Ideas at work

Find initiatives and collaborations addressing the needs of young children and learn about proven strategies for action.

Initiatives and Collaborations

North Dakota

Afterschool Network North Dakota
On behalf of school-age youth, the N.D. Afterschool Network supports and advocates for high-quality, out-of-school-time programming, resources and services.

Boys and Girls Clubs of the Red River Valley
Provides programs and services enabling all young people to achieve their full potential in a safe and caring environment.

CAWS North Dakota
CAWS North Dakota is the statewide sexual and domestic violence coalition. They focus their energy and resources on connecting victims of sexual and domestic violence to services in their communities.

Community Violence Intervention Center
The CVIC offers a holistic approach to violence that provides a long-term safety net for those impacted by violence and proactive prevention efforts through education, treatment, and collaborative work for peace involving the entire community.

Department of Career and Technical Education
The State Board for Career and Technical Education, as North Dakota's public workforce education and training delivery system, is committed to providing career awareness, work readiness skills, occupational preparation, and retraining of workers throughout the state. Career and technical education will span all educational levels, providing youth with exploration opportunities and the foundation skills needed to enter the world of work while providing adults with skills needed to enter, re-enter, or advance in the workforce.

Family Voices of North Dakota
Family Voices aims to achieve family-centered care for all children and youth with special health care needs and/or disabilities. This site provides tools for families to make informed decisions, and advocates for improved public and private policies,. builds partnerships among professionals and families, and serves as a trusted resource on health care.

Fraser Ltd.
Fraser Ltd., is a non-profit organization in North Dakota that provides services and resources aimed at empowering children, youth, and adults on their life’s journey towards independence to live independently. Services include residential services, independent living supports, and day support services for people with disabilities., childcare services for developing children and children with special needs, and transitional youth services.

Gateway to Science
Gateway to Science began as the vision of community volunteers passionate about bringing informal science learning opportunities to people of all ages in North Dakota. Gateway to Science offers fun, cool and awesome science programs for students in grades 1-8. With a mission to inspire the discovery of science through hands-on experiences they offer programs such as the STEM adventure club, summer camps, preschool discovery hour, and girls who code, with the goal of connecting students with education and career opportunities in North Dakota.

Nexus PATH Family Healing
PATH is a private, non-profit organization providing foster care services and other behavioral health services, adoption, and family-based services. PATH services are provided throughout North Dakota, Minnesota and Illinois and Maryland.

North Dakota Child Protection Program, ND Department of Human Services
The purpose of the Child Protection Program is to protect the health and welfare of children by encouraging the reporting of children who are known to be or suspected of being abused or neglected, provide adequate services for the protection and treatment of abused and neglected children, and identify the cause/circumstances of children’s deaths and recommend policy, practice, and law changes to prevent those deaths.

North Dakota Department of Health

  • Family Health & Nutrition
    The Division of Family Health & Nutrition Division works collaboratively on evidence-based initiatives that encourage healthy, active and well-nourished children, youth, women, men, and families. The division provides funding, technical assistance, training, needs assessment, educational materials and other resources to local public health units, schools and other public and private entities that offer health services in North Dakota communities.
  • Special Health Services
    The Division of Children’s Special Health Services (CSHS) is part of the North Dakota Department of Health and promotes a system of care and services that improves the health and well-being of individuals with special health care needs and their families. provides services for children with special health care needs and their families.

North Dakota Department of Public Instruction
North Dakota Department of Public Instruction (DPI) partners with schools and communities to provide a statewide system of excellent service and support to ensure a healthy school environment that fosters student success.
Among programs and services:

  • English Language Learner Programs, Title III Information, State ELL Program, ELP Standards & Assessments, Refugee Grant (STEEP), Guidance Materials, Resources.
  • Native American Education
  • Adult Education and GED
  • Early Childhood Education
  • Special Education

North Dakota Prevention Resource & Media Center
The North Dakota Prevention Resource & Media Center promotes behavioral health and substance abuse prevention.  The center currently focuses on data-driven initiatives regarding underage drinking, binge drinking, prescription drug abuse, and mental health.  Additionally, the organization offers several free services and materials to individuals in North Dakota Communities and provides support for prevention professionals.

Parents LEAD
ParentsLEAD is a program designed to support parents in promoting the behavioral health of their children. They provide parents and caregivers with tools and resources to support them in creating a safe environment for their children that promotes behavioral health.

Prevent Child Abuse North Dakota
Prevent Child Abuse North Dakota is dedicated to strengthening families and preventing child abuse and neglect, particularly in North Dakota. They advocate for a continuum of services and access to those services as well as deliver evidence-based strategies that enable communities to provide for children and families.

Youthworks
Youth Works helps homeless, runaway, trafficked, and struggling youth in North Dakota. at-risk youth and runaways. They provide services to youth and their families to meet goals for strong, health relationships. They have offices in Fargo and Bismarck and serve the surrounding counties.

NationWide

America's Promise Alliance
Founded in 1997 with General Colin Powell as Chairman and chaired today by Alma Powell, America’s Promise Alliance is a cross-sector partnership of 400+ corporations, nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and advocacy groups that are passionate about improving lives and changing outcomes for children.

American Sexual Health Association
The American Sexual Health Association promotes the sexual health of individuals, families, and communities by advocating sound policies, practices, and educating the public, professionals, and policy makers in order to foster healthy sexual behaviors and relationships and also preventing adverse health outcomes. They is also provide a trusted source of reliable information on sexual health and sexually transmitted diseases/infections.

Child Care Aware of America
Child Care Aware of America offers child care and parenting information and resources to families; collects, analyzes, and reports current child care data and research; promotes national policies and partnerships that facilitate universal access to high quality child care.

Child Welfare Information Gateway
The Child Welfare Information Gateway connects child welfare and related professionals to comprehensive information and resources to help protect children and strengthen families. It features data and resources on topics from prevention to permanency, including child abuse and neglect, foster care, and adoption. Includes child welfare-related laws and policies, adoption agencies, support groups, and other information for each state.

Guttmacher Institute
The Guttmacher Institute continues to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights through an interrelated program of research, policy analysis and public education designed to generate new ideas, encourage enlightened public debate and promote sound policy and program development. The Institute’s overarching goal is to ensure the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health for all people worldwide.

Jump$tart
Jump$tart is a national coalition of organizations dedicated to improving the financial literacy of pre-kindergarten through college-age youth by providing advocacy, research, standards and educational resources. Jump$tart raises the importance of financial literacy and the importance of effective financial education. strives to prepare youth for life-long successful financial decision-making.

Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of women, men, and young people worldwide.

SIECUS
SIECUS- the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States- was founded in 1964 and advocates for the rights of all people to accurate information, comprehensive sexuality education, and the full spectrum of sexual and reproductive health services.

Spark Action
SparkAction is a collaborative journalism and advocacy network to mobilize action by and for young people. Brings together the latest news, research, trends and stories from across the child and youth field to inform and encourage action on the issues that matter most.

Evidence Based Strategies

These websites identify proven strategies to address this topic area. Keep in mind that each source differs in their definition of what is "evidence-based" or "proven."

Afterschool Alliance Reports
Provides a comprehensive look at afterschool developments and research and includes a variety of reports that present evaluation data on afterschool, recent afterschool developments, and research on how states and afterschool programs are dealing with tough budget times.

Best Evidence Encyclopedia
Presents A website created by the Johns Hopkins University School of Education’s Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education and provides reviews of research-proven education programs in math, reading, science, early childhood, and comprehensive school reform. From Johns Hopkins University's Center for Research and Reform in Education.

The Campbell Collaboration Library of Systematic Reviews
Systematic reviews on the effects of social interventions on education, crime and justice, and social welfare.

DATA.GOV Educational Resources
Learning to understand and analyze data is a key step in becoming a critical thinker. For our nation’s youth to reach their full potential, they need tools, resources, and opportunities. Here at Data.gov, they create the opportunities for learning, challenges for innovation, and resources for exploring the nation and the world.

Developmental Assets: Search Institute
The Developmental Assets are 40 common sense, positive experiences and qualities that help influence choices young people make and help them become caring, responsible adults. Because of its basis in youth development, resiliency, and prevention research and its proven effectiveness, the Developmental Assets framework has become one of the most widely used approaches to positive youth development in the U.S. Recent research has also explored Family Assets. The American Family Assets Study introduces a new framework of Family Assets—relationships, interactions, opportunities, and values that help families thrive. These assets are associated with positive outcomes for young teens and their parenting adults, explaining more of the differences in outcomes than many demographics and other individual and family characteristics explain.

Evidence-based Programs and Practices Resource Center
Aims to provide communities, clinicians, policy-makers and others in the field with the information and tools they need to incorporate evidence-based practices into their communities or clinical settings. They have resources for a broad range of audiences including treatment improvement protocols, toolkits, resource guides, clinical practice guidelines, and other science-based resources.

The Future of Children
The Future of Children is a collaboration of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and the Brookings Institution. The mission of the Future of Children is to translate the best social science research about children and youth into information that is useful to policymakers, practitioners, grant-makers, advocates, the media, and students of public policy.

Harvard Family Research Project
Since 1983, we have helped stakeholders develop and evaluate strategies to promote the well-being of children, youth, families, and their communities. We work primarily within three areas that support children’s learning and development—early childhood education, out-of-school time programming, and family and community support in education. Underpinning all of our work is a commitment to evaluation for strategic decision making, learning, and accountability.

Lifecourse Interventions to Nurture Kids Successfully (LINKS), Child Trends,
A synthesis of what was learned from experimentally evaluated programs in Child Trends’ What Works database into fact sheets and grouped them into three categories: population, program outcome (Social-Emotional Difficulties, Early Language and Literacy, Acting-Out/Externalizing, Asthma Education, Obesity, Substance Use, Reproductive Health, Civic Engagement) and program approach (Home Visiting, Summer Learning, Parent Involvement, Self Sufficiency).

Partnership for Results
The Partnership for Results is an innovative quasi-governmental entity dedicated to promoting the positive social, emotional, and educational development of youth and their families. Under Programs you can find school-based and after school programs for children and families.

Social Programs that Work
Includes information about social program interventions across an array of topics, including early childhood through postsecondary education, housing, employment, crime, and health and mental health. The site is administered by the Arnold Ventures' evidence-Based Policy team.

What Works Clearinghouse
Reviews research on different programs, products, practices, and policies in education with a goal of providing educators with the information needed to make evidence-based decisions on Central source for identifying education programs that work. From the Institute of Education Sciences.

North Dakota Compass

Center for Social Research
North Dakota State University

Compass created by:
Wilder Research

© 2024. All rights reserved.