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, Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Families
Goal: The goal of BSFT is to improve a youth's behavior problems by improving family interactions that are presumed to be directly related to the child's symptoms, thus reducing risk factors and strengthening protective factors for adolescent drug abuse and other conduct problems.
Impact: Adolescents who participated in BSFT showed a significantly greater reduction in conduct problems than adolescents in the comparison condition, who received a participatory-learning group intervention. BSFT participants also showed a significantly greater reduction in socialized aggression.
Filed under Local, Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children
Goal: The goal of FET is to strengthen families by increasing their ability to adapt to new situations, particularly developmental and cultural challenges the family will face.
Filed under Local, Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment
Goal: The goal of this program is to help protect, restore, and conserve the air, water, land and ecosystem resources of Miami-Dade County.
Filed under Local, Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Urban
Goal: The mission of the RHAP is to protect the health of the general population and to improve the health status of refugees so they may achieve self-sufficiency.
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.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Oral Health, Children
Goal: The goal of the New Mexico School-Based Dental Sealant Program is to provide oral health education, dental screenings, and dental sealants.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Adults, Families
Goal: The goal of this program is to provide parents with the necessary skills to improve their parent/child communication and overall family functioning.
Impact: STEP has been implemented in more than 1,000 schools, agencies, churches, and mental health treatment facilities since 1976, reaching more than 4 million parents. Outside the US, STEP has been implemented in Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Romania, and South Korea.
CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Preventing Excessive Alcohol Consumption: Maintaining Limits on Days of Sale (USA)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Adults
Impact: In order to prevent excessive alcoholism and related harms, the Community Preventive Services Task Force recommends supporting existing limits on days in which alcoholic beverages may be sold.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use
Goal: The mission of this program is to improve the lives of individuals and families affected by alcohol and other drug use through treatment, education, and research.
Impact: Matrix participants were 38% more likely to stay in treatment and 27% more likely to complete treatment compared to nonparticipants. Stimulant drug-use indicators were significantly reduced during treatment for Matrix participants. They also produced more drug-free urine samples compared to nonparticipants.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Civic Engagement, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The mission of Asistencia para Latinos is to empower the Latino community towards self-sufficiency through service, education, advocacy, and inter-agency collaboration. The Winds of Change is a movement developed by Asistencia para Latinos to address the issues of cultural isolation and language barriers presented by the new population of immigrants coming to the rural resort areas of Colorado.