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 Effective Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Women, Urban
The mission of MOMS Orange County is to help mothers and their families have healthy babies by providing health coordination, education, and access to community services. MOMS Orange County’s vision is that all babies born in Orange County are healthy at birth.
Measures such as the percent of babies born at a low birth weight, percent of babies born premature, and the percent of babies admitted to the NICU were all markedly better for program participants when compared to many comparison benchmarks.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle
- Increasing the number of people in Louisville Metro who engage in 30 minutes of moderate physical activity at least 5 days a week by 15%.
- Decreasing the percentage of overweight or obese people in Louisville Metro by 10%.
- Increasing from 22% to 38% the number of people in Louisville Metro who eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day.
Past and future Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) surveys will be used to measure baseline and follow-up indicators.
Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Families, Urban
McAuley Village attempts to take poor single parents from a life of welfare dependence to one of independence. Although primarily a housing program, it also holistically addresses the many factors contributing to the vulnerability of these families, while attempting to tailor a solution to each family.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens
The goal of the CSHP is to improve learning, performance, and health for students and teachers.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment
provide financial support for their children, facilitate programs for offender families through community partnerships, and provide constructive opportunities for children to participate in special activities with their incarcerated father.
Filed under Good Idea, Education
McREL is a nonprofit, nonpartisan education research, development, and service organization that helps schools, districts, and education agencies improve outcomes for all students. We help school and system clients in all kinds of communities analyze their performance, identify the root causes of challenges, build their staff capacities, and find the under-used bright spots they can scale up to make an even bigger difference for every student.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Adults
The Measure Up program helps participants lose weight and learn to live healthier lifestyles through better eating habits.
Participants of the Measure Up program receive personalized assistance from registered dietitians to improve eating and exercise habits.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens
Media-Smart Youth aims to stimulate youth to think about physical activity and nutrition by developing an awareness of the link between media and health.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children, Urban
The goal of the program was to reduce barriers to dental care and increase the use of dental care among underserved children living in remote locations in Alaska.
Medical Legal Partnerships: Embedding Civil Legal Aid Services in Care for High-Utilizing Patients (Lancaster, PA)
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Governance, Children, Teens, Adults, Families, Urban
The goal of the pilot was to assess the impact on health care use of addressing patients’ civil legal problems – the social, financial, or environmental problems that require assistance from lawyers to remedy. The lawyer was embedded in the health care team and present during case management discussions to identify specific civil legal problems and to help the team better understand how to address them. Additionally, this partnership provided civil legal aid services to patients when needed in a community health care system.
This pilot shows a medical-legal partnership for the super-utilizers of healthcare can lead to efficiencies within the health care system, reduce costs, and improve health outcomes among the most vulnerable patients.