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, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The goal of the program is to decrease African American infant mortality through raising awareness of racial health disparities, encouraging safe and healthy lifestyle practices, and providing correct perinatal health education.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children, Teens
Goal: The goal of this program is to address the needs of juvenile offenders with emotional and behavioral disorders and their families.
Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment
Goal: The purpose of the Career Connections Employment Resource Institute is to expand employment opportunities for persons with mental illness.
Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Air, Teens
Goal: The goals of the Cool School Challenge are to:
* Educate young people, and by proxy their families, about climate change and everyday actions they can take to reduce their impact locally and globally;
* Reduce carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gas emissions in and around schools;
* Encourage student leadership and empowerment;
* Foster a community of teachers/students working together to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions; and
* Foster a new generation of environmental/air quality advocates.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children
Goal: The goal of this program is to help all students achieve at the highest levels.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens
Goal: The goal of cooperative learning is to establish positive interdependence among students. When positive interdependence is established in group learning situations, the quality of peer interaction improves. Instead of competing with or ignoring one another, students are more likely to promote the success of one another through mutual assistance, emotional support, and the sharing of ideas or resources. These positive social interactions, in turn, encourage greater social acceptance and the development of positive relationships among students and, in educational contexts, promote greater academic motivation and achievement (Johnson & Johnson, 1989, 2005). In fact, research on social interaction suggests that gains in social skills alone are insufficient to reduce social problems among students and encourage more positive peer relations. Only positive interdependence, and the subsequent positive social interactions that arise from it, can motivate youth to re-evaluate previous conclusions regarding the social desirability of others (Bierman, 2004).
Impact: Cooperative learning can have positive effects on adolescent bullying, alcohol use, and tobacco use.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Teens
Goal: The goal of this program is to prevent depression and other mood disorders in adolescents.
Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Urban
Goal: Corporation for Supportive Housing's mission is to help communities create permanent housing with services to prevent and end homelessness.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The goal of the CDP was to improve health care access for incarcerated individuals and at-risk minority populations disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS.
Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The objective of this article is to describe Project Restoration's approach to cross-sector collaboration with a shared population of high utilizing community members, describe the process and outcomes of the collaboration, provide strategies to mitigate challenges that arise during collaboration and offer insights to inform similar initiatives in communities nationwide.
Impact: Hospitals across the region are assessing ways to establish a centralized infrastructure to collaboratively address the complexities of individual cases, as well as a regional council to explore process improvements to enhance the lives of vulnerable populations.