What is an effective practice?
An effective practice is an action or series of actions by a grantee, staff member, service participant, or technical assistance provider that helps to solve an essential problem facing a national service program or the community it serves. Effective practices lead to positive outcomes and can be replicated or adapted to other programs or locations. Within the Collection, you’ll find good ideas, successful strategies, and studied findings to help your program thrive. Click here for more information about effective practices.
Read the newest effective practice, Creating an exercise for youth on the importance of service.
Have a practice to submit? Use our easy online form and share what works for your program.
Be sure to view each of the three tabbed sections below to access all available practices:
Special Collections
Click on each collection title below to see relevant effective practices:
Days of Service - and many other annual events.
Frequent Submitters - a sampling of practices from the field.
Notable Authors - practices submitted by distinguished specialists.
Program Snapshots - successful service programs in action.
T/TA Providers - practices submitted by a network of experts.
By Topic
- Service Activities
- At-risk youth
- Community building
- Community technology programs
- Days of service
- Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- Global Youth Service Day
- Disaster preparedness and response
- Environment
- Intergenerational
- Mentoring
- Mentoring children of prisoners
- Out-of-school time
- Poverty and low-income needs
- Financial services
- Food and nutrition
- Health
- Homelessness
- Housing
- Literacy
- Prisoner reentry
- Public safety
- Crime prevention
- Homeland security
- Violence prevention
- Senior services
- Service-learning
- Tribal services
- Tutoring
- Youth service
- Volunteer, Member and Staff Management Topics
- Baby boomer volunteers
- Civic engagement
- Communication skills
- Conflict resolution
- Development
- Disability inclusion
- Diversity
- Evaluation
- Icebreakers
- Leveraging volunteers
- Orientation
- Recognition
- Recruitment
- Reflection
- Retention
- Rural
- Screening
- Service-learning
- Supervision
- Teambuilding
- Training
- Program Management
- Boards and advisory councils
- Capacity building
- Event planning
- Financial management
- Fundraising
- Grants
- eGrants
- In-kind donations
- Marketing and media
- Nonprofit management
- Partnerships
- Community partnerships
- Corporate partnerships
- Faith-based partnerships
- School-community partnerships
- Performance measurement
- Program evaluation
- Risk management
- Start-up
- Sustainability
- Technology
- Databases
- Desktop publishing
- E-mail communications
- Hardware and software
- Social Media
- Technology planning
- Website building and use
By Group
- Senior Corps
- Foster Grandparent Programs
- Senior Companion Programs
- RSVP
- AmeriCorps
- AmeriCorps National
- AmeriCorps NCCC
- AmeriCorps State
- AmeriCorps VISTA
- Learn and Serve America
- K-12
- Higher Education
- Community-Based
- Tribes and Territories
- CNCS
- State Offices
- State Commissions
- Community-Based Organizations
- Faith-Based Organizations
- Nonprofit Organizations
- Schools
- Tribal Programs