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, Education / Educational Attainment, Adults, Rural
Goal: The goal of this program is to expand educational opportunities in the community while addressing the issue of a continuing nursing shortage at Central Valley Medical Center.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Children, Women, Families
Goal: To increase daily fruits and vegetables servings by half in women served by WIC participants with the long term goal of reducing risk of cancer.
Impact: The Maryland WIC 5-A-Day Program shows that while multi-faceted community based interventions can effectively promote and sustain dietary change among low-income populations in order to reduce the risk of cancer, many obstacles remain in implementing such programs.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use
Goal: The mission of this program is to improve the lives of individuals and families affected by alcohol and other drug use through treatment, education, and research.
Impact: Matrix participants were 38% more likely to stay in treatment and 27% more likely to complete treatment compared to nonparticipants. Stimulant drug-use indicators were significantly reduced during treatment for Matrix participants. They also produced more drug-free urine samples compared to nonparticipants.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children
Goal: To prevent or delay the onset of underage alcohol and tobacco use by encouraging healthy beliefs and attitudes about abstaining from substance use and by enhancing critical thinking skills to transform students into active media consumers.
Impact: Students who participated in the Media Detective program displayed a greater understanding of media deconstruction skills and persuasive intent. They also had greater self-efficacy to refuse substances compared to students who did not participate in the program.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of the program is to increase fruit and vegetable consumption behavior in participants of the Women, Infants, and Children program in Genessee County, Michigan.
Impact: Participants of the program increased their fruit and vegetable consumption and the program had a positive effect on participants attitudes toward consuming fruits and vegetables.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children
Goal: The goal of the MEND program is to reduce obesity levels in children by offering free healthy living programs that aim to encourage small lifestyle changes that improve health.
Impact: The MEND program was successful in reducing waist circumferences and BMI scores while increasing cardiovascular fitness, physical activity, and self esteem in children placed within the intervention group. The results of this study suggest that the MEND program is a promising intervention to combat rising child obesity rates.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Teens
Goal: The goals of this program are to 1) help youths identify the reasons kids smoke (peer pressure, advertising, lack of self-confidence), 2) provide youths with resistance tools they can really use, and 3) teach youths the value of social support in resistance through peer leadership activities.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Adults, Urban
Goal: The MoodGYM and Blue Pages websites aim to alleviate depression symptoms and increase understanding of depression using the Internet.
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 Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The goals of the program are to improve the health of recent immigrant families by training native speakers from different countries to help enroll members of their communities in various publicly funded health programs.