Promising Practices

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families

Goal: To prepare children of disadvantaged families for academic success and to strengthen families through intensive home visiting.

Impact: When families are engaged in facilitated discussion, the participating families tend to talk more, read more, and have more positive interactions with their children. They engage in more educational activities at home and in their communities.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens, Adults

Goal: The mission of the Partnership for a Tobacco-Free Maine is to reduce death and disability due to tobacco use.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The goal of Partnership for Health is to reach HIV positive patients during regular doctor visits and increase their knowledge, skills, and motivations to practice safer sex.

Impact: Brief provider counseling emphasizing the negative consequences of unsafe sex can reduce HIV transmission behaviors in HIV-positive patients presenting with risky behavioral profiles.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The goal of this common sense cooperation is to provide a new measure of safety to millions of Americans by implementing prevention programs where legislation or regulation does not exist. The preventative measures are based around optimizing treatment plant performance and thus increasing protection against microbial contamination in America's drinking water supply.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of Pathways to Housing, Inc. is to provide independent housing, treatment services for physical and mental health, and employment to mentally ill individuals who are chronically homeless.

Impact: Pathways to Housing has received numerous awards for its projects in New York City, Philadelphia, and D.C. In addition to achieving large effects in terms of housing outcomes, compared with standard care in the community, Housing First also improves community functioning and quality of life.

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: PAXIS Institute develops, implements, and supports tested and proven solution-focused strategies with real-world outcomes for children and the adults who care for them in partnership with communities to reduce historical disparities and improve lifetime outcomes to create population-level peace, productivity, health, and happiness.

The mission of the PAX Tools for Human Services program is to empower individuals and communities to create a more nurturing environment with universal access to research-based prevention science in order to improve the well-being and lifetime outcomes of people from all walks of life around the world.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / School Environment, Children, Teens, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce aggressive behavior among children and adolescents.

Impact: An evaluation found significant, positive program effects on six of the seven variables assessed, including knowledge of psychosocial skills, self-reported aggression, and teacher-reported aggression, with a 41% decrease in aggression-related disciplinary incidents and a 67% reduction in suspensions for violent behavior.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / School Environment, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve the school environment by reducing violence, assaults, discipline referrals, and increasing academic performance.

Impact: An evaluation found that discipline referrals decreased by 57.7%, assaults decreased by 90.2%, and expulsions decreased by 73.0% in participating schools.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Teens

Goal: The Penn Resiliency Program is a depression prevention program that seeks to reduce the longevity of symptoms exhibited and the severity of symptoms at onset of depression, through cognitive-behavioral therapy and problem-solving techniques.

Impact: The Penn Resiliency program shows that a group-based program seeking to prevent the initial onset of and decrease the exacerbation of depression children and teens by incorporating specific coping and problem-solving skills can reduce depressive symptoms over time.

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment

Goal: Pioneer's mission is to improve the lives of people on the margins of society through and integrated array of services including housing, employment/training, treatment, counseling, and corrections.