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 / Children's Health, Teens, Adults
Goal: The goal of this project is to achieve high rates of identification of new HIV infection and to decrease the spread of HIV among youth in metropolitan DC, which is severely affected by the epidemic.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children
Goal: The goal of this program is to help all students achieve at the highest levels.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Diabetes, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural
Goal: The primary goal of this program was to increase attendance at education sessions. The program ultimately aimed to improve dietary habits of adult African American females.
Filed under Good Idea, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Teens, Urban
Goal: The goal of the program is to provide students with opportunities that will help them gain admission to high-achieving high schools.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children
Goal: The primary goal of the program is to reduce the level of children's psychological problems, as well as preventing the development of more serious problems among children who are not referred for formal mental health services.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Diabetes, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The goal of the Advancing Diabetes Self Management program at the Community Health Center was to improve the health outcomes of people with type 2 diabetes.
Impact: The diabetes self-management intervention showed patient improvements in glycemic control, blood pressure, and LDL cholesterol. The team was able to develop and adapt the program to meet the unique needs of the population to create an effective intervention.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Family Planning, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The goals of this intervention include: increasing information and skills to make sound choices, increasing abstinence, and eliminating or reducing sex risk behaviors.
Impact: Among teens who participated, there was a decrease in sexual activity compared to those who did not participate in the program. Also among participants, there was an increase in sexual intercourse occasions that were condom-protected.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Women's Health, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of the study was to prevent STDs in high-risk minority women through three culture-specific small group education and counseling sessions, delivered over time.
Impact: Reinfection rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea were significantly lower at each follow-up among participants in the small-group counseling sessions than in the control group. Integration of behavior-change theory with extensive qualitative data collected in target communities enabled the study to create culturally meaningful strategies to promote the recognition of risk and to stimulate motivation to effect personal change.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Teens
Goal: To significantly reduce depressive symptoms and to reduce the rates of future major depressive disorder onset among adolescents.
Impact: The Blues Program has been shown to decrease depressive symptoms, decrease rates of major depression onset, decrease rates of substance use, and increase factors that are protective against depression.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle, Adults
Impact: There is strong evidence that the use of assessments of health risks with feedback, combined with health education programs, improves outcomes regarding tobacco use, dietary fat intake, blood pressure, cholesterol, and number of days lost due to illness or disability.