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 / Respiratory Diseases, Children, Families, Urban
Goal: The goal of the program was to provide a multi-layered asthma management program for parents, children, and staff of early childhood centers.
Impact: The ABC program demonstrates that a multi-layered approach can improve asthma outcomes among preschoolers with a combination of parent and provider education having the greatest impact.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children, Urban
Goal: The partnership uses a comprehensive strategy with four specific goals:
1. Carry out a multi-agency law enforcement (suppression) strategy to reduce gun-related and other violent crimes committed by youths 17 and older.
2. Operate an intensive intervention program to reduce the risk factors for the highest risk youths, their families, and the community.
3. Mobilize the community at the grassroots level to address the problems of hard-to-reach families and the highest risk youths.
4. Operate a long-range prevention program that identifies, links, and strengthens existing resources to serve youths who may be at risk.
CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Cervical Cancer Prevention & Control, Provider-Oriented Screening Interventions: Provider Reminder & Recall Systems (USA)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer
Goal: The goal of incorporating multicomponent interventions for cancer screenings is to increase cervical cancer screenings and pap smears in communities.
Impact: Multicomponent interventions that include strategies that reduce and address structural barriers increase cervical cancer screening rates by the largest margins and evidence shows that these interventions are also cost-effective.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of this intervention was to increase cervical cancer screening among Vietnamese American women.
Impact: The Cervical Cancer Control intervention is impactful in increasing the likelihood that women who have a history of at least one pap test receive another pap test in the future.
Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Poverty, Children, Families
Goal: The program's mission is to promote public-private partnerships to ensure that the children of Florida are provided safe, high quality, developmentally appropriate and enriching child care while parents work to remain self-sufficient.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children
Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the negative impacts of divorce and separation on children.
Impact: Children of parents in the program said they felt caught in the middle less often compared to those of non-participants, and reported less stress in general. Parents who took the course also reported more awareness of their children's feelings, and had better communication with their children.
Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability
Goal: The CHP Partnership is a voluntary program that seeks to reduce the environmental impact of power generation by promoting the use of CHP.The Partnership works closely with energy users, the CHP industry, state and local governments, and other stakeholders to support the development of new projects and promote their energy, environmental, and economic benefits.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children
Goal: The goals of DTBY are to improve parents' self-esteem, enhance decision-making skills, increase communication between parents and children, teach effective stress management, and strengthen peer support.
Impact: Several studies have demonstrated increases in parental self-efficacy and self-esteem among DTBY parents. Also, the use of harsh punishment decreased and effective discipline and limit-setting increased. Children involved in DTBY programming had greater average increases in developmental level.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Families
Goal: The main purpose of the Eat Well! El Paso program is to improve the local food environment by expanding healthy food options for children and their families, as well as to increase awareness and knowledge of the positive effects that healthy food choices can have on our health and our community.
Impact: Many locally-owned restaurants in El Paso have worked with the Eat Well! El Paso program to improve the healthy meal choices on their menus, helping to create a healthier food environment for the community.
Environmental Improvements Brought by the Legal Interventions in the Homes of Poorly Controlled Inner-City Adult Asthmatic Patients (New York City, New York)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Urban
Goal: The goal is to use a medical-legal collaborative intervention to force landlords into maintaining healthy living conditions for residents with poorly controlled asthma.
Impact: This proof-of concept study exhibits that medical-legal collaboration can significantly impact the control of inner-city asthmatics by improving their domestic environment.