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, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants
Goal: The goal of the program is reduction of public health risk by informing and empowering citizens through the cooperation, communication, collaboration, and coordination of government agencies and the private sector.
Community-based Exposure Study and Development of a Community-First Communication Model (San Francisco)
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Rural
Goal: The goal of this study was to address the health effects of PFOA pollution, with a strong desire to implement a community-driven communication strategy to communicate the study results.
Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Children, Teens, Adults
Goal: To restore the Elizabeth River to the highest practical level of environmental quality through government, business and community partnerships.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity
Goal: The Fit Kids program aims to increase physical activity and healthy eating by creating healthy school environments that promote health and wellness.
Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Urban
Goal: The goal of this program was to reduce energy usage by 10 to 20 percent.
Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability
Goal: The overall purpose of the energy evaluation was to demonstrate how operational and process modifications could be made to lower the demand and energy costs for various facilities within STPUD. More specifically, the goal was to reduce electrical energy consumed at the plant and to reduce SPPC billings.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Teens
Goal: The mission of Food on the Run is to increase healthful eating and physical activity among teens as a way to improve health and reduce the risk of chronic disease.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The aim of the Healthier Haskell program is to improve health and prevent obesity in the American Indian population by encouraging physical activity and healthy eating.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults
Goal: The goal of the Heart to Heart program is to reduce risk factors of cardiovascular disease.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Families, Urban
Goal: Research shows that children benefit from kinship care in many ways. Kinship care can reduce the trauma that children may have previously endured and the trauma that accompanies parental separation by providing them with a sense of stability and belonging in an otherwise unsettling time. Children who have been placed with relatives may have experienced chronic neglect and physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. While these experiences place children at risk for behavioral and health problems, a positive relationship with a caregiver and a stable and supportive living environment can mitigate their impact.1 Grandparents, other relative caregivers, and “fictive kin” — close friends holding a family-like bond with a child — are in a unique position to fill this supportive role and promote resiliency.
The goal of Kinship Connections is to support kin families' social, emotional, and economic needs to increase placement stability within the child’s community. Specific program objectives are to improve family economic security, family relationship functioning, child well-being, and to increase kin caregiver social support.
1Center on the Developing Child. (2007). The impact of early adversity on children’s development (InBrief). Retrieved from https://developingchild.harvard.edu/ resources/inbrief-the-impact-of-early-adversity-onchildrens-development.
2 Generations United. (2017). In loving arms: The protective role of grandparents and other relatives in raising children exposed to trauma. Retrieved from https://dl2.pushbulletusercontent.com/ uhDY7UgdGYnOod6G7VFkdKnuzE3yALmr/17- InLovingArms-Grandfamilies.pdf.