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 Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Respiratory Diseases, Children
Goal: The Mobile C.A.R.E. Foundation’s mission is to provide complimentary and comprehensive asthma care and education to children and families in Chicago’s underserved communities via mobile medical units called "Asthma Vans."
Impact: The Mobile C.A.R.E. Foundation’s Asthma Vans provide children and families in Chicago’s underserved communities with complimentary and comprehensive asthma care and education resulting in reduced school absenteeism, decreased ER visits and lower hospitalization rates.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens, Adults, Women, Men
Goal: The goal of the promising practice is to reduce binge-drinking behavior in college students using motivational interviewing and personalized feedback techniques.
Impact: At an eight-week follow-up, all four groups reduced their consumption, peak BAC, consequences, and dependence symptoms.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens, Families
Goal: The goal of MDFT is to reduce adolescent drug abuse and increase self-efficacy in the teen population.
Impact: Systematic reviews comparing the effective of adolescent drug use interventions across studies found that MDFT reduces substance use, delinquency, behavior problems, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. The program has also been found to improve educational performance.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Women
Goal: New Beginnings promotes resilience in children after parental divorce by providing mothers and their children with group and individual-based sessions.
Impact: The New Beginnings program improves post-divorce adjustment outcomes such as interparental conflict, mother-child relationships, and coping strategies by targeting predictive behaviors.
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of the New Communities Program is to strengthen communities from within through planning, organizing, and human development.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens, Adults
Goal: The New York State Smokers' Quitline is a free and confidential service that provides effective stop smoking services to New Yorkers who want to stop smoking.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens
Goal: The goal of this program is to help teens quit smoking.
Impact: One study showed that the percentage of students who reportedly quit smoking 15 months after the intervention was higher for participants. Another study showed that a greater percentage of participants reported smoking cessation 5 months after the intervention than non-participants.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Women, Urban
Goal: The program has three primary goals:
1) to improve pregnancy outcomes by promoting health-related behaviors;
2) to improve child health, development and safety by promoting competent care-giving; and
3) to enhance parent life-course development by promoting pregnancy planning, educational achievement, and employment.
The program also has two secondary goals: to enhance families' material support by providing links with needed health and social services, and to promote supportive relationships among family and friends.
Impact: The Nurse Family Partnership Program has shown to improve pregnancy outcomes, improve child health and development, and increase economic self-sufficiency.
Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment, Adults
Goal: Opportunity Chicago's goal was to identify employment barriers within the system and to reduce those barriers by creating processes that would result in a smoother and more streamlined path to employment for CHA residents.
Impact: Of the 6,743 participants in an Opportunity Chicago program between 2006 and 2010, 5,185 (77%) were employed by the end of the project. Fifty-four percent retained employment for two or more years. Fifty-nine percent of participants saw an increase in quarterly earnings.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Urban
Goal: The goal of Parent Connext is to support parents in reducing and/or preventing toxic stress in the family and help children develop critical life skills and coping skills. Recent studies have found that up to 50% of health outcomes are attributable to social and economic factors and that lifetime costs associated with child maltreatment are comparable to other costly healthcare conditions such as stroke or type 2 diabetes. Moreover, 4 in 5 physicians report lacking confidence in their ability to meet patients’ social needs, which can impede their ability to provide high quality medical care. As a result, interventions that target parents’ social needs may have important implications for reducing healthcare costs and have the added benefit of enabling physicians to provide high-quality care to their patients.