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, Health / Oral Health, Children, Women
The Early Childhood Cavities Prevention Program (ECCPP) is a community-based intervention program to promote preventive oral care for both mothers and their infants in Klamath County, Oregon.
The Early Childhood Cavities Prevention Program (ECCPP) educates pregnant women about dental hygiene to prevent dental infection in their children. Ninety-three percent of all participating infants were 100% cavity-free on their second birthday.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle, Children
The goals of this program are to increase developmentally appropriate physical activity, to increase the consumption of fruit and vegetables by children, and to increase the consumption of low-fat milk products and calcium-rich foods. The long-range goal is to incorporate this theme into the life of Lorain County children through collaboration with schools, agencies and facilities that provide services and activities for children and their families.
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Public Safety, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural
In an effort to prepare and engage community residents to take a more participatory role in their communities, Monterey County Health Department (MCHD) developed and has offered since 2014 a leadership and civic engagement program (enLACE) that addresses the social determinants of health, community engagement and their relationship to the health of the community.
Environmental Improvements Brought by the Legal Interventions in the Homes of Poorly Controlled Inner-City Adult Asthmatic Patients (New York City, New York)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Urban
The goal is to use a medical-legal collaborative intervention to force landlords into maintaining healthy living conditions for residents with poorly controlled asthma.
This proof-of concept study exhibits that medical-legal collaboration can significantly impact the control of inner-city asthmatics by improving their domestic environment.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity
MANNA uses nutrition to improve health for people with serious illnesses who need nourishment to heal. By providing medically tailored meals and nutrition education, we empower people to improve their health and quality of life.
MANNA members report significant health care cost reductions due to improved health.
Filed under Good Idea, Education / Literacy, Families
The program's goal is to provide school readiness activities for families with children, from birth to five years old, who live in isolated and under-served areas of Marin County.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Economy / Poverty, Adults, Women, Men, Families, Urban
Salzer MS, Schwenk E, Brusilovskiy E: Certified peer specialist roles and activities: results from a national survey. Psychiatric Services 61:520–523, 2010.
Repper J, Carter T: A review of the literature on peer support in mental health services. Journal of Mental Health 20: 392–411, 2011.
Cook JA: Peer-delivered wellness recovery services: from evidence to widespread implementation. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal 35:87–89, 2011
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children
To improve children's nutritional status, increase their activity level, enhance their self-esteem, and create life-long health habits by using a multidisciplinary, community- and family-based system approach, and by engaging local health care professionals with community agencies.
The Fit Kids/Fit Families program shows that multidisciplinary, community- and family-based approaches to children's exercise, weight, & nutrition can have an effect on healthier nutritional choices, increased physical activity, decreased sedentary activity, healthier behaviors, and BMI reductions.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Teens, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
The goal of Focus on Youth is to teach youth the skills and knowledge they need to protect themselves from HIV and other STDs.
The Focus on Youth intervention increased self-reported condom use and positively affected perceptions six months after the end of the program.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Governance, Children, Urban
To advocate for children and help them resolve their most pressing legal problem: being in the custody of the state when they need to be in the custody of a family - biological or adoptive - within the 12 months provided by law.
Children represented by the Foster's Children Project were more likely to exit the foster system to permanency due to higher rates of adoption and long-term custody, but not reunification, than their peers not represented by FCP.