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, Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Children, Teens, Urban
Goal: The goal of the Safe Routes to School program is to improve safety and encourage more children to safely walk and bicycle to school. In addition, the programs work toward reducing traffic congestion and improving health and the environment.
Filed under Local, Effective Practice, Economy / Employment
Goal: The goal of this program is to help individuals make a successful transition to employment.
Filed under Local, Good Idea, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability, Adults, Urban
Goal: MCBC's mission and work is about educating, assisting, and empowering individuals to live and work more harmoniously with nature and their community to avoid further ruin of the planet's finite life-sustaining capacity. A principal objective of its mission is to end waste as we know it today.
Filed under Local, Effective Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families
Goal: The program's goal is to help four- and five-year old children become better prepared for kindergarten.
Note: This practice has been Archived.
Filed under Local, Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Rural
Goal: Homeward Bound of Marin's mission is to address and solve the homelessness problem in Marin County.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Economy / Government Assistance, Adults, Families
Goal: GAIN is part of a large-scale, welfare-to-work initiative program operating in every county in California. In L.A. County, the initiative is under the supervision of the Department of Public Social Services. It helps local businesses and employers find and hire quality workers who seek meaningful employment. Prospective workers are participants in the state welfare programs known as California Work Opportunities and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKS) or General Relief Opportunities for Work (GROW).
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Urban
Goal: Housing for Health program goals are to improve patients’ health, reduce costs to the public health system, and demonstrate DHS’s commitment to addressing homelessness within Los Angeles County.
Impact: The average public service utilization cost per participant for the year prior to housing totaled $38,146; in the year after receiving housing, it totaled $15,358. When taking into account PSH costs, RAND observed a 20-percent net cost savings, suggesting a potential cost benefit of the program.
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Governance, Urban
Goal: The goal is to help prepare communities for earthquakes, fires, floods, terrorism, and other natural and man-made disasters.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children, Adults, Families
Goal: The program’s goal is to increase access to health care by assisting children and their families in Los Angeles County to enroll in health coverage programs and utilize and retain these benefits.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The Emergency Room Intervention for Suicidal Adolescent Females focuses on changing the conceptualization of suicidal behavior and expectations for therapy, thereby increasing attendance at outpatient therapy and decreasing future suicide risk.
Impact: The intervention increases the likelihood of follow-up treatment in an outpatient clinic and reduces suicide risk among adolescent females who have visited an emergency room due to a suicide attempt.