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 / Adolescent Health, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
The goal of the HORIZONS program is to reduce sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), particularly HIV, by increasing condom use and partner communication about safer sex.
The HORIZONS program empowered African American female adolescents to pursue safer sex and reduced the number of STDs among those in the program.
Filed under Good Idea, Education / Literacy
The Houston READ Commission's mission is to enrich the lives of adult Houstonians and their families by helping them achieve their full potential through literacy, and to contribute to a workforce that will ensure a strong economy and a promising future for the greater Houston area.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Adults, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
The goal of How to Cope is to help adults impacted by a loved one's substance abuse create a balanced and healthy life, even if their loved one continues to abuse substances.
Over 100 adults impacted by a loved one's addiction to alcohol or drugs participated in How to Cope in 2013, with 87% showing increased knowledge of the harmful effects and other drugs and 100% completing an action plan.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children
The goal of this program is to teach children effective problem-solving skills.
Studies demonstrated that ICPS participants scored better than the control group on impulsiveness, inhibition, and total behavior problems; showed fewer high-risk behaviors than never-trained controls; showed improvement in positive, prosocial behaviors and decreases in antisocial behaviors; and performed better on standardized achievement tests.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Adults, Older Adults
The goal of IMPACT is to improve depression treatment by providing collaborative care to older adults.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children
The goal of IMPACT DC is to improve access to asthma education and care coordination through the emergency department.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Children, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
The goal of this program is to increase child restraint use by Hispanic community members.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
The goal of this intervention was to increase HIV preventative behavior among inner-city minority adolescents.
Students in the classroom-based intervention group had more sustained changes in HIV prevention behavior over time compared to those in the peer-based intervention groups.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Women's Health, Women
The goal of Insights is to increase condom use among young women at risk for HIV and other STDs.
Insights proves that tailored cognitive/behavioral minimal self-help interventions hold promise as HIV/STD prevention strategies for diverse populations of young at-risk women.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens
The goal of It's Your Game: Keep It Real is to reduce teen pregnancy, prevent STI transmission, and delay teen sexual activity in middle school students.
Participants in the It’s Your Game: Keep It Real intervention program were less likely to initiate sex by the ninth grade when compared to the control group.