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 Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: To provide academic, vocational, recreational and life skills for at risk youth ages 12-21 in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco.
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of Girls 2000 is to provide low-income girls with exposure and experiences to help them overcome obstacles that they may encounter.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment
Goal: Greenbelt Alliance's mission is to improve the lives in the San Francisco Bay Area by protecting the region's greenbelt and improving the livability of its cities and towns.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Urban
Goal: To provide temporary housing to former foster youth between the ages 18 and 24 and to help them become independent adults.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Men, Urban
Goal: The goals of Mpowerment are to mobilize young gay and bisexual men to reduce sexual risk taking, encourage regular HIV testing, and build positive social connections with peers.
Impact: The Mpowerment intervention successfully developed a mechanism to socialize young gay men to safer sex. Since this intervention relies primarily on volunteers, it is relatively inexpensive for communities to maintain and can continue to be made available for future generations.
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Urban
Goal: The goal of Peacekeepers is to prevent violence among youth in the Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco.
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 Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases
Goal: The goal of this intervention is to prevent new STD infections.
Impact: The Safe in the City program shows that clinic waiting room videos displaying prevention knowledge and techniques can actually help to reduce the number of new infections of certain STDs.
SF Health Code Article 38: Enhanced Ventilation for Urban Sensitive Use Development (San Francisco, CA)
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Governance, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Families, Urban
Goal: The purpose of SF Health Code Article 38 is to protect residents from the effects of living in a poor air quality zone by requiring enhanced ventilation in new and renovated residential buildings.
Impact: The City of San Francisco implemented a law requiring enhanced ventilation in new and renovated residential buildings to protect residents from harmful particulate matter.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: Shape Up SF aims to reduce health disparities by creating healthy eating and active living environments and improving physical activity and nutrition.
Impact: Shape Up SF implemented Safe Routes to School, Bayview HEAL Zone, PE4SF, Rethink Your Drink, Southeast Food Access (SEFA) Working Group, SEFA Food Guardians, and Walking Challenge, and increased physical activity and access to healthy foods in San Francisco.