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, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Children
Goal: The goal of the In Our Own Back Yard program is to cultivate connection to, comfort in, and informed appreciation of the outdoors among participants.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children
Goal: Program objectives are to:
- Plan and conduct five sets of interactive tobacco prevention mini-sessions for youth and parents in multiple school-linked settings;
- Plan and implement one annual media advocacy event coordinated with the national Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
- Plan and conduct tobacco educational outreach and implementation guidance for coaches and athletic staff. Teen Presenters deliver tobacco prevention mini-sessions to younger children, grades 1-6.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The goals of the program are to improve the health of recent immigrant families by training native speakers from different countries to help enroll members of their communities in various publicly funded health programs.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Oral Health, Older Adults
Goal: The mission of the Oral Health Equity Project (OHEP) is to increase access to preventative services and dental care for economically disadvantaged elders living in Boston's public housing. The specific goal of the three-year project is to provide oral health screening to 1000 low-income elders.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Literacy, Children, Teens, Urban
Goal: Partners in School Innovation enables public schools in high-poverty Bay Area communities to achieve educational equity through school-based reform.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goals of this project are:
- to increase knowledge of nutrition among Hispanic elders who are at risk for cardiovascular disease and obesity;
- to foster behavior change through group sessions and interactive activities; and
- to test whether the American Heart Association guidelines and materials can be utilized in a dietitian led model targeted to Hispanic elders.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Adults, Families
Goal: The mission of Project Live Active in Yancey is to enhance the built environment in the community in order to prevent obesity and encourage community members to be physically active.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Adults, Older Adults, Urban
Goal: The program’s mission is to meet community nutrition needs through programs for people living with HIV/AIDS, the homebound critically ill, and seniors.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Literacy, Children, Urban
Goal: Reading Partners mission is to help children become lifelong readers by empowering communities to provide individualized instruction with measurable results.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Adults, Women, Men, Urban
Goal: The mission of Reconciliation Services is to cultivate a community seeking reconciliation to transform Troost from a dividing line into a gathering place, revealing the strength of all. Our mental health services are at the heart of how we strive to help clients see their own strength and work towards being reconciled to their own health and well-being.
Impact: Over the past three years, our therapy program participants reported a 71 percent decrease for depression and 79 percent decrease for PTSD.