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 / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The objectives are to increase knowledge of SIDS risk reduction strategies, including sleep position and roomsharing without bedsharing.
Impact: A 15-minute educational session with small groups of parents is effective in informing parents about the importance of safe sleep position and in changing parent behavior for at least the first 6 months of the infant's life.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Urban
Goal: The goal of the Teen Health Project is to provide adolescents with the skills necessary to prevent HIV risk behaviors.
Impact: The Teen Health Project shows that community-level interventions that include skills training and engage adolescents in neighborhood-based HIV prevention activities can produce and maintain reductions in sexual risk behavior, including delaying sexual debut and increasing condom use.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The program aimed to increase the rate of cervical cancer screening in Chinese women living in North America in response to research findings of significantly lower cervical cancer screening rates in Chinese women.
Impact: This intervention program found that women who received an intervention had cervical cancer screenings at a higher rate than those who did not receive any intervention. This shows that culturally and linguistically appropriate interventions might help improve Pap testing rates among Chinese women.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Community & Business Resources
Goal: The mission of the Holistic Management Project was to develop capacity in a diverse group of individuals and to improve the social, ecological, and economic status of the state of Washington and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Respiratory Diseases, Children, Families
Goal: The goals of the Seattle-King Healthy Homes project are: to increase knowledge of home environmental health threats and asthma self-management among households with a child who suffers from asthma; help households reduce environmental threats in the household; improve health status and reduce asthma-related medical care utilization.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Literacy, Children, Teens, Urban
Goal: The mission of 826 National is to help children ages 6-18 develop their writing skills, and to help teachers get their students excited about writing. The mission is based on the understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Oral Health, Children
Goal: The goal of ABCD is to improve access to early pediatric preventative dental care for Medicaid-covered children.
Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes
Goal: The mission of AHC is twofold: to preserve the supply of affordable housing in the mid-Atlantic region, especially Northern Virginia and Baltimore, Maryland; and to ensure that properties developed or owned by AHC enhance the quality of life in the neighborhoods where they are located.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Teens
Goal: The goal of ART® is to improve social skill competence, anger control, and moral reasoning.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Environmental Justice, Children
Goal: To enhance academic performance and imbue global citizenship by nurturing children’s creativity, developing empathy, and instilling healthy lifestyles.