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 / Food Safety
Goal: The program goals are to improve food-handling practices and improve communication between food service employees and inspection staff by providing language and culturally appropriate food safety training.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults
Goal: The program aims to prevent the onset of severe hypertension in habitually active mildly hypertensive adults with a 12-week intermittent football-based or endurance running training.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children
Goal: The program's goal was to improve child behavioral problems during the early preschool years.
Impact: The FOL program positively impacted preschool children's behavior in the classroom.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Educational Attainment, Children
Goal: It is the mission of the Fred G. Acosta Job Corps Center to create a pathway of economic success for disadvantaged youth through a career service delivery system. The program strives to teach marketable skills in a safe and supportive setting, and to find meaningful employment for students when they leave the program.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children, Urban
Goal: The objectives of the G.R.E.A.T program are to reduce gang activity, teach students about the negative consequences of gang involvement, and develop positive relations between students and law enforcement officials.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children, Teens, Urban
Goal: The goal of this program is to educate students about the dangers of gangs, discourage gang membership, educate parents about the signs of gang involvement, and provide families with resources to reduce gang activities in their homes and neighborhoods.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Teens
Goal: The goal of TADRA is to reduce fatal crashes among teenage drivers.
Impact: After the implementation of TADRA, speed-related fatal crashes were cut by 42%, and alcohol-related fatal crashes decreased nearly 60%.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Urban
Goal: The mission statement of Get Fresh Detroit is to increase access to fresh and healthy foods in Detroit by transforming the retail of fresh and healthy foods into viable and sustainable business opportunities for store owners in Detroit.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Family Planning, Teens
Goal: The goal of this program is to decrease pregnancy in adolescent and teenage girls.
Impact: Those who participated in one or more program components were significantly less likely to experience pregnancy than nonparticipants (5.9% vs 12.3%). Those who participated in two or more program components were significantly less likely to engage in sexual intercourse without birth control than those who participated in only a single program component (8.9% vs 20.6%).
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: Global Gardens aims to increase household access to affordable fresh vegetables among newly resettled refugee individuals living in the Historic Northeast of Kansas City, Missouri. Program participants are provided use of land, water, seeds, and plant starts at community gardening sites in the Lykins and Indian Mound neighborhoods, maintained by Global Gardens staff.
During the course of the program, growers receive ongoing education and support from staff and interpreters, reducing language and cultural barriers that have historically limited refugee access to community gardening engagement. The Global Gardens curriculum focuses on increasing refugee growers’ skills in community and household gardening, utilizing a garden-based learning theory of education, and implementing participatory, learner-centered assessment techniques. The curriculum empowers growers to take the lead in their learning experience and increase connection to and responsibility for their physical environment.
Additionally, Global Gardens aims to increase participant knowledge of how to access local community gardening resources in Kansas City. Each growing season, participants are connected to Kansas City Community Gardens (KCCG), a non-profit that seeks to assist low-income households to produce vegetables from garden plots in backyards and community sites. Global Gardens participants receive membership information and introduction to the seed and plant ordering process, and practice using this resource during the course of the program, building individual self-sufficiency in navigating the process, and increasing likelihood of utilizing KCCG in future.