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 Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Teens
Goal: The mission of this program is to provide services that allow both victims and offenders to participate in a process where both parties have a sense of restored wholeness in their lives and in their communities. This wholeness is manifested when parties are feeling a sense of safety and trust in their communities and in their relationships with self and others. It is the goal of this organization to provide a sense of justice that repairs the damage done and restores relationships, both personal and communal, to their original state to the extent possible.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children
Goal: The goal of this program is to make affordable health care a reality for hundreds of thousands of families across the state.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens
Goal: To reduce the number of older adolescents who progress to established smoking.
Impact: The television component of the Massachusetts antismoking media campaign may have reduced the rate of progression to established smoking among young adolescents.
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Civic Engagement, Children, Urban
Goal: The overall goals of Kid2Kid are to: enable children to become responsible, caring world citizens by assisting them to develop compassion and empathy for other children around the world; increase students' global awareness and cultural understanding, while strengthening social studies and geography content knowledge; provide support, acknowledgement, encouragement and hope for traumatized children worldwide; encourage peace in the world, promote non-violence, and initiate pro-social behavior, among all children worldwide; facilitate an on-line culture learning process, whereby participating Kid2Kid children will learn about themselves and others around the world on a deep, meaningful level; and encourage and improve Kid2Kid children's artistic and communicative skills as well as provide an outlet for emotional expression.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens
Goal: A.S.P.I.R.E aims to reduce teen tobacco use by helping current smokers to quit and preventing non-smokers from beginning to smoke.
Filed under Good Idea, Education / School Environment, Children, Teens, Rural
Goal: The goal of the program is to elevate math and science achievement of students in rural communities through the use of technology.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens
Goal: The goal of Assisting in Rehabilitating Kids (ARK) is to increase abstinence and safer sex behaviors among substance-dependent adolescents.
Impact: The ARK program successfully increased sexual abstinence among those who received all components: health information, behavior skills training, and risk-sensitization manipulation, with the inclusion of the latter being more resistant to decay over time.
Association of Rideshare-Based Transportation Services and Missed Primary Care Appointments: A Clinical Trial (Philadelphia)
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Urban
Goal: The goal of the clinical trial was to evaluate the association between rideshare-based medical transportation and missed primary care appointments among Medicaid patients.
Impact: Although the uptake of ridesharing was low and did not decrease missed primary care appointments for this particular clinical trial, future studies trying to reduce missed appointments can explore alternative delivery models or target populations with stronger transportation needs.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Women, Men, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of the Baltimore Needle Exchange Program is to reduce HIV, hepatitis, and other infections by reducing the use of unclean needles and to help individuals overcome substance abuse by connecting them to harm reduction services and drug treatment programs. The experimental case manager intervention program at the Baltimore NEP looked to increase the percentage of intravenous drug users who enrolled in city sponsored substance abuse programs following referral at the Baltimore NEP sites.
Impact: The intervention program through Baltimore NEP was effective in increasing entry of intravenous drug users into drug drug treatment programs and highlights the need for more accessible treatment programs and harm-reduction services, such as mobile treatment facilities.
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.