PPN Newsletter October 2011
Listed below are recent updates to the Promising Practices Network on Children, Families and Communities website (http://www.promisingpractices.net).
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
PPN announces new Emergency Planning Guide for Child-Serving Organizations
PPN has recently developed an Emergency Planning Guide for Child-Serving Organizations. After reviewing literature and a variety of resources available on emergency planning, we have pulled together the most promising approaches into this interactive online guide. The guide includes a risk assessment tool to help you determine the emergencies your organization is at highest risk for experiencing. Organized around seven steps, the guide presents high-priority preparedness activities and documents to help you customize your emergency plan. The guide is designed to be helpful to anyone working in a child-serving organization, from planning committees that are working to develop a plan for their organization, to practitioners working directly with children and who play a critical role in implementing plans when emergencies occur.
See the new Emergency Planning Guide for Child-Serving Organizations
WHAT'S NEW
Newly added to PPN's Programs that Work section: Boys and Girls Clubs of America Triple Play program increases healthy eating and exercise among youth
The Boys and Girls Clubs of America Triple Play program promotes healthy living among youth ages six to 18 who attend participating Boys and Girls Clubs of America locations. Triple Play incorporates health education, physical activity, and relationship and personal skill building into multiple aspects of youths' experiences at the club. This includes an age-specific Healthy Habits curriculum, daily fitness challenges, cross-club sports competitions, and workshops that teach club leaders how to promote positive youth development though club activities. In a randomized experiment, youth who attended Triple Play clubs for one and a half years were more likely to eat healthier foods, exercise more often, and rate their peer interactions as more positive than youth who attended clubs not utilizing the Triple Play program.
Read the new Triple Play program summary
Safe Start Promising Approaches, a program to reduce children's exposure to violence, found to improve agencies' processes
In 2005, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) selected 15 sites to develop, implement, and evaluate community-based interventions with the goal of preventing or reducing children's exposure to violence (CEV). The RAND Corporation conducted both process and outcome evaluations of each of the Safe Start Promising Approaches (SSPA) to determine whether these programs were successful in reducing and preventing CEV's consequences. While the outcome evaluation yielded mixed results due to methodological and logistical challenges, the process evaluation determined that many of the programs successfully implemented the programmatic goals. These included the improvement of communication and coordination across providers and the emergence of new interagency partnerships.
Read the research brief at the RAND Corporation website
Science magazine explores processes and programs related to early childhood education
In the recent Science magazine special issue, "Investing in Early Education," experts in the field of early childhood education explore the state of research on interventions and practices to support the cognitive development of children. Diamond and Lee explore the benefits of early training in executive function skills. Dickinson describes research supporting the link between a teacher's language practices and a child's early language skills. Clements and Sarama summarize interventions shown to improve the math skills of children in preschool and primary grades, and Klahr et al. describe those interventions shown to improve children's ability to think scientifically in their early years. Finally, Barnett reviews the state of research on the longitudinal effects of early childhood educational interventions.
Read the Diamond and Lee, Dickinson, Clements and Sarama, Klahr et al., Barnett articles at the Science website
RESEARCH IN BRIEF
Listed below are research summaries that have been added to the PPN site this month.
See all in this area » Healthy and Safe Children
Alcohol Dependence Symptoms Among Recent Onset Adolescent Drinkers
— Dec. 2011
Journal abstract at Addictive Behaviors website
Associations Between Menarcheal Timing and Behavioral Developmental Trajectories for Girls from Age 6 to Age 15
— Oct. 2011
The Developmental Pathway from Pubertal Timing to Delinquency and Sexual Activity from Early to Late Adolescence
— Oct. 2011
Do Youth in Out-of-Home Care Receive Recommended Mental Health and Educational Services Following Screening Evaluations?
— Oct. 2011
Lost in Transition: Illicit Substance Use and Services Receipt Among At-Risk Youth in the Child Welfare System
— Oct. 2011
Pubertal Timing and Early Sexual Intercourse in the Offspring of Teenage Mothers
— Oct. 2011
Randomized Trial of the Healthy Families Arizona Home Visiting Program
— Oct. 2011
The Long-Term Effects on Children and Adolescents of a Policy Providing Work Supports for Low-Income Parents
— Fall 2011
Adolescent Well-Being in Washington State Military Families
— Sep. 2011
Gestational Age at Birth and Mortality in Young Adulthood
— Sep. 2011
Graduated Driver Licensing and Fatal Crashes Involving 16- to 19-Year-Old Drivers
— Sep. 2011
Grief in Children and Adolescents Bereaved by Sudden Parental Death
— Sep. 2011
High Burden of Homelessness Among Sexual-Minority Adolescents: Findings From a Representative Massachusetts High School Sample
— Sep. 2011
Household Food Security in the United States in 2010
— Sep. 2011
Summary at U.S. Department of Agriculture website
The Impact of Peer Social Networks on Adolescent Alcohol Use Initiation
— Sep. 2011
Learning Problems in Kindergarten Students With Extremely Preterm Birth
— Sep. 2011
Maternal Depression and Childhood Health Inequalities
— Sep. 2011
Mental Health Screening and Follow-up Care in Public High Schools
— Sep. 2011
National and State Vaccination Coverage Among Children Aged 19-35 Months in the United States, 2010
— Sep. 2011
Reducing the Impact of Children's Exposure to Violence: Results of the National Evaluation of Safe Start Promising Approaches
— Sep. 2011
Violence During Pregnancy Linked to Reduced Birth Weight
— Sep. 2011
2011 Kids Count Data Book
— Aug. 2011
Effectiveness of Early Educational Intervention
— Aug. 2011
Interventions Shown to Aid Executive Function Development in Children 4 to 12 Years Old
— Aug. 2011
A Meta-Analysis of Disparities in Childhood Sexual Abuse, Parental Physical Abuse, and Peer Victimization Among Sexual Minority and Sexual Nonminority Individuals
— Aug. 2011
National and State Vaccination Coverage Among Adolescents Aged 13-17 Years in the United States, 2010
— Aug. 2011
Neurodevelopmental Outcome and Risk Factors for Impaired Development of African American Infants in an Underserved Urban Population: A Population-Based Study
— Aug. 2011
Seat Belt Use Among Overweight and Obese Adolescents
— Aug. 2011
U.S. Housing Insecurity and the Health of Very Young Children
— Aug. 2011
See all in this area » Children Ready for School
Examining the Black-White Achievement Gap Among Low-Income Children Using the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development
— Sep/Oct. 2011
Learning Problems in Kindergarten Students With Extremely Preterm Birth
— Sep. 2011
Interventions Shown to Aid Executive Function Development in Children 4 to 12 Years Old
— Aug. 2011
Teachers' Language Practices and Academic Outcomes of Preschool Children
— Aug. 2011
Effects of Nonmaternal Care in the First 3 Years on Children's Academic Skills and Behavioral Functioning in Childhood and Early Adolescence: A Sibling Comparison Study
— July/Aug. 2011
Trajectories of the Home Learning Environment Across the First 5 Years: Associations With Children's Vocabulary and Literacy Skills at Prekindergarten
— July/Aug. 2011
See all in this area » Children Succeeding in School
Do Youth in Out-of-Home Care Receive Recommended Mental Health and Educational Services Following Screening Evaluations?
— Oct. 2011
The Long-Term Effects on Children and Adolescents of a Policy Providing Work Supports for Low-Income Parents
— Fall 2011
Common Core State Standards: Progress and Challenges in School Districts' Implementation
— Sep. 2011
The Effectiveness of a Technologically Facilitated Classroom-Based Early Reading Intervention
— Sep. 2011
Examining the Relationship Between Literacy Coaching and Student Reading Gains in Grades K-3
— Sep. 2011
Reducing the Impact of Children's Exposure to Violence: Results of the National Evaluation of Safe Start Promising Approaches
— Sep. 2011
2011 Kids Count Data Book
— Aug. 2011
Early Childhood Mathematics Intervention
— Aug. 2011
Educational Interventions to Advance Children's Scientific Thinking
— Aug. 2011
Effectiveness of Early Educational Intervention
— Aug. 2011
Interventions Shown to Aid Executive Function Development in Children 4 to 12 Years Old
— Aug. 2011
Teachers' Language Practices and Academic Outcomes of Preschool Children
— Aug. 2011
Effects of Nonmaternal Care in the First 3 Years on Children's Academic Skills and Behavioral Functioning in Childhood and Early Adolescence: A Sibling Comparison Study
— July/Aug. 2011
Trajectories of the Home Learning Environment Across the First 5 Years: Associations With Children's Vocabulary and Literacy Skills at Prekindergarten
— July/Aug. 2011
Relation Between Language Experiences in Preschool Classrooms and Children's Kindergarten and Fourth-Grade Language and Reading Abilities
— May/June 2011
See all in this area » Strong Families
Randomized Trial of the Healthy Families Arizona Home Visiting Program
— Oct. 2011
The Long-Term Effects on Children and Adolescents of a Policy Providing Work Supports for Low-Income Parents
— Fall 2011
High Burden of Homelessness Among Sexual-Minority Adolescents: Findings From a Representative Massachusetts High School Sample
— Sep. 2011
Household Food Security in the United States in 2010
— Sep. 2011
Maternal Depression and Childhood Health Inequalities
— Sep. 2011
2011 Kids Count Data Book
— Aug. 2011
Effectiveness of Early Educational Intervention
— Aug. 2011
U.S. Housing Insecurity and the Health of Very Young Children
— Aug. 2011
One Million Additional Children in Poverty Since 2009
— Summer 2011
ABOUT OUR SUPPORTERS
The Promising Practices Network appreciates the generosity of our supporting organizations:
Annie E. Casey Foundation
The California Wellness Foundation
The Community Foundation of North Louisiana
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
Family Communications, Inc. (FCI)
Family and Community Trust
Georgia Family Connection Partnership
Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families (GCYF)
Hands On Mississippi
Kansas Action for Children
New York State Office of Children & Family Services
RAND Corporation
The Spencer Foundation
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