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, Children, Teens
Goal: The Penn Resiliency Program is a depression prevention program that seeks to reduce the longevity of symptoms exhibited and the severity of symptoms at onset of depression, through cognitive-behavioral therapy and problem-solving techniques.
Impact: The Penn Resiliency program shows that a group-based program seeking to prevent the initial onset of and decrease the exacerbation of depression children and teens by incorporating specific coping and problem-solving skills can reduce depressive symptoms over time.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Respiratory Diseases, Children, Teens, Families, Urban
Goal: The goal of the Phoenix Healthy Homes project was to use a multi-factorial approach to reduce hazard prevalence and improve self-reports of home safety and respiratory health.
Impact: The Phoenix Healthy Homes project showed that a tailored healthy homes improvement package significantly improves self-reported respiratory health and safety, reduces respiratory health and injury hazards, and can be implemented in concert with a mobile clinical setting.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Women
Goal: The primary objective of Pregnancy Partners is to increase first trimester prenatal care among low-income pregnant women.
Impact: Pregnancy Partners provides women with the assistance needed to overcome barriers to prenatal care, including referrals for need-based assistance.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Women, Urban
Goal: The overall goal of the Prenatal Plus Program, combined with the Partners for a Healthy Baby curriculum, is to improve birth outcomes, decrease rates of child abuse and neglect, and strengthen families.
Impact: Reduced low birth weight rate through risk reduction during pregnancy.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults, Women, Men, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The objective of Project HEART (Health Education Awareness Research Team) was to promote behavior changes to decrease cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in a high-risk Hispanic border population.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Children, Teens, Adults, Families
Goal: The Project Youth Green project is a community garden project that aims to involve families and youth in learning about local, sustainable food and gardening projects. The four acre community revitalization project focuses on youth education, community gardening and physical exercise.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Adults
Goal: The PHLAME Study had four primary goals: (1) Increase physical activity to 30 minutes each day; (2) Reduce percent calories from fat to less than 30%; (3) Increase servings of fruits and vegetables to at least 5 per day; and (4) Improve energy balance and normalize body fat.
Public Health Surveillance and Communications Using Regional Emergency Medicine Internet (REMI) (Milwaukee, WI)
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment
Goal: The goal of this program is to provide real-time information about fast-breaking environmental hazards, communicable outbreaks, or terrorist events.
Quality Improvement Project to Improve the Immunization Rate in the Women, Infant, and Children Program (Reno County, KS)
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families, Urban
Goal: The goal of this program is to increase the immunization rate of WIC children.
Impact: The WIC immunization rate for 2 year olds increased from 33% in the 3rd quarter of 2011 to 83% in the 4th quarter of 2012. The no-show rate for WIC appointments decreased from 68% to 27.6%.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The goal of this program is to improve cardiovascular health among residents of the Atlanta Empowerment Zone (AEZ).