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 Good Idea, Health / Disabilities, Children, Families
Goal: The program's mission is to empower families of children with special needs to understand and access the systems that serve them.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases
Goal: The intent of the practice is to decrease mortality and morbidity relative to Hepatitis A, B or C infection rate in Western New York.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / School Environment, Children
Goal: The goals of this program are:
- Detect school adjustment difficulties
- Prevent social and emotional problems
- Enhance learning skills
Impact: One study demonstrated that participants made significant improvements in task orientation, specifically in working more independently and completing tasks faster. In behavior control, program students showed increased coping skills and lower levels of aggressiveness and produced fewer disruptions. In assertiveness, students had improved participation in activities, were better at expressing ideas, and showed increased leadership and decreased shyness. Improvements in peer sociability included increases in the quality of peer relationships and improved social skills. Several other evaluations of the Primary Project present evidence of improved school adjustment and decreases in problem behaviors for participants.
Quality Improvement Project to Improve the Immunization Rate in the Women, Infant, and Children Program (Reno County, KS)
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families, Urban
Goal: The goal of this program is to increase the immunization rate of WIC children.
Impact: The WIC immunization rate for 2 year olds increased from 33% in the 3rd quarter of 2011 to 83% in the 4th quarter of 2012. The no-show rate for WIC appointments decreased from 68% to 27.6%.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Urban
Goal: The mission of the RHAP is to protect the health of the general population and to improve the health status of refugees so they may achieve self-sufficiency.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Diabetes, Rural
Goal: The goal of this project is to build community support for persons with Type 2 diabetes living in frontier Eastern Montana.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children
Goal: To create a sustainable school lunch program that incorporated healthier food items by leveraging the combined efforts of several school districts.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / School Environment, Children, Teens, Urban
Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce violent tendencies among youth through civic education.
Filed under Good Idea, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families
Goal: The project's goal is to identify children with disabilities and other special needs at an early age and provide those identified with the appropriate support so they can be successful when entering kindergarten.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Adults, Urban
Goal: The mission of The Key Clubhouse is to afford people who have been disrupted by mental illness the opportunity to recover meaningful and productive lives through reintegration in the workplace and the community.
Impact: Individuals who participate in a Clubhouse program have been found to have higher rates of employment, reduced hospitalization, reduced incarceration, and improved well-being as compared with other mental health programs.