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 / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Teens, Adults, Women, Urban
Text4Health aims to improve immunization rates in urban, underserved, low-income populations via text messaging.
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Public Safety, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
The mission of the program is to develop cultural understanding and to forge relationships between police officers and citizens of Austin in order to provide better community service.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Diabetes, Children, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
The primary goal of the intervention was to reduce overweight and obesity prevalence among middle school students. Ancillary goals were to improve BMI and fasting insulin values, increase water consumption, reduce consumption of beverages with added sugar, increase healthy food choices, improve self-monitoring, and increase exercise time among sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students.
School-based programs that aim to address childhood obesity and adiposity may reduce individuals' risk of developing childhood-onset of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Prevention & Safety, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
To promote water safety in the Latino community.
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Urban
The goal of the program is to use volunteerism to instill community pride while promoting and improving the health, safety, and welfare of the residents of Rancho Cordova.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Women's Health, Adults, Women, Urban
The goal of the WILLOW intervention is to provide women living with HIV/AIDS with the skills and education needed to support safer sexual decisions.
The WILLOW program succeeded in reducing the number of reported episodes of unprotected vaginal intercourse, increasing the use of condoms and condom self-efficacy, decreasing the incidence of bacterial infections (chlamydia and gonorrhea), and improving HIV knowledge.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Disabilities, Adults
The program's goal was to eliminate the waiting period for access to health care benefits for newly entitled SSDI beneficiaries, and see if this investment has long-term benefits.
The AB Demonstration project successfully increased the use of health care services and reduced the reported unmet health care needs of participants in the program.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children
The goal of the Al's Pals program is to teach children how to practice positive ways to express feelings, relate to others, communicate, brainstorm ideas, solve problems, and differentiate between safe and unsafe substances and situations.
Studies have shown that the program resulted in higher degrees of positive change in the intervention groups, increases in prosocial behaviors and positive coping behaviors, and decreases in antisocial and negative coping behaviors.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Other Conditions, Older Adults
The goal of the Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program is to increase joint flexibility, range of motion, and muscle strength among individuals with arthritis.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens
The goal of Assisting in Rehabilitating Kids (ARK) is to increase abstinence and safer sex behaviors among substance-dependent adolescents.
The ARK program successfully increased sexual abstinence among those who received all components: health information, behavior skills training, and risk-sensitization manipulation, with the inclusion of the latter being more resistant to decay over time.