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 Effective Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health
Goal: The initiative’s goal is to reduce infant sleep-related deaths by promoting safe sleep environments and SIDS risk reduction techniques among healthcare professionals, childcare providers, and all individuals responsible for caring for infants.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children
Goal: The program’s goals are to provide early intervention and greater accountability for juveniles charged with weapons offenses, help juveniles recognize and use nonviolent means to promote their safety and preserve their self-esteem, and effectively deliver the message that gun violence hurts victims, families, and communities.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Children, Adults
Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce public and worker exposure to secondhand smoke and to prevent youth initiation of tobacco.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use
Goal: The goals of this program are to reduce exposure to secondhand smoke, decrease the social acceptability of tobacco use, and promote cessation of tobacco use.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Men, Urban
Goal: The goals of Mpowerment are to mobilize young gay and bisexual men to reduce sexual risk taking, encourage regular HIV testing, and build positive social connections with peers.
Impact: The Mpowerment intervention successfully developed a mechanism to socialize young gay men to safer sex. Since this intervention relies primarily on volunteers, it is relatively inexpensive for communities to maintain and can continue to be made available for future generations.
Filed under Good Idea, Education / Student Performance K-12, Teens
Goal: To reduce truancy in high school.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Women
Goal: The goal of this program is to increase prenatal entry into WIC. The ultimate purpose is to lower the rate of low birth weight as well as the rate of infant mortality.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Diabetes, Rural
Goal: The goal of this project is to build community support for persons with Type 2 diabetes living in frontier Eastern Montana.
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).