The Power of Talking to Your Baby

Middle-class children don’t regress as readers during the summer, because they go to the library, do educational activities, take classes - poor children, however, lose between one and two months in reading achievement. Springboard trains teachers for a summer enrichment program, and has now started to help them coach parents to help their children during the school year.

To give support to struggling families without prescribing solutions requires respect and discipline. The Family Independence Initiative (F.I.I.) encourages low-income families to define their own goals and work towards them in mutual support groups, while carefully documenting their successes.

Assertive community treatment teams working through outreach-centered programs in Maricopa County have become an industry standard for treating those with persistent and severe mental illnesses who have recently been incarcerated. They provide a long-term approach, aiming to halt a cycle of incarceration and hospitalization by focusing on underlying issues such as what caused the police interaction and incarceration.

The United States has rising childhood obesity and schools deal with kids who are picky. Through innovative school gardens and kid taste testing food, entrepreneurs across the nation are getting children to eat vegetables at school and love it.

In Prince George's County School system, two schools have offered international schools, which have a different curriculum for immigrants new to the USA. This has caused complaints and difficulties with the other students, the after school band program has helped bring the two groups together to socialize and form friendships.

Despite the looming competition from Amazon, independent bookstores in New York are finding ways to innovate and create bookstore experiences that go beyond the books. The Lit. Bar is a bookshop-wine bar in the Bronx that hopes to instill a love of reading while customers shop and drink. By selling non-book products, new iterations of bookstores can increase their profit margin to remain sustainable. Many even succeed with creative financing, from crowdfunding to finding local investors.

The Neem Foundation brings intensive counseling and 1-on-1 therapy to survivors who escaped the horrific violence of Boko Haram, a terrorist group in northeastern Nigeria. With months of aid and tough conversations, the organization attempts to reunite women and children who fled the violence with their families, many of whom shun the Boko Haram escapees.

The Veterans Health Administration's Caregiver Support Program offers resources to family caregivers looking after veterans, including a monthly stipend, medical services, counseling and mental health care, respite care and coverage for travel expenses. The Program launched in 2011 and by 2014 about 15,600 caregivers had been approved for support — greatly exceeding the Program’s original estimate of 4,000 people.

Leading up to Father’s Day, Philadelphia criminal justice organization Frontline Dads raised money to bail out fathers. Inspired by the annual Mother’s Day bailouts that happen around the country, Frontline Dad aims to not just free father’s, but raise awareness about the issue of cash bail as well. Beyond bailing out fathers, participants will also have access to services like haircuts, counseling, and job placement assistance.

At Capital City Public Charter School, students are graded based not only on academic skills but also social and emotional skills. The Washington D.C. school has a high graduation rate and college enrollment rate.