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 Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The Red Feather Development Groups (RFDG) goal is to bring sustainable and affordable housing to Tribal Lands.
Impact: The Red Feather Development Groups (RFDG) community development work has seen promising results. In seven years, the organization has reached over 1,000 individuals and distributed over 700 "home health kits" to tribal land homeowners.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Air
Goal: To slow climate change by reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere while also establishing a network of public spaces where residents can walk to enjoy a vibrant urban landscape and healthy ecosystem.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults
Goal: The mission of this organization is to improve or preserve the independence and dignity of the elderly and persons with disabilities and their families through the provision of services, education and access to empowering services and resources.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Diabetes, Adults, Urban
Goal: The program's goal is to provide screening, education, and support services for patients at high risk for the development of type 2 diabetes and for those already diagnosed with the disease.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Urban
Goal: The goal of VetNet is to improve communication between animal health professionals and the public health infrastructure.
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Governance, Adults
Goal: The goal of this policy is to protect residents from second-hand smoke, encourage smoking cessation and raise public awareness about tobacco issues.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use
Goal: The goals of Weed and Seed are to control violent crime, drug trafficking, and drug-related crime and provide a safe environment where residents can live, work, and raise their families.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases
Goal: The primary goal of the program is to protect the public from WNV by early detection of WNV and elimination of mosquitoes.
Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Employment, Women
Goal: The Women and Work project works to build women’s equity and increase women's economic security by expanding their occupational choices.
Impact: The Women and Work project increases resources and opportunities for women in non-traditional jobs through a variety of policy and programmatic initiatives.
Medical Legal Partnerships: Embedding Civil Legal Aid Services in Care for High-Utilizing Patients (Lancaster, PA)
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Governance, Children, Teens, Adults, Families, Urban
Goal: The goal of the pilot was to assess the impact on health care use of addressing patients’ civil legal problems – the social, financial, or environmental problems that require assistance from lawyers to remedy. The lawyer was embedded in the health care team and present during case management discussions to identify specific civil legal problems and to help the team better understand how to address them. Additionally, this partnership provided civil legal aid services to patients when needed in a community health care system.
Impact: This pilot shows a medical-legal partnership for the super-utilizers of healthcare can lead to efficiencies within the health care system, reduce costs, and improve health outcomes among the most vulnerable patients.