Parent Education and Family Support
Parent Education Resources
- The Promising Practices Network
This web site highlights programs and practices that credible research indicates are effective in improving outcomes for children, youth, and families. The RAND Corporation, the nation's original "think tank", operates this project.
- Child Trends: What Works: Lifecourse Interventions to Nurture Kids Successfully
Child Trends' presents extensive knowledge about programs found to "work" to enhance children's development, in a user-friendly format for policy makers, program designers, and funders.
- Child Trends: What Works: A Guide to Effective Programs
Child Trends is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to improving the lives of children by conducting and disseminating research to improve the decisions, programs, and policies that affect children and their families. In advancing its mission, Child Trends collects and analyzes data; conducts, synthesizes, and disseminates research; designs and evaluates programs; and develops and tests promising approaches to research in the field.
- California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (CEBC)
The website is designed to: (1) Serve as an online connection for child welfare professionals, staff of public and private organizations, academic institutions, and others who are committed to serving children and families; (2) Provide up-to-date information on evidence-based child welfare practices; (3) Facilitate the utilization of evidence-based practices as a method of achieving improved outcomes of safety, permanency and well-being for children and families involved in the California public child welfare system.
- Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
This Model Program Guide (MPG) is designed to assist practitioners and communities in implementing evidence-based prevention and intervention programs that can make a difference in the lives of children. The MPG database of evidence-based programs covers the entire continuum of youth services from prevention through sanctions to reentry. The MPG can be used to assist juvenile justice practitioners, administrators, and researchers to enhance accountability, ensure public safety, and reduce recidivism. The MPG is an easy-to-use tool that offers the first and only database of scientifically proven programs across the spectrum of youth services.
- Blueprints for Violence Prevention
A national violence prevention initiative at the University of Colorado at Boulder to identify programs effective in reducing adolescent violent crime, aggression, delinquency, and substance abuse.
- Strengthening America's Families
The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in collaboration with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service's Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) provide the results of the 1999 search for "best practice" family strengthening programs. Provides two page summaries of family-focused programs, which have been proven to be effective.
- Wisconsin Clearinghouse for Prevention Resources: Rating Criteria for Evidence-Based Programs.
This model program summary matrix is an expansion of the SAMHSA/CSAP and Western CAPT model program summaries identified on their web sites with additional details on the costs of training and implementation of a variety of community based model programs.
- Helping America's Youth
A nationwide effort, initiated by President George W. Bush and led by First Lady Laura Bush, to benefit children and teenagers by encouraging action in three key areas: family, school, and community. The Community Guide to Helping America’s Youth helps communities build partnerships, assess their needs and resources, and select from program designs that could be replicated in their community. It walks community groups through the steps necessary for building strong supports for youth. The Helping America’s Youth (HAY) Program Tool includes 180 evidence-based programs that prevent and reduce delinquency or other youthful (up to age 20) problem behaviors (e.g., drug and alcohol use).
- The Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) Out-of-School Time (OST) Program Research and Evaluation Database
A compilation of profiles written by HFRP of research studies and evaluations of OST programs and initiatives. It provides accessible information about research and evaluation work on both large and small OST programs to support the development of high quality evaluations and programs in the out-of-school time field.
- Evidence Based Program Database
The Evidence-Based Program Database is developed by Ohio State University Center for Learning Excellence a compilation of quality government, academic, and non-profit lists of evidence-based programs that appear on the World Wide Web and/or in print form. This web-based system was created to assist in efforts to select and implement evidence-based programs that positively affect youth behaviors.
- Pathways Mapping Initiative (PMI)
PMI was established in January 2000 as part of the Project on Effective Interventions at Harvard University and developed in partnership with the Technical Assistance Resource Center of The Annie E. Casey Foundation. Its objective is to build on the wealth of findings about what works by going beyond both anecdotes and traditional evaluation literature. This website holds a wealth of findings about what it takes to improve the lives of children and families living in America's tough neighborhoods. Community coalitions, providers of services and supports, funders, and policymakers will find a broad collection of information about what works in social programs and policies to achieve desired results, including increased rates of children ready for school and higher numbers of economically successful families.
- Promising Practices
The Finance Project's Information Resource Center gives you easy access to a wealth of information on policies, programs, and financing strategies for initiatives striving to improve the lives of children, families and communities.
- Social Programs That Work
The Council for Excellence in Government's Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy web site summarizes the results of well-designed randomized controlled trials in social policy that have particularly important policy implications -- because they show, for example, that an intervention has a major effect, or that a widely-used intervention has little or no effect.
- Resources to Promote Social and and Emotional Health and School Readiness in Young Children and Families - A Community Guide
- Early Childhood Interventions
The PNC Grow Up Great initiative, a program financed by PNC Financial, Inc., asked RAND to prepare a thorough, objective review and synthesis of current research that addresses the potential for various forms of early childhood intervention to improve outcomes for participating children and their families. This evidence base sheds light on the types of programs that have been demonstrated to be effective, the features associated with effective programs, and the potential for returns to society that exceed the resources invested in program delivery.
- SAMHSA Model Programs
National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices (NREPP) is a service of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). NREPP is a searchable database of interventions for the prevention and treatment of mental and substance use disorders. SAMHSA has developed this resource to help people, agencies, and organizations implement programs and practices in their communities.
- Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies
The Center provides training, technical assistance, evaluation, research, and other services to support prevention, treatment, and recovery in the alcohol and other drugs field. As part of this mission they created a best-practices database.
- Florida State University - Office of IP Development and Commercialization
The Office of Intellectual Property Development and Commercialization (OIPDC) assists faculty, staff and students move their innovative research results and creative work into public use by licensing to outside organizations to develop and market products based on FSU research.
- Florida State University - Center for Prevention and Early Intervention Policy
The FSU Center for Prevention and Early Intervention Policy focuses on Maternal and Child Health and early Childhood issues, and is a unit under arm of the University's Institute for Science and Public Affairs
- Kidsgrowth
KidsGrowth's Web site tailored specifically toward the concerns and interests of parents. The site was developed and created by well-respected medical leaders in the field of pediatrics and adolescent medicine. Members of the Medical Advisory Board oversee all KidsGrowth content, thereby guaranteeing its medical accuracy.
- Children's Learning Institute
The University of Texas Health Science Center's Children's Learning Institute, under the direction of Developmental Psychologist and Michael Matthew Knight Professor Dr. Susan H. Landry, combines data and studies from the fields of psychology, neuro-development, education and child development to provide proven learning solutions derived from, and supported by, documented research.