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 Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders
Goal: The goal of this program is to help clients move beyond trauma and substance abuse.
Impact: Multiple evaluations of the Seeking Safety program in various settings have shown positive outcomes for substance abuse/addiction, substance abuse disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Teens, Urban
Goal: Spark's mission is to provide life-changing apprenticeships to youth in underserved communities across the United States.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens
Goal: To reduce substance abuse and motivate positive behaviors including physical activity in adolescents age 13-17.
Impact: SPORT integrates content targeting alcohol, tobacco and drug prevention with promotion of physical activity and other health enhancing habits in adolescents.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The program aims to reduce substance abuse risk factors and improve relationships in high-risk families.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Adults, Women, Rural
Goal: The goal of Strong Women – Healthy Hearts is to decrease cardiovascular disease among middle-aged women through behavioral changes in diet and physical activity.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children
Goal: The goal of this program is to help all students achieve academic success at the highest levels.
Impact: Results suggest that students in the Success for All schools were achieving at significantly higher levels on three of the four reading outcomes as measured by the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test Revised (WRMT-R).
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Teens, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce syphilis prevalence in the United States and eliminate the syphilis health disparity.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health, Teens, Urban
Goal: To enable teens from disadvantaged circumstances to develop healthy behaviors, life skills, and a sense of purpose in order to prevent problem behaviors.
Impact: This program equips teens to better develop healthy behaviors and relationships,
develop life and leadership skills, and achieve educational
success.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation
Goal: The State of Arizona's original interest in telecommuting arose out of the search for solutions to common issues facing many areas in the United States: traffic congestion, air pollution, and energy consumption. However, Arizona has found that telecommuting is a powerful management tool that increases employee productivity while reducing the cost of employee turnover.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Adults
Goal: To facilitate behavior change among overweight adults that leads to sustained weight loss.
Impact: Those who use Text4Diet are exposed to customized advice regarding healthy behavior changes. Participants on average saw an average 6-pound weight loss during a four-month use period. This is a statistically significant difference from weight loss in the usual care comparison group.