Promising Practices

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Teens, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The mission of HAP is to assist middle school students in underserved areas with improving their grades, school attendance, test scores, and access to learning opportunities, leading to admission into top high schools in the Washington, DC area.

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Literacy

Goal: The Houston READ Commission's mission is to enrich the lives of adult Houstonians and their families by helping them achieve their full potential through literacy, and to contribute to a workforce that will ensure a strong economy and a promising future for the greater Houston area.

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

Goal: The "I Have a Dream"® Program helps children from low-income areas reach their education and career goals by providing a long-term program of mentoring, tutoring, and enrichment with an assured opportunity for higher education.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality

Goal: The John Hopkins Community Health Partnership's (J-CHiP) goal is to improve care coordination with Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

Impact: The John Hopkins Community Health Partnership participants saw lower spending and improved health outcomes in regards to hospital admissions, re-admissions, and emergency department visits.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke through changes in community health policies, environment, and individual lifestyle behaviors that will impact the health and wellness of area fourth grade school students.

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Rural

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide safe and affordable low-income housing in Clay and Jackson Counties.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Families, Urban

Goal: Research shows that children benefit from kinship care in many ways. Kinship care can reduce the trauma that children may have previously endured and the trauma that accompanies parental separation by providing them with a sense of stability and belonging in an otherwise unsettling time. Children who have been placed with relatives may have experienced chronic neglect and physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. While these experiences place children at risk for behavioral and health problems, a positive relationship with a caregiver and a stable and supportive living environment can mitigate their impact.1 Grandparents, other relative caregivers, and “fictive kin” — close friends holding a family-like bond with a child — are in a unique position to fill this supportive role and promote resiliency.

The goal of Kinship Connections is to support kin families' social, emotional, and economic needs to increase placement stability within the child’s community. Specific program objectives are to improve family economic security, family relationship functioning, child well-being, and to increase kin caregiver social support.

1Center on the Developing Child. (2007). The impact of early adversity on children’s development (InBrief). Retrieved from https://developingchild.harvard.edu/ resources/inbrief-the-impact-of-early-adversity-onchildrens-development.
2 Generations United. (2017). In loving arms: The protective role of grandparents and other relatives in raising children exposed to trauma. Retrieved from https://dl2.pushbulletusercontent.com/ uhDY7UgdGYnOod6G7VFkdKnuzE3yALmr/17- InLovingArms-Grandfamilies.pdf.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Children, Women, Families

Goal: To increase daily fruits and vegetables servings by half in women served by WIC participants with the long term goal of reducing risk of cancer.

Impact: The Maryland WIC 5-A-Day Program shows that while multi-faceted community based interventions can effectively promote and sustain dietary change among low-income populations in order to reduce the risk of cancer, many obstacles remain in implementing such programs.

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Transportation, Children, Women, Men, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the trail is to provide a safe route for residents to travel to work, school, businesses and recreational areas.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the program is to increase fruit and vegetable consumption behavior in participants of the Women, Infants, and Children program in Genessee County, Michigan.

Impact: Participants of the program increased their fruit and vegetable consumption and the program had a positive effect on participants attitudes toward consuming fruits and vegetables.