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 Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Families, Urban
Goal: CLOCC's mission is to confront the childhood obesity epidemic by promoting healthy and active lifestyles for children throughout the Chicago metropolitan area.
Impact: The Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children brings together researchers, public health advocates and practitioners, and the children, families, and communities of Chicagoland to prevent childhood obesity.
Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment
Goal: The purpose of the Career Connections Employment Resource Institute is to expand employment opportunities for persons with mental illness.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens
Goal: The goal of Cook Like a Chef is to teach children aged 11-13 about healthy cooking and eating habits.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Adults, Families
Goal: The goal of Cooking Matters is to empower families by providing them with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to prepare healthy and affordable meals.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Adults, Families
Goal: Cooking Matters seeks to teach families to stretch their food budgets so their children are fed healthy and nutritious meals at home.
Impact: Graduates of Cooking Matters at the Store learn how to compare food labels, read ingredients lists, and identify healthy food choices that fit their budget.
Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Air, Teens
Goal: The goals of the Cool School Challenge are to:
* Educate young people, and by proxy their families, about climate change and everyday actions they can take to reduce their impact locally and globally;
* Reduce carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gas emissions in and around schools;
* Encourage student leadership and empowerment;
* Foster a community of teachers/students working together to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions; and
* Foster a new generation of environmental/air quality advocates.
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 Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children
Goal: Core Knowledge is based on the idea that for the sake of academic excellence, greater fairness, and higher literacy, elementary and middle schools need a solid, specific, shared core curriculum in order to help children establish strong foundations of knowledge, grade by grade.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The goal of the CDP was to improve health care access for incarcerated individuals and at-risk minority populations disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS.
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.