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 Local, Effective Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families
Goal: The program's goal is to help four- and five-year old children become better prepared for kindergarten.
Filed under Local, Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Children, Teens, Urban
Goal: The goal of the Safe Routes to School program is to improve safety and encourage more children to safely walk and bicycle to school. In addition, the programs work toward reducing traffic congestion and improving health and the environment.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Air, Urban
Goal: The goal of the Sustainable Skylines Initiative (SSI) is to achieve measurable emissions reductions and promote sustainability in urban environments within three years of implementation.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases
Goal: The goal of HealthSentry is to meet the challenge of linking public health organizations to reliable clinical data without burdensome manual data collection and reporting.more timely and accurate reporting.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Prevention & Safety, Children, Families, Urban
Goal: The goal of the medical-legal partnership is to improve health outcomes through quality legal services.
Impact: The Medical-Legal Partnership provides legal assistance to patients on issues that directly or indirectly affect health.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Urban
Goal: The purpose of Pets for Life, Inc. is to enhance the care and treatment of people in local hospitals, nursing homes, domestic violence shelters, mental health programs, youth treatment centers, corrections facilities, and hospices through the use of certified therapy teams of pets and volunteers.
Impact: The benefits of pet/volunteer visits to people in the community include increased emotional/sociological well being of these individuals and positive physiological changes.
Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Urban
Goal: ReStore Kansas City was created to be an entrepreneurial, fundraising arm for Habitat for Humanity Kansas City through sales of donated new and used building materials, furniture and appliances. By salvaging useable materials from people who no longer need them, ReStore is saving space in landfills, giving the public affordable materials, and helping to further the mission of affordable housing in the Kansas City area.
Impact: Two stores raised more than $5 million and approximately 60,000,000 lbs. of material were diverted from going into the local landfill.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle, Children, Families
Goal: The Healthy Lifestyles Initiative works to integrate efforts to increase the proportion of Kansas City children and their families practicing healthy behaviors at a healthy weight.
Impact: Collaboration among multiple agencies across public and private sectors resulted in reaching almost 1 million people in the Kansas City area. Healthy weight assessments and plans received at primary care clinics are helping to promote healthy eating and living among children and their families.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Urban
Goal: The goal of this program is to create a regional approach to emerging infection based on public education, environmental monitoring, and disease surveillance.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Families, Urban
Goal: CLOCC's mission is to confront the childhood obesity epidemic by promoting healthy and active lifestyles for children throughout the Chicago metropolitan area.
Impact: The Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children brings together researchers, public health advocates and practitioners, and the children, families, and communities of Chicagoland to prevent childhood obesity.