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 Local, Good Idea, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Adults, Urban
Goal: The mission of The Key Clubhouse is to afford people who have been disrupted by mental illness the opportunity to recover meaningful and productive lives through reintegration in the workplace and the community.
Impact: Individuals who participate in a Clubhouse program have been found to have higher rates of employment, reduced hospitalization, reduced incarceration, and improved well-being as compared with other mental health programs.
Filed under Local, Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Adults, Families
Goal: The goal of the AIDS Insurance Continuation Program is to provide low-income Floridians living with HIV/AIDS with continuous private health insurance coverage.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Literacy, Children, Teens, Urban
Goal: The mission of 826 National is to help children ages 6-18 develop their writing skills, and to help teachers get their students excited about writing. The mission is based on the understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Urban
Goal: To create and evaluate new ways to prevent teen dating violence and abuse.
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Governance
Goal: The goal of Health in All Policies is to ensure that health effects are routinely taken into consideration when developing policy.
Impact: Health in All Policies initiatives have helped create healthier communities through implementing policies with health consequences in mind. For many counties, this includes creating cross-agency teams and workgroups to address problems in their community.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Economy / Government Assistance, Adults, Families
Goal: GAIN is part of a large-scale, welfare-to-work initiative program operating in every county in California. In L.A. County, the initiative is under the supervision of the Department of Public Social Services. It helps local businesses and employers find and hire quality workers who seek meaningful employment. Prospective workers are participants in the state welfare programs known as California Work Opportunities and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKS) or General Relief Opportunities for Work (GROW).
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Public Safety, Teens, Families, Urban
Goal: The mission of New Directions for Youth is to provide comprehensive programs that help at-risk youth become productive, self-sufficient and healthy young adults, and create supportive family environments.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of Project CAFE is to identify ways to increase access and availability of healthy foods in Los Angeles neighborhoods in order to decrease obesity and diabetes.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The Emergency Room Intervention for Suicidal Adolescent Females focuses on changing the conceptualization of suicidal behavior and expectations for therapy, thereby increasing attendance at outpatient therapy and decreasing future suicide risk.
Impact: The intervention increases the likelihood of follow-up treatment in an outpatient clinic and reduces suicide risk among adolescent females who have visited an emergency room due to a suicide attempt.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults
Goal: The goal of this program is to improve colorectal cancer screening rates among older adults.
Impact: Participants in the intervention group had significantly higher colorectal cancer screening attendance, as well as having more positive attitudes about screening and placing a higher priority on screening.