Award-Winning Communities Share Best Practices

America’s Promise Alliance believes children should have five key supports to be successful. These supports are called the Five Promises: Caring Adults, Safe Places, a Healthy Start, Effective Education and Opportunities to Help Others. Using the Five Promises as a framework, the Alliance issues annual awards to the 100 Best Communities for Young People.

Following are highlights from some of the best practices implemented by 2011’s honored communities.

Caring Adults

All children and youth need and deserve support and guidance from caring adults—these include ongoing, secure relationships with family members, as well as positive relationships with teachers, mentors, coaches and neighbors. Many of the 2011 100 Best Communities for Young People have mentoring programs for their youth, such as the The Wicomico Mentoring Project. Salisbury/Wicomico County, MD, a five-time 100 Best winner, implemented this mentoring program, which matches volunteer adult role models with students in Wicomico County Public Schools. The program began in 1994 and aims to help improve student attendance, grades and behavior. As a result of this program, student attendance has increased by 46 percent and grades have gone up by 41 percent. 

Safe Places

America’s Promise Alliance believes all youth deserve to be physically and emotionally safe wherever they are—in homes, schools, neighborhoods and communities as well as online. This year’s 100 Best communities have programs that provide shelter for our country’s most at-risk young people, as well as low-cost programs that keep children safe and supervised after school. Five-time 100 Best winner Greater Spokane, WA, has the Odyssey Youth Center, which offers a safe place for LGBTQ youth and their allies and promotes positive growth and self empowerment. Each night, Odyssey offers a meal, an educational activity (like how to balance a checkbook or fill out financial aid forms) and social time. Chino Hills, CA, provides a unique service to youth that do not have easy access to city parks or recreation facilities—its Mobile Recreation van meets children in their own neighborhoods and provides physical fitness activities, healthy snacks, homework help and supervision.

A Healthy Start

Regular health care, good nutrition and exercise, health education and healthy role models are also crucial components of youth success. Charleston, SC, a three-time 100 Best winner, helps its young people stay healthy with its Lean Team initiative. This collaborative effort of 12 schools and 20 community organizations helps schools establish and maintain wellness committees that implement school-wide health campaigns to prevent and treat childhood obesity. Two-time 100 Best winner Alachua, FL, gives its young people a healthy start with its CHOICES County Health Educators. This group focuses on preventable diseases and holds a weekly summer program targeting nutrition habits, physical activity and tobacco use.

An Effective Education

Whether students are preparing for college or work, a quality learning environment is crucial for post-graduate success. This year’s 100 Best winners have a variety of programs targeted toward students at risk of dropping out. The Tackling Obstacles and Raising College Hopes (TORCH) program in Northfield, MN, aims to improve the graduation rates of minority students, low-income students and youth who would be first-generation college attendees. The program offers mentors, college and career workshops, assistance filling out college applications and financial aid forms as well as an after school center. Since TORCH began in 2005, the graduation rate for Northfield’s Latino students has climbed from 36% to over 90%. The Renaissance Academy in Rock Hill, SC, a four-time 100 Best winner, assists students who have been expelled or are at risk for expulsion through an alternative curriculum that focuses on community service and peer mentoring.

Opportunities to Help Others

All young people deserve the chance to make a difference through volunteer and leadership opportunities, and the 2011 100 Best winners have programs that put students in charge of creating change. Four-time 100 Best winner Dubuque, IA has a youth volunteer program through its Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque called Youth Area Philanthropists, or YAPPERS. This group of high school students research grants for youth-serving programs and work with local children on a poverty awareness and fundraising campaign.

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