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.
CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Decreasing Tobacco Use Among Workers: Incentives & Competitions to Increase Smoking Cessation (USA)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Adults
Impact: Community mobilization integrated with additional interventions (i.e. stronger local laws for retailers) decrease youth tobacco use and access to these products.
CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Preventing Excessive Alcohol Consumption: Maintaining Limits on Days of Sale (USA)
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Adults
Impact: In order to prevent excessive alcoholism and related harms, the Community Preventive Services Task Force recommends supporting existing limits on days in which alcoholic beverages may be sold.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Adults
Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends the use of ignition interlocks for people convicted of alcohol-impaired driving based on evidence that they reduce re-arrest rates while the interlocks are installed.
Public health benefits of ignition interlock interventions are currently limited by the small proportion of offenders who install interlocks in their vehicles. More widespread and sustained use of interlocks among this population could have a greater impact on alcohol-related crashes.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity
Goal: To enable consumers to make healthier choices when ordering food at chain restaurants.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Urban
Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the negative impact of alcohol abuse on campus life by correcting students' perceptions about alcohol use and by making the campus less conducive to drinking.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Teens
Goal: The goal of the Checkpoints Program is to encourage parental limits on teen driving, and decrease risky teen driving.
Impact: The Checkpoints Program increased the rate at which parents placed greater limits on high-risk teen driving conditions and decreased traffic violations among teens.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults, Urban
Goal: The overall program goal is the maintenance of a physically active lifestyle, in order to optimize one's functional capacity and ability to perform daily activities. In order to achieve this goal, the following impact objectives were established:
- Enhance enjoyment and participation in a variety of physical activities
- Develop and enhance the skills, knowledge, and self-efficacy needed to
establish and maintain an active lifestyle
- Ensure the affordability and accessibility of the program
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families, Urban
Goal: The goal of the program is to offer comprehensive child abuse prevention and intervention as well as health care services in a single setting.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children
Goal: The central goal of CDP is to help schools become "caring communities of learners" by offering an environment of caring, supportive, and collaborative relationships to build students' sense of community in school and to promote school bonding.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Domestic Violence & Abuse, Children, Families, Urban
Goal: The goal of the Child Development-Community Policing Program (CDCP) is to reduce the negative consequences of exposure to violent and potentially traumatic events among children and their families.
Impact: The CDCP Program shows that through community policing efforts, it is possible to successfully intervene early in an attempt to ameliorate the effects of children's exposure to violence.