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 Local, Good Idea, Economy, Adults
Goal: Expected Beneficial Outcomes: Increased earnings; Reduced poverty.
Filed under Local, Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Families
Goal: The programs’ mission is to inform and inspire parents and all who care about children so that every child may be happy, healthy, and thrive.
Filed under Local, Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Teens, Adults, Women
Goal: The goals of the program are to Increase use of female condoms and increase the frequency of protected sex.
Impact: FEMIT is successful in increasing female condom use and also in increasing protected sex among women. The FEMIT intervention has the potential to to be an effective supplement to other safe sex education programs currently available at family planning clinics.
Filed under Local, Good Idea, Economy, Adults
Goal: Expected Beneficial Outcomes: Increased asset accumulation. Other Potential Beneficial Outcomes: Increased financial stability.
Filed under Local, Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes
Goal: The goals of the Homeless Garden Project (HGP) are to offer a supportive, meaningful work environment that encourages self-esteem, responsibility, and self-sufficiency; to integrate homeless people and the community in the security and beauty of a productive garden; and to put into practice the principles of economic and ecological sustainability.
Filed under Local, Good Idea, Economy, Adults
Goal: Expected Beneficial Outcomes: Increased financial stability; Improved well-being. Other Potential Beneficial Outcomes: Increased food security; Reduced poverty; Reduced suicide; Reduced crime; Improved academic outcomes; Improved health outcomes.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults
Goal: The goal of this program is to improve colorectal cancer screening rates among older adults.
Impact: Participants in the intervention group had significantly higher colorectal cancer screening attendance, as well as having more positive attitudes about screening and placing a higher priority on screening.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of the program is to increase fruit and vegetable consumption behavior in participants of the Women, Infants, and Children program in Genessee County, Michigan.
Impact: Participants of the program increased their fruit and vegetable consumption and the program had a positive effect on participants attitudes toward consuming fruits and vegetables.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The Fathers and Sons Project aims to strengthen the bonds between fathers and sons and promote positive health behaviors.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Women's Health, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of the study was to prevent STDs in high-risk minority women through three culture-specific small group education and counseling sessions, delivered over time.
Impact: Reinfection rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea were significantly lower at each follow-up among participants in the small-group counseling sessions than in the control group. Integration of behavior-change theory with extensive qualitative data collected in target communities enabled the study to create culturally meaningful strategies to promote the recognition of risk and to stimulate motivation to effect personal change.