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, Health / Physical Activity, Families, Urban
Goal: To increase equitable access to healthy food and strengthen communities by empowering neighbors to share in the harvest and care of city-grown produce.
Filed under Effective Practice, Economy, Adults, Urban
Goal: The program’s main focus was on moving welfare recipients quickly into the workforce.
Impact: There was a sizable increase in employment rates and job earnings, reduction in welfare dependency, and savings to the government.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Urban
Goal: The goal of SmartTrips is to reduce drive-alone trips and increase biking, walking, and public transit in targeted areas of the city.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality
Goal: Project Access Durham County seeks to provide comprehensive healthcare to low-income, uninsured individuals residing in the county for at least six months.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases
Goal: The main objective of the Protocol is to provide a medicolegal framework for the protection of public health and safety in the face of emerging threats of infectious diseases and bioterrorism agents with due regard to a citizen's right to due process.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Literacy, Children, Families, Urban
Goal: The mission of Reach Out and Read is to help prepare young children to succeed in school, by partnering with physicians to encourage parents and children to read aloud together.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Adults, Women, Men, Urban
Goal: The mission of Reconciliation Services is to cultivate a community seeking reconciliation to transform Troost from a dividing line into a gathering place, revealing the strength of all. Our mental health services are at the heart of how we strive to help clients see their own strength and work towards being reconciled to their own health and well-being.
Impact: Over the past three years, our therapy program participants reported a 71 percent decrease for depression and 79 percent decrease for PTSD.
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 Effective Practice, Education / Educational Attainment, Children, Rural
Goal: The goal of this program is to help at-risk youth and young adults to finish high school, take college-level classes, and have structured work experiences that will lead to successful transitions to adulthood.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children, Teens
Goal: The goals of this program are to
- Prevent youth from becoming delinquent by focusing strengths-based, family-centered community resources and programs on "at-risk" youth and their families.
- Improve the juvenile justice and community intervention for juvenile offenders through a system of Graduated Sanctions (Intervention).