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 / Adolescent Health, Children, Teens, Families
Goal: The program aims to provide comprehensive, family-centered health care for adolescent parents and their children.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Women, Families
Goal: Healthy Habits was designed to enhance the capacity of local WIC programs and partner agencies to promote healthy lifestyles in families with young children.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Teens, Adults, Families
Goal: The goal of the Healthy Hometown Restaurant Initiative is to encourage Louisville restaurants to provide and promote healthier meal options.
Impact: Participants that have volunteered for the Healthy Hometown Restaurant Initiative include 16 restaurants with 33 locations and one caterer.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens, Families, Urban
Goal: The mission of HKES&I is to increase access to needed healthcare for children. This is accomplished through the goal of identifying children who need further follow-up, particularly for hearing and vision problems, and to connect them to those services.
Impact: Healthy Kids Express Screening and Immunization program is successful in providing evidence based care to low-income populations and for connecting those identified with screening needs to needed follow-up care.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families, Urban
Goal: To provide children and parents with the education and resources they need to improve their health.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults
Goal: The mission of the program is to shape the evolving health system by developing and spreading high-value models of community-based care and self-management for diverse populations with chronic conditions.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle, Women, Men
Goal: The goal of Healthy Relationships is to reduce the risk of HIV transmission by people who know they are HIV-positive by reducing the frequency with which they have unprotected sex.
Impact: Healthy Relationships seeks to develop decision making and problem making skills to reduce the risk and transmission of HIV through behavioral intervention. An intervention study resulted in significantly less unprotected intercourse and greater condom use with lower estimated HIV rates post-intervention.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Women
Goal: The initiative's primary purpose was to reduce infant mortality by 50 percent and generally improve maternal and infant health in at-risk communities.
Impact: 20% of the Healthy Start program sites had significantly lower rates of low-birth-weight babies than their comparisons. 20% of the sites also had significantly lower rates of very-low-birth-weight babies than their comparisons. Four of the sites had significantly lower pre-term birth rates.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Older Adults
Goal: The Pennsylvania Department of Aging offers this fall risk screening and prevention program to adults 50 years of age and older. The program is designed to raise awareness of falls, introduce steps on how to reduce falls, improve overall health, and provide referrals and resources.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of Healthy U is to work with several community groups to provide healthy snacks as well as education on nutrition and fitness to students and their families at University Academy.
Impact: The percentage of screened students who were overweight fell from 45.9% in the 2011-2012 school year to 36.9% in the 2011-2012 school year. Over 75% of participants in both Teen Eats and Family Dinners demonstrated a positive behavior change.