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
The goal of SPARK is to promote physical activity among youth through school-based programs.
A health-related physical education curriculum can significantly increase physical activity for students in physical education classes.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Urban
The goals of the Staying Alive program are to teach drug users about how to recognize opiate overdose signs and symptoms, how to respond to any overdose cases by calling 911, and how to use rescue breathing and naloxone administration to reduce life-threatening drug overdose.
Staying Alive reduces mortality due to opiate and heroin drug overdose.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Adults, Urban
To determine whether online peer support will increase adherence to an Internet-based pedometer walking program.
Stepping up to Health shows that online communities can help reduce attrition within online health behavior change interventions.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Adults
The mission of the Steps to a Healthier Washington program is to integrate existing chronic disease programs to achieve policy and systems changes.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Rural
The goal of Steps to a Healthier Yuma County is to prevent obesity and diabetes in young children.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Teens, Urban
The goal of Students for Nutrition and Exercise is to encourage healthy eating and daily physical activity in middle school students.
The SNaX program shows that programs which train peer advocates to encourage healthy eating and daily physical activity in students can serve to benefit those trained as peer advocates after the intervention.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families
The program's goal is to help four- and five-year old children become better prepared for kindergarten.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Urban
Insite’s mission is to provide a safe environment for people to inject drugs and thus reduce injecting activity in public while linking drug users to health care services such as primary care, addiction counseling and treatment.
Opening supervised injected facilities have resulted in significant reductions in public injection drug use related issues and increase in referrals to social services and detoxification programs in Vancouver.
Filed under Good Idea, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children
The goal of this program was to improve child and family functioning.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults
To use tai chi exercise to improve balance and decrease incidence of falls among older adults.
The program shows that ta chi can significantly improve health-related outcome measures in older adults and such a program can be practically and effectively implemented and maintained in community settings.