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 Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Teens, Adults
Goal: The goal of the program is to make a positive difference in the lives of children, primarily through professionally guided one-to-one relationships with caring adults, and to assist them in achieving their highest potential, as they grow to become confident, competent and caring individuals.
Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment
Goal: The overall mission of the Civano Community is:
- To create a sense of place that fosters community and connects people to one another and their natural environments
- To tread lighter on the land through innovative design, and
- To introduce sustainable construction materials and new technologies to advance the quality of life.
Specific performance targets include:
- Reduce energy consumption by 75%
- Reduce potable water consumption by 65%
- Reduce landfill-destined solid waste by 90%
- Reduce internal vehicle trip miles by 40%, and
- Create one community job for every 2 residences.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease among African American families with a history of coronary disease.
Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP) (formerly the Coronary Health Improvement Project) (Rockford, IL)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults
Goal: The goal of the CHIP lifestyle intervention is to lower blood cholesterol, hypertension, and blood sugar levels and reduce excess weight.
Impact: CHIP has over 55,000 graduates worldwide and sustains adherence to the program guidelines through an active "ClubCHIP" member support organization.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment
Goal: Complete Streets aims to increase physical activity and contribute to creating safer communities for all users of the road.
Impact: Complete Streets has contributed to safer communities and streets for all users of the road by working with community residents, policy-makers, and the development community.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families
Goal: The Congenital Heart Disease Screening Program values early diagnosis of Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) with a goal of making screening for CHD a standard practice for all newborns.
Impact: The physicians at Children's National in the National Heart Institute created a toolkit that nurseries may use to start a screening program to improve detection of serious CHD.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Adults, Urban
Goal: The goal of Connect is to increase relationship communication and safer sex practices among couples.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children
Goal: The goal of this program is to improve the safety of child care centers in Idaho by making sure that recalled products are removed.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children
Goal: The goal of Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) is to improve nutrition, increase physical activity, and reduce obesity in preschool, elementary, and middle school aged children.
Impact: CATCH is successful in improving participants' diet and physical activity, and the results lasted three years after participation.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality
Goal: The goals of this promising practice were to identify the transportation-disadvantaged population that lacks nonemergency medical care because of low access to transportation; determine the medical conditions that this population experiences and describe other characteristics of these individuals, including geography; estimate the cost of providing the transportation necessary for this population to obtain medical transportation according to various transportation service needs and trip modes; estimate the healthcare costs and benefits that would result if these individuals obtained transportation to non-emergency medical care for key healthcare conditions prevalent for this population; and compare the relative costs (from transportation and routine healthcare) and benefits (such as improved quality of life and better managed care, leading to less emergency care) to determine the cost-effectiveness of providing transportation for selected conditions.
Impact: These results show that adding relatively small transportation costs do not make a disease-specific, otherwise cost-effective environment non-cost-effective. Providing increased access to non-emergency medical care does improve quality of life and saves money per patient.