Promising Practices

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, Health / Children's Health, Children

Goal: The goal of the CARE Program is to raise community awareness about asthma, coordinate services within target communities, and help families learn how to control and manage asthma.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to prevent depression and other mood disorders in adolescents.

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

Goal: Core Knowledge is based on the idea that for the sake of academic excellence, greater fairness, and higher literacy, elementary and middle schools need a solid, specific, shared core curriculum in order to help children establish strong foundations of knowledge, grade by grade.

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.

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of the D.C. Schoolyard Greening program is to increase and improve schoolyard green spaces in order to promote ecological literacy and environmental stewardship among students, teachers, parents and the community.

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

Goal: The objectives of the program were to educate students, parents, and school staff about asthma management and to control exposure to factors that trigger asthma attacks.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Diabetes, Children, Teens, Rural

Goal: The goal of DETS project is to increase the understanding and awareness of diabetes among American Indian and Native Alaskan students in kindergarten through high school through a combination of science lesson and traditional value.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Children, Teens, Urban

Goal: To provide emergency shelter to homeless or runaway youth aged 12 to 17.

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Poverty, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: As a leader in Kansas City's emergency food network, ECS is committed to providing access to healthy food for the community's food-insecure households. Its mission is to engage the Episcopal and broader communities in feeding the hungry and empowering the poor to move beyond the barriers of poverty with dignity - in short, feeding the hungry & changing lives. ECS is best known for the Kansas City Community Kitchen (KCCK) in the heart of the urban food desert. ECS also works to provide meaningful training experience through the Culinary Cornerstones Training Program, a 30-week immersive program preparing individuals for careers in the culinary world.

Impact: Since implementing the new service model, there has been a 10% average increase in the number of daily meals served at the Kansas City Community Kitchen. There has also been a large increase of volunteers, with an increasing number of recurring volunteers.