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, Education / Literacy, Children
Goal: The goal of Itchy's Alphabet is to help children improve their literacy levels.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Educational Attainment, Children
Goal: As a national, primarily residential training program, Job Corps' mission is to attract eligible young adults, teach them the skills they need to become employable and independent, and place them in meaningful jobs or further education.
Impact: Evaluations showed that Job Corps substantially increased the education and training that program participants received. Nearly 90% of the program group engaged in some education or training (both in and out of Job Corps), compared with about 64% of the control group.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality
Goal: The John Hopkins Community Health Partnership's (J-CHiP) goal is to improve care coordination with Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.
Impact: The John Hopkins Community Health Partnership participants saw lower spending and improved health outcomes in regards to hospital admissions, re-admissions, and emergency department visits.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Children, Families
Goal: To increase sun protection behaviors in early childhood.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Men
Goal: The goal of this dental office based intervention is to reduce smokeless tobacco use and other tobacco use.
Impact: The dental office-based intervention succeeded in increasing the rates of smokeless tobacco cessation among participants.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Teens, Urban
Goal: The objective of this program is to increase life skills such as risk assessment, decision-making and drug resistance, while enhancing anti-drug norms and attitudes.
Impact: Evaluation findings suggest that Keepin' it R.E.A.L. succeeded in decreasing substance use, in reducing negative attitudes/behaviors, and in improving positive attitudes/behaviors.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Urban
Goal: The goals of this intervention were to delay initiation of sexual intercourse for youth who are not sexually active, encourage the use of condoms among sexually active youth, and enhance communication about sex between youths and their mothers.
Impact: Keepin' It R.E.A.L. teen participants increased their condom-use during sexual activity while maternal participants reported feeling more comfortable when discussing sexual issues with their teens.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens
Goal: Keepin' it REAL aims to reduce adolescent alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco use.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens
Goal: Given the increased prevalence among youth of obesity and Type II Diabetes Mellitus (DM) in the last 25 years, the goal of Kids N Fitness is to reduce risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome in overweight youth through a family-oriented lifestyle intervention.
Impact: These positive health outcomes indicate that a family-centered lifestyle intervention can improve metabolic health among youth.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Families, Urban
Goal: Research shows that children benefit from kinship care in many ways. Kinship care can reduce the trauma that children may have previously endured and the trauma that accompanies parental separation by providing them with a sense of stability and belonging in an otherwise unsettling time. Children who have been placed with relatives may have experienced chronic neglect and physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. While these experiences place children at risk for behavioral and health problems, a positive relationship with a caregiver and a stable and supportive living environment can mitigate their impact.1 Grandparents, other relative caregivers, and “fictive kin” — close friends holding a family-like bond with a child — are in a unique position to fill this supportive role and promote resiliency.
The goal of Kinship Connections is to support kin families' social, emotional, and economic needs to increase placement stability within the child’s community. Specific program objectives are to improve family economic security, family relationship functioning, child well-being, and to increase kin caregiver social support.
1Center on the Developing Child. (2007). The impact of early adversity on children’s development (InBrief). Retrieved from https://developingchild.harvard.edu/ resources/inbrief-the-impact-of-early-adversity-onchildrens-development.
2 Generations United. (2017). In loving arms: The protective role of grandparents and other relatives in raising children exposed to trauma. Retrieved from https://dl2.pushbulletusercontent.com/ uhDY7UgdGYnOod6G7VFkdKnuzE3yALmr/17- InLovingArms-Grandfamilies.pdf.