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 / Adolescent Health, Teens, Men
The goal of Behavior Management through Adventure is to address the needs of at-risk youth in therapeutic settings.
Behavior Management Through Adventure was successful in lowering rearrest rates, decreasing the time period from release until rearrest, improving depression symptoms, increasing family self-concept, and lowering social introversion.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Women's Health, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
The goal of the study was to prevent STDs in high-risk minority women through three culture-specific small group education and counseling sessions, delivered over time.
Reinfection rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea were significantly lower at each follow-up among participants in the small-group counseling sessions than in the control group. Integration of behavior-change theory with extensive qualitative data collected in target communities enabled the study to create culturally meaningful strategies to promote the recognition of risk and to stimulate motivation to effect personal change.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Rural
The goal of the Bootheel Heart Health Project was to reduce risk factors for cardiovascular disease and decrease morbidity and mortality due to cardiovascular disease.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Teens
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.
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 Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Families
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.
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 Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Urban
The mission of this project is to improve the safety and living conditions for residents of Boyle Heights and to empower those residents to make positive changes in their communitites and their lives.
CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Adolescent Health: Person-to-Person Interventions to Improve Caregivers' Parenting Skills (USA)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Families
To modify adolescents' risk and protective behaviors by improving their caregivers' parenting skills based on sufficient evidence of effectiveness in reducing adolescent risk behaviors.
Although the estimated effects varied substantially and were not statistically significant, risk behaviors decreased and youth participants reported increased refusal skills and self efficacy for avoiding risky behaviors in the future.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Families
The goal of Celebrating Families! is to strengthen recovery from alcohol and/or drugs, break the cycle of addiction, and increase successful family reunification.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Teens, Women, Urban
The Centering Pregnancy Plus Project aims to reduce risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and improve health outcomes for young pregnant women, aged 14-21.
Facilitated group discussions promoting condom use among young women can increase condom use among participants.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Children, Teens
The goal of the CLEAR intervention is to empower HIV-positive youth to reduce risk behaviors and improve mental and physical health.