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, Health / Physical Activity, Children
Goal: To improve children's nutritional status, increase their activity level, enhance their self-esteem, and create life-long health habits by using a multidisciplinary, community- and family-based system approach, and by engaging local health care professionals with community agencies.
Impact: The Fit Kids/Fit Families program shows that multidisciplinary, community- and family-based approaches to children's exercise, weight, & nutrition can have an effect on healthier nutritional choices, increased physical activity, decreased sedentary activity, healthier behaviors, and BMI reductions.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Teens, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of Focus on Youth is to teach youth the skills and knowledge they need to protect themselves from HIV and other STDs.
Impact: The Focus on Youth intervention increased self-reported condom use and positively affected perceptions six months after the end of the program.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Adults
Goal: The goal of FAST is to improve patients' independence and quality of life.
Impact: Studies have shown that FAST-treated patients' performance on everyday living skills improved significantly compared to non-participants. They also demonstrated significant improvement in social and communication skills at 6-month follow-up.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment
Goal: Greenbelt Alliance's mission is to improve the lives in the San Francisco Bay Area by protecting the region's greenbelt and improving the livability of its cities and towns.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Family Planning, Teens
Goal: The goals of GO! are:
- to delay the initiation of sexual intercourse among males ages 12-14 to reduce teenage pregnancy in Frederick County
- to increase parent child communication
- to increase community awareness regarding adolescent sexuality
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education
Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends center-based early childhood education programs (ECE) to improve educational outcomes that are associated with long-term health as well as social- and health-related outcomes. Economic evidence indicates there is a positive return on investment in early childhood education. The benefits from students' future earnings gains alone exceed program costs.
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 Evidence-Based Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes
Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends tenant-based housing voucher programs to improve health and health-related outcomes for adults based on sufficient evidence of effectiveness. Health-related outcomes include housing quality and security, healthcare use, and neighborhood opportunities (e.g., lower poverty level, better schools).
Children ages 12 years and younger whose households use vouchers show improvements in education, employment, and income later in life. Outcomes for adolescents vary by gender. Females 10-20 years of age whose families use tenant-based vouchers to live in lower poverty neighborhoods experience better health outcomes while males of the same age experience worse physical and mental health outcomes. Additional research is needed to better understand and address challenges faced by adolescent males.
CPSTF finds societal benefits exceed the cost of tenant-based housing voucher programs that serve families with young children who are living in public housing, provide pre-move counseling, and move families to neighborhoods with greater opportunities.
Tenant-based housing voucher programs give many people access to better housing and neighborhood opportunities, both of which are considered social determinants of health. Because these programs are designed for households with low incomes, they are expected to advance health equity.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle, Children, Teens, Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: To use the powerful methods of mass media to market positive attitudes and healthy lifestyle choices and to provide dynamic messages against substance abuse, racism, violence and mental health stigma.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens, Families
Goal: Healthy For Life is school and community-based intervention program that promotes proper nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle habits in order to reduce childhood obesity in Orange County, CA.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Respiratory Diseases, Children, Teens, Families
Goal: The mission of the Healthy Kids Express Asthma Program is to provide quality asthma care and education to children with asthma and their caretakers in a school environment to work towards goals set by Healthy People 2020 and the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP).
Impact: The Healthy Kids Express Asthma Program serves approximately 600 children a year, improving inhaler technique and asthma knowledge among participants. Children enrolled in the program for two consecutive years have lower school absentee rates and hospitalizations due to asthma.