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, Community / Public Safety, Children, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of this program is to increase child restraint use by Hispanic community members.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of this intervention was to increase HIV preventative behavior among inner-city minority adolescents.
Impact: Students in the classroom-based intervention group had more sustained changes in HIV prevention behavior over time compared to those in the peer-based intervention groups.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Women's Health, Women
Goal: The goal of Insights is to increase condom use among young women at risk for HIV and other STDs.
Impact: Insights proves that tailored cognitive/behavioral minimal self-help interventions hold promise as HIV/STD prevention strategies for diverse populations of young at-risk women.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens
Goal: The goal of It's Your Game: Keep It Real is to reduce teen pregnancy, prevent STI transmission, and delay teen sexual activity in middle school students.
Impact: Participants in the It’s Your Game: Keep It Real intervention program were less likely to initiate sex by the ninth grade when compared to the control group.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children
Goal: The goal of the Jumpstart program is to build language and social skills in preschool children by providing one-on-one mentoring with college students throughout the school year.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Urban
Goal: The goals of this intervention were to delay initiation of sexual intercourse for youth who are not sexually active, encourage the use of condoms among sexually active youth, and enhance communication about sex between youths and their mothers.
Impact: Keepin' It R.E.A.L. teen participants increased their condom-use during sexual activity while maternal participants reported feeling more comfortable when discussing sexual issues with their teens.
Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Rural
Goal: The goal of this program is to provide safe and affordable low-income housing in Clay and Jackson Counties.
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Governance, Urban
Goal: The goal is to help prepare communities for earthquakes, fires, floods, terrorism, and other natural and man-made disasters.
Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Income, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The mission of La Cocina is to cultivate low-income food entrepreneurs as they formalize and grow their businesses by providing affordable commercial kitchen space, industry-specific technical assistance, and access to market opportunities.
Impact: La Cocina supports dozens of successful food businesses run by low-income women and people from immigrant communities.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The Latino Commission on AIDS focuses its efforts on HIV/AIDS in the Latino community through health advocacy, promoting HIV education, developing model prevention programs for high-risk communities, and building capacity in community organization.
Impact: As the only provider of Spanish language HIV treatment, the Latino Commission on AIDS has created a model of public health that uses training, outreach, prevention and culturally sensitive care for Latinos living with HIV/AIDS.