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, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability
Goal: The overall purpose of the energy evaluation was to demonstrate how operational and process modifications could be made to lower the demand and energy costs for various facilities within STPUD. More specifically, the goal was to reduce electrical energy consumed at the plant and to reduce SPPC billings.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Oral Health, Children
Goal: The goal of the New Jersey Department of Health's voluntary fluoride mouth rinse program, "Save Our Smiles" is to improve the oral health status of high need/risk children residing in areas where the water is not optimally fluoridated.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens, Urban
Goal: The primary goal of the School Lunch Initiative is to transform the way Berkeley public school students eat lunch and to educate children about food, health, and the environment.
Impact: Three years after its conception, the program successfully eliminated nearly all processed foods from the school district dining halls and introduced fresh and organic foods to the daily menu. There was evidence that greater exposure to the School Lunch Initiative was significantly associated with higher nutrition knowledge scores among fourth graders and seventh graders. Furthermore, elementary school students from the schools with highly developed School Lunch Initiative components clearly expressed a higher preference for fruits and vegetables.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Nutrition & Healthy Eating, Rural
Goal: CVAN is the Kansas conduit for tons of healthy produce from the Catholic Charities Mary Martha Organization--the steward of excess highly perishable high quality foods from a huge Walmart Distribution Center in Oklahoma. As food supplies allow, CVAN distributes to the 100 square mile school district and to share with a networked family of pantries and volunteer organizations in five Kansas counties and South Coffeyville, OK. As needed, CVAN has recruited distribution volunteers in covering communities within this economically depressed region. The network family was built upon the CVAN’s supply of fresh produce, but is now blessing this area with distribution of CARES foods during the COVID crisis. Its volunteers are food warriors--winning in the fight against rural hunger.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Teens
Goal: The goal of this program is to strategically connect resources in schools in order to help young people learn, stay in school, and prepare for life.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Urban
Goal: It is the mission of the Addiction Prevention and Recovery Administration (APRA) to promote and enforce the highest quality regulatory standards for delivering services related to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs (ATOD) addictions; to prevent ATOD addictions; and to identify, treat and rehabilitate persons who are addicted giving priority to residents of the District of Columbia.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Teens
Goal: Two of the goals for the Maryland's Tomorrow program are for all seniors to pass Maryland's state tests and graduate, and for all participating students to improve their grade point averages.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Urban
Goal: The goal of this project was to support community revitalization, retain the integrity of an historic district, and provide transportation links to private land development projects.
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Community & Business Resources, Women, Men, Families, Rural
Goal: The goal of the renovation of the Rock Island Railroad Depot was to revitalize the city of Liberal, Kansas.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of the Bay Area SCORES program is to reduce obesity, increase physical fitness, and manage cardiovascular health-related risks while improving academic performance in children between the ages of 6 and 12 through soccer, creative expression, service learning, “hip hop for health,” and creative writing.