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 Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children
The goal of the data sharing project is to allow for continuity of care of admitted children from hospital to school and to decrease readmissions of the children to the hospital.
Filed under Good Idea, Education / School Environment, Children, Teens
The goal of this program is to introduce teachers, students, and chaperones to rail and train safety, the environment, and train travel. This program targets all students from kindergarten through high school.
Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment
- to save our most valuable remaining natural resources before they are forever lost,
- to support existing communities and neighborhoods by targeting state resources to support development in areas where the infrastructure is already in place or planned to support it, and
- to save taxpayers millions of dollars in the unnecessary cost of building the infrastructure required to support sprawl.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Adults, Urban
To determine whether online peer support will increase adherence to an Internet-based pedometer walking program.
Stepping up to Health shows that online communities can help reduce attrition within online health behavior change interventions.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
The goals of this program are to improve parenting skills and children’s behaviors and decrease conduct disorders; to improve children’s social competencies; and to improve family attachment, harmony, communication, and organization.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants
The goal of this project is to identify environmentally preferable building materials and products, to specify them in HOK's own projects, and to guide others in the profession in doing the same.
Teaching Alternative High School Students Computer Skills through Experiential Learning (Tonasket, WA)
Filed under Good Idea, Education / Student Performance K-12, Teens
The goal was to engage students in learning how to use and fix computers so they would be competitve in the job market following school.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Teens, Adults, Women, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Bright Beginnings seeks to prevent poor pregnancy outcomes among Prince George's low-income, medically underserved women and children.
Bright Beginnings has provided services to thousands of women to help reduce infant mortality and prevent adverse pregnancy outcomes. The program has been noted as a promising practice by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene since 2010.
Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability, Urban
- Municipal clean fuel vehicle purchases
- Green power use and public education program
- Telecommuting and telecenters
- Enhanced pedestrian connections and increased housing and employment density near transit
- Bicycle lanes, paths, and routes
- Energy efficient landscaping
- Solar pool heating
- Traffic signal and system upgrades
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families
The program aims to promote social, emotional, and academic competence and to prevent children from developing conduct problems.
The Incredible Years series has been shown to increase positive parenting practices and family communication while reducing children's conduct problems.