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 / Physical Activity, Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Goal: Pasos Adelante is a lifestyle intervention that aims to prevent and control chronic disease such as heart disease and diabetes in Mexican Americans by providing a supporting environment for improving nutrition and increasing walking activity in U.S.-Mexico border communities.
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural
Goal: The goal of POWER is to promote weight loss and glycemic control among individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes living in rural communities.
Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment
Goal: Smart Growth has three straightforward goals:
- to save our most valuable remaining natural resources before they are forever lost,
- to support existing communities and neighborhoods by targeting state resources to support development in areas where the infrastructure is already in place or planned to support it, and
- to save taxpayers millions of dollars in the unnecessary cost of building the infrastructure required to support sprawl.
Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children
Goal: Kansas’s Step It Up: Taking Steps to Healthy Success (Step It Up) Project aims to work towards making improvements to policies and practices in child care programs with regard to breastfeeding, child nutrition, physical activity, outdoor learning, and reductions in screen time. Step It Up is an extension of the National Early Care and Education Learning Collaboratives Project (ECELC) and uses a similar learning collaborative model.
Impact: Step It Up: Taking Steps to Healthy Success has made great improvements in promoting healthy eating and physical activity. The topics of Child Nutrition and Infant & Child Physical Activity had the highest number of increases in best practices. Breastfeeding & Infant Feeding had the highest percentage of best practices being met at pre-assessment (55%).
Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Adults, Women, Rural
Goal: The goal of Strong Women – Healthy Hearts is to decrease cardiovascular disease among middle-aged women through behavioral changes in diet and physical activity.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The goal of Young Women on the Move is to help girls gain the knowledge, skills and personal power to become change agents in their lives and their communities. The mission of Teen Advocates for a Healthy KCK is to empower underserved, at-risk adolescent girls to live healthy lives filled with positive options with the vision that girls, when healthy in mind, body and spirit, will be strong leaders and advocates for thriving, healthy families and communities.
Impact: Teen Advocates for a Healthy KCK helped girls discover their personal power and develop skills and behaviors that led to healthier lifestyle choices.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children
Goal: Launched in the fall of 2002, the plan, Moving Our Children Toward a Healthy Weight: Finding the Will and the Way, calls for a multilevel approach to reducing the number of overweight and obese children. It focuses not only on behavioral and interpersonal change, but also on the organizational, community, and societal changes necessary to support healthy eating habits and increased physical activity for children, teens, and their families.
Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes
Goal: The mission of this organization is to provide services for eligible citizens that alleviate the causes and conditions of poverty, promote upward mobility, and enrich the quality of life.
Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Urban
Goal: The goal of this program is to create a regional approach to emerging infection based on public education, environmental monitoring, and disease surveillance.
Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Teens, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban
Goal: The mission of Aim High is to inspire a life-long love of learning and instill a sense of community, opportunity, and respect so that students are prepared for success in school and life.