Promising Practices

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

Goal: The partnership uses a comprehensive strategy with four specific goals:

1. Carry out a multi-agency law enforcement (suppression) strategy to reduce gun-related and other violent crimes committed by youths 17 and older.
2. Operate an intensive intervention program to reduce the risk factors for the highest risk youths, their families, and the community.
3. Mobilize the community at the grassroots level to address the problems of hard-to-reach families and the highest risk youths.
4. Operate a long-range prevention program that identifies, links, and strengthens existing resources to serve youths who may be at risk.

Filed under Good Idea, Health

Goal: The mission of BARHII is to transform public health practice for the purpose of eliminating health inequities using a broad spectrum of approaches that improve community health. Consistent with that mission, BARHII has set the following objectives:

- Train staff on broad spectrum of strategies to improve nutrition and physical activity, and reduce health inequities.
- Develop regional collaborations of public health departments, organizations, coalitions and communities to participate in a comprehensive approach to improve nutrition and physical activity.
- Develop a media advocacy campaign to raise awareness among policy makers and the general public about key issues of nutrition and physical activity, and their link to chronic disease and health inequities.
- Use the regional platform to achieve changes in institutional practices and public policies, and increase support for public health.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Bay Area SCORES program is to reduce obesity, increase physical fitness, and manage cardiovascular health-related risks while improving academic performance in children between the ages of 6 and 12 through soccer, creative expression, service learning, “hip hop for health,” and creative writing.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children

Goal: The Be a Star program was developed to help preadolescents gain the knowledge and skills necessary to resist drugs.

Impact: During the third year of the evaluation, very strong differences emerged between intervention and control groups. The treatment groups scored significantly higher on the scales rating family bonding, pro-social behavior, self-concept, self-control, decision-making, emotional awareness, assertiveness, cooperation, attitudes toward drugs and alcohol, self-efficacy, attitudes toward African-American culture, and school bonding.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Teens, Urban

Goal: The curricula aim to increase participants' knowledge about the risks of various behaviors and educate participants on how condoms and/or abstinence can effectively be used to lower those risks.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Men

Goal: The goal of Behavior Management through Adventure is to address the needs of at-risk youth in therapeutic settings.

Impact: Behavior Management Through Adventure was successful in lowering rearrest rates, decreasing the time period from release until rearrest, improving depression symptoms, increasing family self-concept, and lowering social introversion.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use

Goal: The goal of Behavioral Couples Therapy for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse is to improve success rates for treatment of alcoholism and drug abuse by involving intimate partners in the treatment process.

Impact: Numerous studies of the program have shown positive outcomes in five areas: substance abuse, quality of relationship with partner, treatment compliance, intimate partner violence, and children's psychosocial functioning. BCT clients also reported more relationship satisfaction than non-participants.

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Civic Engagement

Goal: Community associations can increase resident involvement by treating all residents as stakeholders, developing and conducting community harmony and spirit-enhancing programs, and including residents in the initial stages of program development.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability, Families

Goal: Currently, the average U.S. family spends nearly $1,300 a year on energy bills, with much of that energy being wasted due to air leaks, inefficient appliances, and a general lack of attention to this important issue. The Community Associations Institute (CAI) and the Department of Energy (DOE) are dedicated to educating the community association industry--and the significant portion of the U.S. population it represents--on the many ways to increase the energy efficiency of their homes, and thereby reduce both energy consumption and costs.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Adults, Women, Men, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: To partner within communities and organizations to train professionals, community and parent leaders so the “Best Start” program can reach and support all families, but especially marginalized or struggling families and communities; to build the strong family/home, school and community environments that are necessary to support positive mental health, confidence, resilience and hope to achieve health equity, academic and economic opportunities for positive futures for all.

The Changing Children’s Worlds Foundation (CCWF) mission is for every child and adolescent to be supported in positive development by caregivers and professionals within loving, non-violent families and peaceful communities. Through parent groups and educational workshops we strive to promote a sense of community and foster empathy.