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 / Alcohol & Drug Use
Goal: The goal of this program is to involve community partners in reviewing individual deaths, generating recommendations for improved community collaboration, and initiating new practices.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens
Goal: The goal of ATLAS is to reduce anabolic steroid, alcohol, and other illicit drug use by adolescent male athletes.
Impact: Student participants of ATLAS had significantly lower intent to use anabolic steroids at both the end of the athletic season and at the 1-year follow-up. Students in the intervention also significantly reduced illicit drug use and were significantly less likely to report drinking and driving.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use
Goal: The goal of Behavioral Couples Therapy for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse is to improve success rates for treatment of alcoholism and drug abuse by involving intimate partners in the treatment process.
Impact: Numerous studies of the program have shown positive outcomes in five areas: substance abuse, quality of relationship with partner, treatment compliance, intimate partner violence, and children's psychosocial functioning. BCT clients also reported more relationship satisfaction than non-participants.
Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment, Families, Urban
Goal: The mission of Chicago Commons is to help individuals, families and communities to overcome poverty, discrimination and isolation.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Families, Urban
Goal: CLOCC's mission is to confront the childhood obesity epidemic by promoting healthy and active lifestyles for children throughout the Chicago metropolitan area.
Impact: The Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children brings together researchers, public health advocates and practitioners, and the children, families, and communities of Chicagoland to prevent childhood obesity.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Teens, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of Focus on Youth is to teach youth the skills and knowledge they need to protect themselves from HIV and other STDs.
Impact: The Focus on Youth intervention increased self-reported condom use and positively affected perceptions six months after the end of the program.
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Governance, Urban
Goal: The goal of the Statewide Park Development and Community Revitalization Act is to ensure that funding for new parks and green spaces is prioritized for critically underserved and disadvantaged urban communities.
Home Again: A Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness in Portland and Multnomah County (Portland and Multnomah County, OR)
Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Urban
Goal: The goal of this program is to end homelessness in the City of Portland and Multnomah County by 2015. As efforts to end homelessness continue, city and county officials will focus on nine actions. Programs throughout the county will address moving people into Housing First, ending the practice of discharging people into homelessness from jails and hospitals, improving outreach, emphasizing permanent solutions, increasing the housing supply, creating new partnerships, improving the rent assistance system, increasing economic opportunity for homeless people and implementing new data collection technology.
Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes
Goal: The goal of this experiment is to estimate the effects of New York’s plan for supportive housing for high-need, high-cost Medicaid recipients.
Impact: Placing people who are homeless in supportive affordable housing paired with supportive services such as on-site case management and referrals to community-based services can lead to improved health, reduced hospital use, and decreased health care costs.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Diabetes, Adults
Goal: To provide the tools to prevent or delay adult type 2 diabetes.