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, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens
Goal: The goal of this program is to help teens quit smoking.
Impact: One study showed that the percentage of students who reportedly quit smoking 15 months after the intervention was higher for participants. Another study showed that a greater percentage of participants reported smoking cessation 5 months after the intervention than non-participants.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Women, Urban
Goal: The program has three primary goals:
1) to improve pregnancy outcomes by promoting health-related behaviors;
2) to improve child health, development and safety by promoting competent care-giving; and
3) to enhance parent life-course development by promoting pregnancy planning, educational achievement, and employment.
The program also has two secondary goals: to enhance families' material support by providing links with needed health and social services, and to promote supportive relationships among family and friends.
Impact: The Nurse Family Partnership Program has shown to improve pregnancy outcomes, improve child health and development, and increase economic self-sufficiency.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Women
Goal: The program has three primary goals:
1) to improve pregnancy outcomes by promoting health-related behaviors;
2) to improve child health, development and safety by promoting competent care-giving; and
3) to enhance parent life-course development by promoting pregnancy planning, educational achievement, and employment.
The program also has two secondary goals: to enhance families’ material support by providing links with needed health and social services, and to promote supportive relationships among family and friends.
Impact: Evaluations of the program have shown that women who were visited by nurses had significantly better outcomes than those who did not in terms of measures such as maternal health, maternal life-course development, child health and safety, and adolescent measures of delinquency.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults
Goal: The goal of NICHE is to achieve systematic nursing change that will benefit hospitalized older patients. The vision of NICHE is for all patients 65 and over to be given sensitive and exemplary care. The mission of NICHE is to import principles and tools to stimulate a change in the culture of healthcare facilities to achieve patient-centered care for older adults.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Men, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: The goal of the Nurturing Fathers Program is to teach men parenting and nurturing skills.
Impact: Thousands of fathers have benefited from the Nurturing Fathers Program. The program has been successfully implemented by non-profit organizations as well as federal, state, and municipal government entities.
Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Families
Goal: The long-term goals of this program are to decrease the rate of recidivism in families receiving social services, lower the rate of multiparent teenage pregnancies, reduce the rate of juvenile delinquency and alcohol abuse, and stop the intergenerational cycle of child abuse by teaching positive parenting behaviors.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Urban
Goal: The goal of this intervention is to improve motor skills and fitness in young children. Fitness and motor skills development early in life can lay the foundation for successful lifelong physical activity participation.
Impact: A short-duration lifestyle intervention can have a lasting effect on children's fitness and motor skills development.
Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Families
Goal: The OMI is a multi-sector effort to reduce the state's divorce rate, strengthen families, and reduce dependency on government support.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / School Environment, Children
Goal: This program has three goals: (1) to strengthen students' social competency skills in communication, self-control, and interpersonal problem-solving; (2) to promote the creation of growth-fostering relationships among students and between students and the adults in their lives; and (3) to build a sense of community in classrooms and schools by providing a common "language" that fosters communication among students and between students and their teachers and other adults.
Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment, Adults
Goal: Opportunity Chicago's goal was to identify employment barriers within the system and to reduce those barriers by creating processes that would result in a smoother and more streamlined path to employment for CHA residents.
Impact: Of the 6,743 participants in an Opportunity Chicago program between 2006 and 2010, 5,185 (77%) were employed by the end of the project. Fifty-four percent retained employment for two or more years. Fifty-nine percent of participants saw an increase in quarterly earnings.