Promising Practices
The Promising Practices database informs professionals and community members about documented approaches to improving community health and quality of life.
The ultimate goal is to support the systematic adoption, implementation, and evaluation of successful programs, practices, and policy changes. The database provides carefully reviewed, documented, and ranked practices that range from good ideas to evidence-based practices.
Learn more about the ranking methodology.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education
If targeted to low-income or racial and ethnic minority communities, ECE programs are likely to reduce educational achievement gaps, improve the health of these student populations, and promote health equity.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Adults, Urban
The goal of this program is to educate during every visit, to assist patients in developing a longitudinal personal record of medical history and care plans, and to provide a tangible way to engage patients in their own care. The overarching goal was better compliance, recognition of medication side effects, and improved adherence to specific and agreed upon lifestyle changes.
Sixty percent of patients participate in care plan tracking with a health notebook, and 80% percent of patients complete a prep form to help organize visits.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Healthy Howard opens doors for individuals, groups and communities to improve their health and wellness.
Healthy Howard provides resources to schools, restaurants, workplaces, and childcare centers to help them improve the health and choices of their students, employees, or clients.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Healthy Love seeks to provide a safe, culturally tailored intervention for heterosexual black women to reduce their disproportionately high risk of transmitting and contracting HIV and other STDs. Healthy Love aims to encourage sexual abstinence, HIV testing, and receipt of test results; increase women's condom usage during vaginal sex with male partners; and reduce the number of women's sex partners and unprotected anal and vaginal sex with male partners. Healthy Love also seeks to improve HIV/STD knowledge, self-efficacy for using condoms, intentions to use condoms, and attitudes towards condoms.
Healthy Love increased participants' likelihood of using condoms, being tested for HIV, and receiving their test results. The intervention also reduced participants' self-described actions with male partners that can increase black women's risks for HIV infection.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Older Adults
The Pennsylvania Department of Aging offers this fall risk screening and prevention program to adults 50 years of age and older. The program is designed to raise awareness of falls, introduce steps on how to reduce falls, improve overall health, and provide referrals and resources.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Urban
The goals of the Holistic Health Recovery Program are to promote health and improve quality of life of injection drug users.
Implementation of the program resulted in a decrease in addition severity, a decrease in risk behavior, and significant improvement in behavioral skills and quality of life.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Teens, Adults, Urban
NAMI-DuPage's yearly goal is to complete 70 training courses per year.
Mental Health First Aid helps community members become aware of signs and symptoms of someone in a mental health crisis and become a resource to mental health and behavioral health programs in their community.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Respiratory Diseases, Children, Teens, Families, Urban
The goal of the Phoenix Healthy Homes project was to use a multi-factorial approach to reduce hazard prevalence and improve self-reports of home safety and respiratory health.
The Phoenix Healthy Homes project showed that a tailored healthy homes improvement package significantly improves self-reported respiratory health and safety, reduces respiratory health and injury hazards, and can be implemented in concert with a mobile clinical setting.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
The goal of the Reach for health Community Youth Service program is to reduce risky sexual behaviors among urban Latino and African American youth.
Long-term impact has been recorded among participants after two years: this includes delayed initiation of intercourse and reduced frequency of intercourse among sexually active adolescents.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Urban
To reduce the number of individuals with mental illness who use the ER, to help individuals achieve long-term recovery, and to develop a community peer-based support network.
The Living Room is a comfortable, non-clinical space that offers an alternative to hospital emergency rooms. The program in LaGrange, Illinois hopes to decrease unnecessary hospitalizations.