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.
The Character Effect: A Universal Social-Emotional Learning Program for Elementary School Students (Greater Cincinnati Area (SW OH, Northern KY))
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education, Children, Urban
The goal of The Character Effect is to foster the development of students’ social-emotional skills, improving their behavior and readiness to learn in the classroom.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
The program aimed to increase the rate of cervical cancer screening in Chinese women living in North America in response to research findings of significantly lower cervical cancer screening rates in Chinese women.
This intervention program found that women who received an intervention had cervical cancer screenings at a higher rate than those who did not receive any intervention. This shows that culturally and linguistically appropriate interventions might help improve Pap testing rates among Chinese women.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Domestic Violence & Abuse, Families
The mission of DAIP is to provide advocacy on behalf of battered women. DAIP staff provide information and assess the women's safety regardless of the situation, but they also offer advocacy at three key time periods: immediately after police intervention and arrest, throughout the court proceedings, and after case disposition. The advocates offer support and information about available community resources, explain the criminal court process, describe the civil court remedies available, and obtain information from the women in order to serve as their liaisons to the legal system and to ascertain the level of danger that each woman is in.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults
Reduce hospital/nursing home readmissions and improve care for older adults.
Reduced 30-day readmission rate from 18.2 to 8.9 percent over the course of 2 years, resulting in estimated savings of more than $17 million through 1,804 avoided readmissions.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults
The mission of the Green House Project is to partner with organizations, advocates, and communities to lead the transformation of institutional long-term care by creating viable homes where elders and others enjoy excellent quality of life and quality of care.
Studies showed that Green House homes are likely to reduce hospitalization rates among residents, and Medicare and Medicaid costs per resident, when compared to residents in traditional nursing homes. Also, nurses are more likely to spend more hours in Green House homes.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment
The goal of the Green Map System is to cultivate citizen participation and community sustainability in hundreds of places around the world.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle, Children, Families
The Healthy Lifestyles Initiative works to integrate efforts to increase the proportion of Kansas City children and their families practicing healthy behaviors at a healthy weight.
Collaboration among multiple agencies across public and private sectors resulted in reaching almost 1 million people in the Kansas City area. Healthy weight assessments and plans received at primary care clinics are helping to promote healthy eating and living among children and their families.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Diabetes, Children, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
The primary goal of the intervention was to reduce overweight and obesity prevalence among middle school students. Ancillary goals were to improve BMI and fasting insulin values, increase water consumption, reduce consumption of beverages with added sugar, increase healthy food choices, improve self-monitoring, and increase exercise time among sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students.
School-based programs that aim to address childhood obesity and adiposity may reduce individuals' risk of developing childhood-onset of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus.
Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Urban
The goal of this program is to provide a much-needed recycling service to the City of Chattanooga and the surrounding area while providing jobs for developmentally disabled adults.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Urban
The goals of the study was to assess the benefits of using multiple and systematic strategies to reduce traffic congestion in three metropolitan areas in the U.S.