supportive Housing's mission is to help communities create permanent housing with services to prevent and end homelessness.

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Investment & Personal Finance, Adults, Urban

Goal: The mission of Credit Builders Alliance is to help low and moderate income individuals build their credit and access conventional financing.

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Children, Teens, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of Cycles of Change is to enable community members to use bicycles as a primary form of transportation through bicycle education and distribution programs.