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 / Mental Health & Mental Disorders
Goal: The goal of this program is to help clients move beyond trauma and substance abuse.
Impact: Multiple evaluations of the Seeking Safety program in various settings have shown positive outcomes for substance abuse/addiction, substance abuse disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults
Goal: The goal of this program is to improve the quality of life of residents of Northeast Florida by providing programs and services which raise the health, education and economic standards of citizens living at the lowest social and economic levels.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Adults, Women, Rural
Goal: The goal of Strong Women – Healthy Hearts is to decrease cardiovascular disease among middle-aged women through behavioral changes in diet and physical activity.
The Character Effect: A Universal Social-Emotional Learning Program for Elementary School Students (Greater Cincinnati Area (SW OH, Northern KY))
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education, Children, Urban
Goal: The goal of The Character Effect is to foster the development of students’ social-emotional skills, improving their behavior and readiness to learn in the classroom.
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 Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Diabetes, Children, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: 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.
Impact: 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 Evidence-Based Practice, Education / School Environment, Children, Teens
Goal: The goal of the TGFV program is to help students learn the skills they need to get along peacefully with others and avoid violence.
Impact: Too Good programs empower children with the social-emotional learning and substance abuse prevention skills they need to lead happy and healthy lives.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Children, Urban
Goal: The WalkSafe program was developed to improve pediatric pedestrian safety, increase physical activity levels by encouraging children to walk to and from school, and improve the walkability in and around elementary schools.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Adults
Goal: To increase the abstinence rate of smokers over the age of 18 through a supplemental, online, tailored smoking cessation program.
Impact: The Committed Quitters Stop Smoking Plan has been successful at increasing the abstinence rate for smokers enrolled in the plan. Abstinence was higher for enrollees of the plan after 28 days and after 10-weeks.
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Children, Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The program's primary goal is to prepare the Harvey County community for a disaster. It also seeks to increase outreach to minority communities and recruit volunteers for the MRC.