Promising Practices

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Children, Families

Goal: To increase sun protection behaviors in early childhood.

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

Goal: The goal of this dental office based intervention is to reduce smokeless tobacco use and other tobacco use.

Impact: The dental office-based intervention succeeded in increasing the rates of smokeless tobacco cessation among participants.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Teens, Urban

Goal: The overriding treatment goal of Kartini Clinic is to secure lasting remission of eating disorder symptoms, allowing patients and their families to return to their own communities. Using a holistic approach, embracing medical as well as psychological and social interventions, patients are treated with the belief that parents do not cause eating disorders and children do not choose to have them.

Impact: Since 1998, Kartini Clinic has treated more than 2,000 patients and their families for a range of eating disorders.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Older Adults, Adults, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: Shepherd's Center Central is a local leader in the regional effort to ensure that all people can age successfully with dignity, security, and respect.

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

Goal: The goals of this intervention were to delay initiation of sexual intercourse for youth who are not sexually active, encourage the use of condoms among sexually active youth, and enhance communication about sex between youths and their mothers.

Impact: Keepin' It R.E.A.L. teen participants increased their condom-use during sexual activity while maternal participants reported feeling more comfortable when discussing sexual issues with their teens.

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 Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Older Adults

Goal: Kosher Meals for the Homebound is a program of Dorot, which alleviates social isolation among the elderly and provides services to help them live independently as valued members of the community.

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Community & Business Resources, Children, Urban

Goal: Larkin Street Youth Service's mission is "to create a continuum of services that inspires youth to move beyond the streets. We will nurture potential, promote dignity, and support bold steps for all." HIRE UP's mission is: "to provide homeless and runaway youth with an educational foundation and marketable skill set that will greatly increase their chances of progressing into an independent, productive adulthood."

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use

Goal: The goals of this program are to prevent the next generation from becoming addicted to nicotine, to help those addicted to quit, and to reduce exposure to environmental tobacco smoke for all residents.

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment, Children, Teens

Goal: The mission of LLL is to improve the educational performance and advancement, and the employment and career prospects of all Chittenden County students.