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 / Family Planning, Teens
The goal of the Safer Choices program is to reduce the number of students engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse.
The program reduced the frequency of intercourse without a condom, reduced the number of sexual partners with whom students had intercourse without a condom, and increased use of condoms and other protection against pregnancy at last intercourse.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Teens, Families
Coalition for Community Schools’ mission is to mobilize the resources and capacity of multiple sectors and institutions to create a united movement for community schools.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens
The goal of this program is to prevent tobacco and alcohol abuse among adolescents.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Family Planning, Teens
The goal of this program is to educate adolescents about teen pregnancy, abstinence, and contraceptive.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health
The goal of Birth and Beyond California is to provide effective, evidence-based breastfeeding support to all mothers delivering babies in hospitals in California in order to increase the percentage of mothers who are able to breastfeed exclusively starting at birth.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children
The goals of this program are to promote and maintain the broadest understanding of health and wellness in early childhood settings and to create linkages and promote collaboration between health and safety professionals and child care professionals.
Filed under Good Idea, Education / Literacy, Families
The program's goal is to provide school readiness activities for families with children, from birth to five years old, who live in isolated and under-served areas of Marin County.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Women's Health, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
The goal of the study was to prevent STDs in high-risk minority women through three culture-specific small group education and counseling sessions, delivered over time.
Reinfection rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea were significantly lower at each follow-up among participants in the small-group counseling sessions than in the control group. Integration of behavior-change theory with extensive qualitative data collected in target communities enabled the study to create culturally meaningful strategies to promote the recognition of risk and to stimulate motivation to effect personal change.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Diabetes, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
The objectives of Bienestar are to decrease dietary saturated fat intake, increase dietary fiber intake, and increase physical activity among low-income Mexican-American elementary and middle school children.
The Bienestar Health Program statistically significantly increases fitness scores and dietary fiber intakes levels among low-income, Mexican-American fourth-graders. A second randomized control trial conducted from 6th to 8th grade showed reductions in various indexes of adiposity.
Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Employment, Teens
The goal of the California Green Corps is to place 1,000 at-risk young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 into "green" jobs in order to stimulate the economy and provide opportunities for disadvantaged youth while improving and protecting the environment.