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 / School Environment, Children
- Detect school adjustment difficulties
- Prevent social and emotional problems
- Enhance learning skills
One study demonstrated that participants made significant improvements in task orientation, specifically in working more independently and completing tasks faster. In behavior control, program students showed increased coping skills and lower levels of aggressiveness and produced fewer disruptions. In assertiveness, students had improved participation in activities, were better at expressing ideas, and showed increased leadership and decreased shyness. Improvements in peer sociability included increases in the quality of peer relationships and improved social skills. Several other evaluations of the Primary Project present evidence of improved school adjustment and decreases in problem behaviors for participants.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Families, Urban
The goals of this program are to detect school adjustment difficulties, prevent social and emotional problems, and enhance learning skills of children in kindergarten through third grade.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults
The goal of the PEARLS program is to provide home-based counseling in order to manage and treat depression among older adults.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Rural
effectively treat chronic, common, and complex diseases in rural and
underserved areas, and to monitor outcomes of this treatment.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Air, Children, Teens
PGF is working to complete the retrofit of all 4,000 eligible school buses in the state. PGF also aims to reduce Minnesota's ambient air pollution, and help Minnesota avoid being declared a non-attainment area under the federal Clean Air Act.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Literacy, Children, Adults, Families
The mission of Reach Out and Read is to help prepare young children to succeed in school, by partnering with physicians to encouraging parents and children to read aloud together.
Reach Out and Read improves children's language development by 3-6 months and improves language ability with increased exposure to the program.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Teens
The goal of ReachOut Central (ROC) is to improve mental health among young people through an online gaming service by teaching them the practical coping skills for dealing with major stressors in life, ranging from issues such as alcohol use to psychological distress.
The aggregate results of this statistical analysis point to ReachOut Central's potential to impact and improve certain factors, such as coping ability, but also to relatively unexplored gender-dependent outcomes for other factors like alcohol consumption.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Women, Urban
The goal of the Real AIDS Prevention Project is to help women and their partners reduce their risk for HIV infection.
Community-level interventions may be an effective way to reach large numbers of women and change their condom-use behaviors, particularly their behaviors with regard to communication with main sex partners.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Men, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
This program aims to promote delay of sexual intercourse, condom use among those who were sexually active, and communication on sexuality between fathers (or father figures) and sons.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Governance, Children
The goal of requiring that all Connecticut children receive at least 1 dose of influenza vaccine each year to attend a licensed child care program and preschool setting is to reduce influenza transmission and decrease influenza-associated hospitalizations statewide.
Requiring vaccination for admission into a licensed child care program or preschool program has helped to increase vaccination rates among children in Connecticut and reduced serious morbidity from influenza statewide.