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 / Women's Health, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
The goal of the study was to prevent STDs in high-risk minority women through three culture-specific small group education and counseling sessions, delivered over time.
Reinfection rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea were significantly lower at each follow-up among participants in the small-group counseling sessions than in the control group. Integration of behavior-change theory with extensive qualitative data collected in target communities enabled the study to create culturally meaningful strategies to promote the recognition of risk and to stimulate motivation to effect personal change.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Civic Engagement
Community associations can increase resident involvement by treating all residents as stakeholders, developing and conducting community harmony and spirit-enhancing programs, and including residents in the initial stages of program development.
Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability, Families
Currently, the average U.S. family spends nearly $1,300 a year on energy bills, with much of that energy being wasted due to air leaks, inefficient appliances, and a general lack of attention to this important issue. The Community Associations Institute (CAI) and the Department of Energy (DOE) are dedicated to educating the community association industry--and the significant portion of the U.S. population it represents--on the many ways to increase the energy efficiency of their homes, and thereby reduce both energy consumption and costs.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Other Conditions, Adults, Older Adults
Better Choices, Better HealthTM gives people with chronic conditions the skills to coordinate all the things needed to manage their heath, as well as to help them keep active in their lives.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Diabetes, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
The objectives of Bienestar are to decrease dietary saturated fat intake, increase dietary fiber intake, and increase physical activity among low-income Mexican-American elementary and middle school children.
The Bienestar Health Program statistically significantly increases fitness scores and dietary fiber intakes levels among low-income, Mexican-American fourth-graders. A second randomized control trial conducted from 6th to 8th grade showed reductions in various indexes of adiposity.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults, Urban
The goal of Bingocize is to improve mobility, balance, and ADL's in older adult populations.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Teens
The school's philosophy is "to provide the individual student with the academic and vocational/technical skills essential to achieve success in a productive career as well as to provide the global community with a highly qualified and prepared workforce."
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Teens
To significantly reduce depressive symptoms and to reduce the rates of future major depressive disorder onset among adolescents.
The Blues Program has been shown to decrease depressive symptoms, decrease rates of major depression onset, decrease rates of substance use, and increase factors that are protective against depression.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Teens, Women
The Body Project is a dissonance intervention designed to help women in high school and college resist societal and cultural pressures to conform to an idealized notion of what it means to be 'thin' and to help increase body acceptance. A reduction in thin-ideal internalization should result in reduced use of unhealthy weight-control behaviors, decreased eating disorder symptoms, and overall increase in mood and well-being.
The Body Project program has yielded numerous significant benefits at posttest and 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years after program implementation. These include significant reductions in body dissatisfaction, bulimic symptoms and psychosocial impairment compared to control group participants.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Air, Children, Teens, Adults
The Breathe Better Air at School Program aims to educate parents, staff, bus drivers, and faculty about the importance of not idling vehicles on campus.