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 / Health Care Access & Quality, Adults, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of this project is primarily to empower patients who may be utilizing 911 or the ED for issues that can be better managed either at home or by a primary care provider by providing social support and strategies to reduce potential and/or perceived barriers to improved health.
Impact: Patients have benefited from the social aspects of the program becoming more active in the community, be it taking the bus, going for walks or visiting local food pantries along with an increase in patient compliance and self-reported increase in quality of life.
Filed under Local, Good Idea, Health / Alternative Medicine, Older Adults
Goal: HeartStrings aims to enhance the quality of life for individuals with special needs. Through regularly-recurring, interactive sessions, the MSO’s Rhapsodie Quartet addresses the physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of hundreds of individuals each year in a comfortable and familiar setting.
HeartStrings mission statement is as follows:
1) To enhance the quality of life of underserved populations through live, interactive, and exceptional quality musical experiences that are informed by the American Music Therapy Association’s Standards of Practice.
2) To bring meaningful arts experiences directly to participants in a comfortable and
familiar setting.
3) To provide a valuable resource for facilities that serve aging populations, adults with dementia, and individuals with disabilities, or long-term illnesses.
Impact: HeartStrings has reached over 3,200 individuals with disabilities, long-term illness, and assisted-living needs, as well as aging adults with dementia since its start in 2006.
Goal: The mission of BARHII is to transform public health practice for the purpose of eliminating health inequities using a broad spectrum of approaches that improve community health. Consistent with that mission, BARHII has set the following objectives:
- Train staff on broad spectrum of strategies to improve nutrition and physical activity, and reduce health inequities.
- Develop regional collaborations of public health departments, organizations, coalitions and communities to participate in a comprehensive approach to improve nutrition and physical activity.
- Develop a media advocacy campaign to raise awareness among policy makers and the general public about key issues of nutrition and physical activity, and their link to chronic disease and health inequities.
- Use the regional platform to achieve changes in institutional practices and public policies, and increase support for public health.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of the Bay Area SCORES program is to reduce obesity, increase physical fitness, and manage cardiovascular health-related risks while improving academic performance in children between the ages of 6 and 12 through soccer, creative expression, service learning, “hip hop for health,” and creative writing.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Urban
Goal: The goal of the Transportation Justice Working Group is to increase awareness of the relationship between transportation and health.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Urban
Goal: Goals of the Bay-Friendly Landscaping & Gardening Coalition include:
- Reduce waste & help meet recycling goals.
- Reduce water use on landscapes by 50% or more.
- Nurture healthy soils while reducing fertilizer use.
- Use integrated pest management to minimize chemical use.
- Prevent or reduce storm water pollution to our local creeks and bay.
- Lower maintenance associated with mowing and shearing.
- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Create wildlife habitat.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity
Goal: The goal of the study was to evaluate a community-based food support intervention in the San Francisco Bay Area for people living with HIV and/or type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and potential impact of the intervention on nutritional, mental health, disease management, healthcare utilization, and physical health outcomes.
Impact: Comprehensive, medically appropriate food support is feasible and may improve multiple health outcomes for food-insecure individuals living with chronic health conditions.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment
Goal: Greenbelt Alliance's mission is to improve the lives in the San Francisco Bay Area by protecting the region's greenbelt and improving the livability of its cities and towns.
Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Employment, Urban
Goal: To help members of the San Francisco bay area transgender community to secure stable employment in safe environments.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Literacy, Children, Teens, Urban
Goal: Partners in School Innovation enables public schools in high-poverty Bay Area communities to achieve educational equity through school-based reform.