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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.

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Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of cooperative learning is to establish positive interdependence among students. When positive interdependence is established in group learning situations, the quality of peer interaction improves. Instead of competing with or ignoring one another, students are more likely to promote the success of one another through mutual assistance, emotional support, and the sharing of ideas or resources. These positive social interactions, in turn, encourage greater social acceptance and the development of positive relationships among students and, in educational contexts, promote greater academic motivation and achievement (Johnson & Johnson, 1989, 2005). In fact, research on social interaction suggests that gains in social skills alone are insufficient to reduce social problems among students and encourage more positive peer relations. Only positive interdependence, and the subsequent positive social interactions that arise from it, can motivate youth to re-evaluate previous conclusions regarding the social desirability of others (Bierman, 2004).

Impact: Cooperative learning can have positive effects on adolescent bullying, alcohol use, and tobacco use.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children

Goal: The goal of the CARE Program is to raise community awareness about asthma, coordinate services within target communities, and help families learn how to control and manage asthma.

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Urban

Goal: Corporation for Supportive Housing's mission is to help communities create permanent housing with services to prevent and end homelessness.

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Economic Climate

Goal: The goal of Crosstown 116 was to foster participatory planning, sustainability, gender equity, increased awareness, and housing alternatives.

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Children, Teens, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of Cycles of Change is to enable community members to use bicycles as a primary form of transportation through bicycle education and distribution programs.

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of the D.C. Schoolyard Greening program is to increase and improve schoolyard green spaces in order to promote ecological literacy and environmental stewardship among students, teachers, parents and the community.

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to prevent further criminal behavior among first-time juvenile misdemeanor drug offenders.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens, Families

Goal: The objectives of the program were to educate students, parents, and school staff about asthma management and to control exposure to factors that trigger asthma attacks.

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Literacy, Teens, Families, Rural

Goal: Since late 1996 the Silver Valley Learning Center has been helping students with low reading levels improve literacy and achieve personal educational goals. By offering these services, the Silver Valley Learning Center hopes to enhance self-esteem and motivation for the adults in its community, which can hedge against depression and related problems such as alcohol abuse and domestic violence.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Diabetes

Goal: The goal of the DCCP is to improve diabetes care and education in Minnesota.

Miami-Dade Matters