City: Portland, OR
Education - Families - Minority Population

IRCO is a community-based, nonprofit 501(c)3 organization with a 25-year history of assisting over 45,000 refugees and immigrants through the various stages of integration into U.S. society. IRCO’s birth was the product of the merger of the Indochinese Cultural and Service Center and the Southeast Asian Refugee Federation. Both organizations believed that services should strive to empower the refugee and immigrant communities. This belief and tradition still serves as the foundation for all IRCO services and programs.

City: San Francisco, CA
Arts - Youth - Urban
Date Published: September 2006

Youth Speaks was founded in 1996 to engage Bay Area youth in positive social dialogue through the written and spoken word across boundaries of age, race, class, gender, culture, and sexual orientation. It offers opportunities for publication and public performance of poetry alongside its educational workshops and mentoring programs. By providing these opportunities, Youth Speaks hopes to fulfill its mission of promoting literacy development among the teen population.

City: Traverse City, MI
Arts - Youth - Urban
Date Published: September 2006

Giv’Em 40 is an ongoing assessment of 40 critical assets needed by youth to sustain healthy and productive development. Based in Traverse City, Giv’Em 40 involves youth through the schools, identifies weaknesses and gaps in youth assets as identified by the youth themselves, and then targets community initiatives to develop and strengthen those assets. The Giv’Em 40 Coalition is an ever-expanding group of people working to help all kids succeed in Northwest Michigan. By working to provide youth with 40 fundamental assets, the Coalition hopes to help youth thrive, and reduce harmful behavior among teens such as acts of violence, suicide, and drug use. Giv’Em 40 is based on 40 different social assets that researchers say are important to help young people avoid risky behaviors. Individuals involved in the Giv’Em 40 Coalition include neighbors, parents, relatives, and large organizations like schools, community groups, businesses, law enforcement and the media. The group’s mission encompasses all teens, and not those perceived to be "at risk."

City: Providence, RI
Education - Families - Social Development
Date Published: September 2006

The Rhode Island Family Literary Initiative (RIFLI) was adopted by the Providence Public Library to provide language training to non-English speaking families. This initiative was created because these individuals and families were facing social, economic, and educational language barriers. The program accepts and celebrates the diverse cultures of its participants and provides opportunities for further educational growth through other community services.