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 / Prevention & Safety, Urban
Goal: The goal of the Options/Opciones Project is to reduce or eliminate risky sexual and drug use behaviors of HIV-infected patients.
Impact: The Options/Opciones Project shows that a clinician-delivered HIV prevention intervention targeting HIV-infected patients can result in reductions in unprotected sex and that interventions of this kind should be integrated into routine HIV clinical care.
Peers Reaching Out and Modeling Intervention Strategies (PROMISE) (Texas, Colorado, California, New York, Washington)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Urban
Goal: The goal of Community PROMISE is to encourage HIV prevention practices.
Impact: PROMISE leads to significant community-wide progress toward consistent HIV risk reduction.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: To reduce HIV risk behaviors among adolescents aged 11 to 14.
Impact: This program effectively modified sexual risk among adolescents aged 11 to 14 by focusing students on positive future selves.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults
Goal: The goal of Project PREVENT is to reduce behavioral risk factors for colorectal cancer among individuals with positive screenings.
Impact: A significantly greater proportion of Project PREVENT participants reduced their multiple risk factor score when compared to the control group (47% vs. 35%). Intervention participants also had significantly greater multivitamin intake and significantly reduced red meat consumption.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Adults
Goal: The goal of Project START is to reduce sexual risk behavior of young men re-entering the community after incarceration.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of the Reach for health Community Youth Service program is to reduce risky sexual behaviors among urban Latino and African American youth.
Impact: Long-term impact has been recorded among participants after two years: this includes delayed initiation of intercourse and reduced frequency of intercourse among sexually active adolescents.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Women, Urban
Goal: The goal of the Real AIDS Prevention Project is to help women and their partners reduce their risk for HIV infection.
Impact: Community-level interventions may be an effective way to reach large numbers of women and change their condom-use behaviors, particularly their behaviors with regard to communication with main sex partners.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Teens, Urban
Goal: The goal of this strategy is to reduce homicide in Richmond, California.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Teens
Goal: The goal of Ripple Effects is to use technology to prevent social injury and promote school and life success for children and teenagers.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Women, Urban
Goal: The goal of the Safer Sex project is to increase condom use, prevent recurrent STDs, and eliminate or reduce risky sexual behaviors among adolescent females that have been diagnosed with an STD.
Impact: The Safer Sex project shows that individualized safer sex interventions may improve condom use and decrease the number of partners among adolescent girls who have had an STD.