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 / Physical Activity, Children, Teens
Goal: Given the increased prevalence among youth of obesity and Type II Diabetes Mellitus (DM) in the last 25 years, the goal of Kids N Fitness is to reduce risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome in overweight youth through a family-oriented lifestyle intervention.
Impact: These positive health outcomes indicate that a family-centered lifestyle intervention can improve metabolic health among youth.
Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Economic Climate
Goal: The goal of the restoration of La Posada Hotel was to preserve and restore the hotel as a historic landmark, and to reinvigorate the economy of Winslow, Arizona.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Families
Goal: Let’s Move! is dedicated to solving the problem of obesity within a generation so that kids born today will grow up healthier and able to pursue their dreams.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children, Urban
Goal: Linking the Interests of Families and Teachers (LIFT) is a research intervention program designed to prevent the development of aggressive and antisocial behavior.
Impact: Evidence suggests that LIFT can be a useful tool for promoting effective parenting in the home and decreasing aggressive behaviors with peers at school and on the playground. LIFT participants exhibited a decrease in child physical aggression toward classmates on the playground, an increase in teachers' positive impressions of child social skills with classmates, and a decrease in parents' aversive behavior during family problem-solving discussions.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Teens
Goal: The goal of the Lions Quest program is to promote healthy, safe, and drug-free behaviors in youth.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Older Adults
Goal: To assess whether an Individualized Management for Patient-Centered Targets (IMPaCT), delivered by community health workers improved patients' chronic disease management and self-rated physical and mental health.
Impact: Individuals with multiple chronic conditions when paired with a community health worker will perceive that their care is higher quality and may have fewer hospitalizations.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle, Men, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: Reduce unprotected insertive and receptive anal intercourse among HIV-negative black men who have sex with men (MSM) as well as to reduce the number of sex partners, increase consistent condom use during anal intercourse and increase testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children
Goal: To prevent or delay the onset of underage alcohol and tobacco use by encouraging healthy beliefs and attitudes about abstaining from substance use and by enhancing critical thinking skills to transform students into active media consumers.
Impact: Students who participated in the Media Detective program displayed a greater understanding of media deconstruction skills and persuasive intent. They also had greater self-efficacy to refuse substances compared to students who did not participate in the program.
Medicaid Savings Resulted When Community Health Workers Matched Those With Needs To Home And Community Care (Arkansas)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Economy / Government Assistance, Older Adults
Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce costs by using specially trained community health workers to help connect people with unmet long-term needs and/or those at risk of entering nursing homes to Medicaid home and community-based services.
Impact: Similar interventions may help other localities achieve cost-saving and equitable access to publicly funded long-term care options other than institutional care.
Medical Legal Partnerships: Embedding Civil Legal Aid Services in Care for High-Utilizing Patients (Lancaster, PA)
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Governance, Children, Teens, Adults, Families, Urban
Goal: The goal of the pilot was to assess the impact on health care use of addressing patients’ civil legal problems – the social, financial, or environmental problems that require assistance from lawyers to remedy. The lawyer was embedded in the health care team and present during case management discussions to identify specific civil legal problems and to help the team better understand how to address them. Additionally, this partnership provided civil legal aid services to patients when needed in a community health care system.
Impact: This pilot shows a medical-legal partnership for the super-utilizers of healthcare can lead to efficiencies within the health care system, reduce costs, and improve health outcomes among the most vulnerable patients.