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, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
The goal of Zoning for a Healthy Baltimore is to influence the final version of Baltimore’s new zoning code by informing stakeholders and decision-makers about the new zoning code’s potential to create healthy communities and decrease health disparities, with an emphasis on preventing obesity and crime.
Zoning for a Healthy Baltimore is an HIA of the Baltimore zoning code rewrite in order to maximize the potential to create healthier communities. Since publication, Baltimore has revised its zoning code to incorporate dispersal standards and other strategies related to placement of alcohol outlets.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Adults, Urban
To engage patients who may benefit from early intervention and/or education about substance use disorders, and to direct the individuals toward treatment options at the most appropriate levels of care.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
To improve the quality of life and academic achievement of asthmatic children, helping families break the revolving cycle of poverty that is worsened by chronic disease.
A reduction in ER visits by 64%, a reduction in overnight hospitalization by 85% and a reduction in school absences by 69%.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality
AccessHealth Spartanburg's mission is to improve access to healthcare for the uninsured of Spartanburg County, SC.
AHS reduced inappropriate emergency room use and inpatient caseloads while increasing access to healthcare services for its clients in Spartanburg County. Furthermore, the organization reported a $17 to $1 ROI.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Teens
The goal of ART® is to improve social skill competence, anger control, and moral reasoning.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Adults, Families
The goal of the AIDS Insurance Continuation Program is to provide low-income Floridians living with HIV/AIDS with continuous private health insurance coverage.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Teens
The mission of this program is to provide services that allow both victims and offenders to participate in a process where both parties have a sense of restored wholeness in their lives and in their communities. This wholeness is manifested when parties are feeling a sense of safety and trust in their communities and in their relationships with self and others. It is the goal of this organization to provide a sense of justice that repairs the damage done and restores relationships, both personal and communal, to their original state to the extent possible.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Diabetes, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Joslin's Asian American Diabetes Initiative has a mission to enhance the quality of life and health outcomes for Asian Americans living with diabetes through research, education, outreach and culturally appropriate treatments.
Joslin's Asian Clinic provides comprehensive and culturally appropriate diabetes care for Asian Americans.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
The goal of Assessment and Referral is to help individuals struggling with a substance use disorder evaluate their needs and strengths and begin to make healthy choices that improve the overall quality of their lives.
First Call provided over 1,700 assessments in 2013, and more than half of clients showed improvements in their Addiction Severity Index (ASI) scores or a decrease in substance use.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens
The goal of Assisting in Rehabilitating Kids (ARK) is to increase abstinence and safer sex behaviors among substance-dependent adolescents.
The ARK program successfully increased sexual abstinence among those who received all components: health information, behavior skills training, and risk-sensitization manipulation, with the inclusion of the latter being more resistant to decay over time.