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, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Adults
Goal: The Edible Trees Program seeks to increase local access to fruiting trees and provide equitable access to healthy foods.
Impact: The Edible Trees Program provides communities access to fruit and nut trees. The program has funded 19 projects resulting in 1,320 trees & shrubs planted.
Educating and Delivering Financial Services to Low-Income, Underserved Residents and Businesses (Cuyahoga County, OH)
Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Investment & Personal Finance, Families
Goal: The goal is to offer members of poor and underserved communities ownership in an established financial cooperative. By purchasing shares in the Faith Community United Credit Union (FCUCU), individuals gain access to services and learn the difference between using what belongs to someone else and owning their own institution.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Urban
Goal: To provide an independent living situation with support services for at-risk youths aged 18 to 24.
Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Employment, Teens, Adults, Families, Urban
Goal: Invest in people through social enterprise.
Filed under Good Idea, Education / Educational Attainment, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of the Employment Training Center is to provide at-risk, low-income youth and young adults with training in the green construction field in order to help them gain vital life and employment skills and achieve self-sufficiency.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children, Adults, Families, Urban
Goal: The goals of Engage DuPage include improving the health status of self-pay Emergency Department patients, increasing the revenue appropriately owed to hospitals for services rendered, improving the financial assistance processes involving self-pay Emergency Department patients, and reducing the number of avoidable Emergency Department visits among self-pay patients.
Impact: By the end of 2014, 57% of all benefit applications that were submitted were approved. In addition, 29% of all interested patients were connected to a primary care provider through a Community Access Specialist.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Children, Teens, Men, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: Making Connections for Mental Health and Wellbeing Among Men and Boys is a national initiative to transform community conditions that influence mental wellbeing. The Prevention Institute works with 13 communities across the U.S. to shift policies, practices, and norms to create greater opportunities for health and resilience, with particular focus on veterans and men and boys of color.
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Public Safety, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural
Goal: In an effort to prepare and engage community residents to take a more participatory role in their communities, Monterey County Health Department (MCHD) developed and has offered since 2014 a leadership and civic engagement program (enLACE) that addresses the social determinants of health, community engagement and their relationship to the health of the community.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Air
Goal: The mission of Enviro Board Corporation is to become the world's leading manufacturer of low-cost, environmentally friendly building panels. These durable and architecturally versatile panels will contribute significantly to a healthier environment by recycling agricultural waste, greatly reducing pollution and preserving our natural resources, while creating the ability to construct high-quality, affordable housing worldwide utilizing unskilled labor.
Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Environmental Justice, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of the Environmental Health Leadership Training is to inform and empower the predominately low income people of three urban communities in Northern Manhattan (Central Harlem, West Harlem, and Washington Heights) to improve their capacity to organize for community environmental health and justice in New York City. The long term goal of these efforts is to help intervene and reduce exposure to environmental toxicants which are adversely affecting the health of disadvantaged, medically underserved, predominantly African American and Latino populations in Northern Manhattan.