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, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families, Urban
Goal: Raising A Reader's mission is to foster healthy brain development, encourage parent and child bonding through reading together and facilitate future school success by increasing reading skills.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Literacy, Children, Urban
Goal: Reading Partners mission is to help children become lifelong readers by empowering communities to provide individualized instruction with measurable results.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Urban
Goal: To provide housing to homeless youth aged 18 to 24 and provide comprehensive behavioral health services.
Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment
Goal: The goal of this program is to help high-risk youth develop marketable skills and to instill in students the values of dignity, responsibility and community.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Urban
Goal: Goals of the Bay-Friendly Landscaping & Gardening Coalition include:
- Reduce waste & help meet recycling goals.
- Reduce water use on landscapes by 50% or more.
- Nurture healthy soils while reducing fertilizer use.
- Use integrated pest management to minimize chemical use.
- Prevent or reduce storm water pollution to our local creeks and bay.
- Lower maintenance associated with mowing and shearing.
- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Create wildlife habitat.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use
Goal: The goal of the program is to increase compliance with the public health law that prohibits the sale of tobacco products to anyone under 19.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Public Safety, Children, Urban
Goal: The goal of the TARGET program is to reduce gang crime by selectively incarcerating the most violent and repeat (recidivist) gang offenders (based on their criminal records).
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Teens
Goal: The Twelve Together program seeks to help students stay in school and make academic progress.
Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants
Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce waste and encourage recycling at Vandenberg AFB.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality
Goal: The initial goal of the PMDB development project was to: enable registry staff to collect, store, and easily retrieve large volumes of provider data; accelerate provider recruitment and enrollment by allowing for more organized, effcient outreach; improve provider retention by improving the quality and timeliness of follow-up; and allow registry management to quickly assemble meaningful data for program and staff evaluation.