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 / Student Performance K-12, Children, Urban
Goal: Youth UpRising aims to build youth leadership and affect positive community change by ensuring that youth and young adults are supported in the following key areas:
- Consciousness Raising that exposes them to a broader set of realities to develop their capacity to think critically about personal and community experiences;
- Personal Transformation that builds their capacity to transform experiences of trauma and oppression into opportunities for positive personal and community change; and
- Hard Skill/Leadership Development that increases their creativity, strengths, and skills as effective leaders who are competitive in the marketplace.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Teens
Goal: Youth Villages helps children and families live successfully.
Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment
Goal: The overall objective of the project was to identify and provide additional support and services to those youth, ages 14-21 enrolled in WIA-supported youth programs with mental health care needs.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment
Goal: The goal of this initiative was to pinpoint community conditions that were detrimental to health in the Planada, California community.
Impact: The Student Education Empowerment Development Squad (SEEDS), with the help of the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program (CCROPP), addressed community issues through a youth-led process using Prevention Institute’s Tool for Health and Resilience in Vulnerable Environments (THRIVE).
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children
Goal: The McLean County program's mission is "to offer young people a once in a lifetime opportunity to build their futures and their communities through education, leadership development, job training, and the rehabilitation and production of affordable housing, while keeping a profound respect for and a commitment to real partnership with youth."
Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The goal of Zoning for a Healthy Baltimore is to influence the final version of Baltimore’s new zoning code by informing stakeholders and decision-makers about the new zoning code’s potential to create healthy communities and decrease health disparities, with an emphasis on preventing obesity and crime.
Impact: Zoning for a Healthy Baltimore is an HIA of the Baltimore zoning code rewrite in order to maximize the potential to create healthier communities. Since publication, Baltimore has revised its zoning code to incorporate dispersal standards and other strategies related to placement of alcohol outlets.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The goals of Salud Services are to:
-Promote wellness and prevention
-Value cultural beliefs
-Promote health and safety in the worksite
-Be a cultural broker for the clients
-Collaborate with other agencies
Note: This practice has been Archived.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children
Goal: To increase fruit and vegetable consumption among children using a multi-component approach.
Note: This practice has been Archived.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Adults, Families
Goal: To reduce gastrointestinal and respiratory illness-related absenteeism in elementary school students by using surface disinfectants.
Note: This practice has been Archived.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens
Goal: The goal of this program is to enhance the resiliency of children in order to promote positive development and prevent them from engaging in high-risk behaviors such as substance use, early sexual activity, or violence.
Impact: Studies of the program showed that participants' reactions to situations involving drug use and their attitudes toward school, the future, and elders were significantly better than those without the intervention. Students in the program also had fewer days absent from school than nonparticipants.