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 / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Teens
Goal: The aims of the BASICS program are 1) to reduce alcohol consumption and its adverse consequences, 2) to promote healthier choices among young adults, and 3) to provide important information and coping skills for risk reduction.
Impact: Students who received a brief individual preventive intervention had significantly greater reductions in negative consequences that persisted over a 4-year period than their control-group counterparts. For those individuals receiving the brief intervention, dependence symptoms were more likely to decrease and less likely to increase.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / School Environment, Urban
Goal: The program’s goal is to make New York City public schools safe and supportive for all students and to have staff members who could support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) students.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens, Urban
Goal: The primary goal of the School Lunch Initiative is to transform the way Berkeley public school students eat lunch and to educate children about food, health, and the environment.
Impact: Three years after its conception, the program successfully eliminated nearly all processed foods from the school district dining halls and introduced fresh and organic foods to the daily menu. There was evidence that greater exposure to the School Lunch Initiative was significantly associated with higher nutrition knowledge scores among fourth graders and seventh graders. Furthermore, elementary school students from the schools with highly developed School Lunch Initiative components clearly expressed a higher preference for fruits and vegetables.
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 Good Idea, Health / Oral Health, Children
Goal: The goal of the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment Exception to Policy program is to increase the amount of Medicaid-enrolled children who receive oral screenings and fluoride varnish applications.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children
Goal: The goal of this intervention was to reduce dental caries among children by promoting twice daily tooth brushing.
Impact: Supervised tooth brushing and positive reinforcement in a school setting decreased the rate of dental caries in participating children.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens
Goal: The mission of the ATHENA (Athletes Targeting Healthy Exercise & Nutrition Alternatives) program is to promote healthy sports nutrition and discourage the use of body-enhancing substances among middle and high school female athletes.
Impact: Participation in the ATHENA program results in significant reductions in the use of performance-enhancing substances, recreational drugs, diet pills, tobacco, and alcohol among female teen athletes. Healthier eating and other health behaviors, and body image perceptions were also improved.
CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Cervical Cancer Prevention & Control, Provider-Oriented Screening Interventions: Provider Reminder & Recall Systems (USA)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer
Goal: The goal of incorporating multicomponent interventions for cancer screenings is to increase cervical cancer screenings and pap smears in communities.
Impact: Multicomponent interventions that include strategies that reduce and address structural barriers increase cervical cancer screening rates by the largest margins and evidence shows that these interventions are also cost-effective.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children
Goal: The goal of the Farm 2 School program is to improve the health and wellbeing of school-aged children and prevent childhood obesity by providing healthy, seasonal, and locally grown meals to children at school.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Oral Health, Children
Goal: The goal of the New Jersey Department of Health's voluntary fluoride mouth rinse program, "Save Our Smiles" is to improve the oral health status of high need/risk children residing in areas where the water is not optimally fluoridated.