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 / Alcohol & Drug Use
Goal: The mission of this program is to improve the lives of individuals and families affected by alcohol and other drug use through treatment, education, and research.
Impact: Matrix participants were 38% more likely to stay in treatment and 27% more likely to complete treatment compared to nonparticipants. Stimulant drug-use indicators were significantly reduced during treatment for Matrix participants. They also produced more drug-free urine samples compared to nonparticipants.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children
Goal: The goal of the MEND program is to reduce obesity levels in children by offering free healthy living programs that aim to encourage small lifestyle changes that improve health.
Impact: The MEND program was successful in reducing waist circumferences and BMI scores while increasing cardiovascular fitness, physical activity, and self esteem in children placed within the intervention group. The results of this study suggest that the MEND program is a promising intervention to combat rising child obesity rates.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Diabetes, Rural
Goal: The overall goal is to reduce the prevalence of diabetes and improve the care of people with diabetes by improving provider education.
Impact: The results indicate that a half-day site visit with an experienced diabetologist can lead to sustained, improved glycemic and lipid control in previously-uncontrolled diabetic patients. The online iDose tool provides an easy way for healthcare providers to calculate insulin dosage.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Urban
Goal: The goal of Prime Time Palm Beach County is to improve the quality of school-age afterschool programs through assessment, guidance, and support.
Impact: Based on the 2009 study findings, Prime Time's Quality Improvement System resulted in improvements made to afterschool programs which enhanced quality programming and important developmental learning experiences for youth.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens
Goal: The program’s goal is to delay the age when young people begin drinking and to reduce drinking among those who have already started.
Impact: Studies have shown that by the end of the intervention, participating students were significantly less likely to drink alcohol than nonparticipants. Also, students who did not use alcohol before participating in the program were less likely to use alcohol after the intervention than similar youth who did not participate.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Oral Health, Children, Families
Goal: The Smile Programs... the mobile dentists mission is to bring state-of-the-art, dental care to those students in need in the most comfortable and effective way possible.
Impact: Smile Programs provides mobile dental care to children in schools in over a dozen states.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Economy / Government Assistance, Adults, Families
Goal: GAIN is part of a large-scale, welfare-to-work initiative program operating in every county in California. In L.A. County, the initiative is under the supervision of the Department of Public Social Services. It helps local businesses and employers find and hire quality workers who seek meaningful employment. Prospective workers are participants in the state welfare programs known as California Work Opportunities and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKS) or General Relief Opportunities for Work (GROW).
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Women
Goal: The goal of this program is to facilitate trauma recovery among women with histories of exposure to sexual and physical abuse.
Impact: Studies demonstrated that TREM participants showed a significant reduction in severity of problems related to substance use from baseline to 12-month follow-up relative to the comparison group. Reduced trauma symptoms were also significantly greater for the intervention group than for the comparison group at 12-month follow-up. Furthermore, the intervention group had significantly reduced symptoms of psychological problems 1 year after the intervention.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Families
Goal: Triple P aims to enhance the knowledge, skills, and confidence of parents to prevent behavioral, emotional, and developmental problems in children and prevent child maltreatment.
Impact: Triple P increased confidence in parenting ability and reduced the incidence of verified maltreatment among participants in the program.