A Town Where a School Bus Is More Than a Bus

New Haven Nonprofit group ConnCAT provides free job training for low-income and disadvantaged individuals to help them find a stable income. The program has created positive partnerships with businesses and entities around New Haven in the medical, coding, and culinary arts fields and offers 6-month classes as well as 40-hour externships in members' field of interest.

Collaborative efforts targeting adult-peer mentoring in Kansas City, Missouri have resulted in less crime and increased trust among participants. Focusing on high-risk teens and young adults, the program known as Teens in Transition connects law enforcement with youth members to work together on an art project over a 9-week span.

Cherokee Point Elementary School in San Diego became a trauma-informed school in 2015, and since then suspensions have fallen to zero (and remained that way since) and they no longer need a campus police officer. The school's approach includes revised disciplinary practices, social-emotional instruction, free breakfast, school-wide training about trauma, strong parental engagement, and intensive individual support. They even partner with community organizations that all them to create and offer a wider variety of services than the school could on its own.

Richland County, OH has a 7.3 percent infant mortality rate per 1,000 infants born, which is one point higher than the national rate. The rate is influenced by socio-economic issues and a lack of pre-and post-natal care. Different programs and organizations in Richland County confront these factors by expanding access to prenatal health care and expanding services to minority communities for infant care.

Partnering cops and clinicians has led to a cultural change in New Haven's police department. Their definition of a victim extends past the person with physical injuries in order to help children from violence-stricken households, a more comprehensive approach.

Since the 1960s, New York City has run the nation’s largest publicly managed summer jobs program. Nearly 50,000 14- to 24-four-year-olds spend six weeks working, not only in publicly funded day care centers, summer camps, hospitals and city agencies, but also high-tech firms and Fortune 500 companies. The summer jobs help at-risk kids keep from dropping out of school.

The Early Childhood Service Corps recruits retired adults to fill vacancies in preschools and daycares, allowing retirees to work part time while also helping to address staffing shortages in the industry. So far, the program has trained 110 older adults as part-time substitute teachers, and a few have gone on to take full-time positions.

The Child Care 8000 initiative set out to increase the number of available child care slots in Mesa County, Colorado by encouraging coordination, streamlining the licensing process, and expanding training opportunities. Though the campaign did not reach its goal, it did help add roughly 800 child care slots and improve the quality of existing programs.

Single mothers in Arizona are getting access to wraparound services that give them an opportunity for social and economic mobility. The Pathways for Single Mothers provides comprehensive services that include childcare, transportation, tuition, and an emergency fund.

In order to develop the next generation of school administrative leaders, the Teton County School District created a leadership development program. The aim of the program is to create a pool of candidates who will become the next principals, curriculum exports and mentors. A sort of pipeline. The two year program includes a capstone, internships, and lessons. Five years since its inception, 36 people have graduated, half of those entered leadership roles in the district.