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, Community / Public Safety, Children, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of this program is to increase child restraint use by Hispanic community members.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use
Goal: To reduce drug abuse and increase positive mental and physical health outcomes among college students ages 18-25 years old.
Impact: Tailored health and wellness interventions may reduce risk factors facing college students, while perhaps improving their health-related quality of life.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children, Teens
Goal: The goal of this program is to prevent recidivism among juvenile offenders placed on probation for known gang-related behavior or substance abuse offenses.
Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability
Goal: Interface's sustainability goals involve reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, reducing non-renewable energy use, and increasing renewable energy use in their production process.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Educational Attainment, Children
Goal: As a national, primarily residential training program, Job Corps' mission is to attract eligible young adults, teach them the skills they need to become employable and independent, and place them in meaningful jobs or further education.
Impact: Evaluations showed that Job Corps substantially increased the education and training that program participants received. Nearly 90% of the program group engaged in some education or training (both in and out of Job Corps), compared with about 64% of the control group.
Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Investment & Personal Finance, Children
Goal: The IDA program is designed to help young people enter the financial mainstream, gain financial stability and build assets.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: To improve the lives of Wyandotte and Johnson County families by aiding with health insurance and assistance program applications while providing health literacy education to increase appropriate use of services to narrow the gaps between service providers.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Urban
Goal: The goals of this intervention were to delay initiation of sexual intercourse for youth who are not sexually active, encourage the use of condoms among sexually active youth, and enhance communication about sex between youths and their mothers.
Impact: Keepin' It R.E.A.L. teen participants increased their condom-use during sexual activity while maternal participants reported feeling more comfortable when discussing sexual issues with their teens.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens
Goal: Given the increased prevalence among youth of obesity and Type II Diabetes Mellitus (DM) in the last 25 years, the goal of Kids N Fitness is to reduce risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome in overweight youth through a family-oriented lifestyle intervention.
Impact: These positive health outcomes indicate that a family-centered lifestyle intervention can improve metabolic health among youth.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Families, Urban
Goal: Research shows that children benefit from kinship care in many ways. Kinship care can reduce the trauma that children may have previously endured and the trauma that accompanies parental separation by providing them with a sense of stability and belonging in an otherwise unsettling time. Children who have been placed with relatives may have experienced chronic neglect and physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. While these experiences place children at risk for behavioral and health problems, a positive relationship with a caregiver and a stable and supportive living environment can mitigate their impact.1 Grandparents, other relative caregivers, and “fictive kin” — close friends holding a family-like bond with a child — are in a unique position to fill this supportive role and promote resiliency.
The goal of Kinship Connections is to support kin families' social, emotional, and economic needs to increase placement stability within the child’s community. Specific program objectives are to improve family economic security, family relationship functioning, child well-being, and to increase kin caregiver social support.
1Center on the Developing Child. (2007). The impact of early adversity on children’s development (InBrief). Retrieved from https://developingchild.harvard.edu/ resources/inbrief-the-impact-of-early-adversity-onchildrens-development.
2 Generations United. (2017). In loving arms: The protective role of grandparents and other relatives in raising children exposed to trauma. Retrieved from https://dl2.pushbulletusercontent.com/ uhDY7UgdGYnOod6G7VFkdKnuzE3yALmr/17- InLovingArms-Grandfamilies.pdf.