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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.

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Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce or stop smoking among adolescents.

Impact: At 3-month follow-up, 17% of youths in the treatment conditions reported having quit smoking for at least 30 days, compared with only 8% of those teens in the control condition. These positive effects were also demonstrated when moved from a clinic setting to the classroom, as students in the program condition experienced a greater reduction in weekly smoking and monthly smoking, at 6-and-12-month follow-ups.

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Air, Children, Teens

Goal: PGF is working to complete the retrofit of all 4,000 eligible school buses in the state. PGF also aims to reduce Minnesota's ambient air pollution, and help Minnesota avoid being declared a non-attainment area under the federal Clean Air Act.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens

Goal: The program’s goal is to delay the age when young people begin drinking and to reduce drinking among those who have already started.

Impact: Studies have shown that by the end of the intervention, participating students were significantly less likely to drink alcohol than nonparticipants. Also, students who did not use alcohol before participating in the program were less likely to use alcohol after the intervention than similar youth who did not participate.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens

Goal: The goal of Project SUCCESS is to prevent and reduce substance abuse in high-risk middle-school and high-school aged adolescents.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to prevent or reduce tobacco use among children and adolescents.

Impact: One study found that Project the project reduced initiation of cigarette smoking in the two years following the program by 26% when compared to a control group. Students showed increased knowledge of tobacco addiction, related diseases, and media influences and had improved communication, refusal, and coping skills.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Cancer, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of this program is to extend lifesaving prevention programs and screening services across a variety of cultures by giving communities the materials and plans to implement an effective intervention while allowing them to execute these plans in a manner and at a pace that resonates with their own culture and community.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / School Environment, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to promote social and emotional learning (SEL) and character development, to prevent bullying, and to build the problem-solving abilities and other life skills required for positive relationships throughout students' lives.

Impact: One study found that PATH students performed significantly better than their counterparts on the sociometric tests for aggression and hyperactivity-disruptive behavior according to peer sociometric reports. The PATH classrooms also received better observer ratings for their overall classroom atmosphere.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Promotores de la Salud de los Niños Program is to use volunteers from the Latino community to locate families in King County that are eligible for services and help families get connected to those services.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens

Goal: PATCH envisions a supportive environment in which all adolescents are able to reach optimal health, safety, and economic security.

MISSION: To improve adolescent health and well being by engaging, educating, and empowering youth and adults as trusted partners in care.

Impact: Health care providers and teens who participate in the PATCH program show significant improvements in knowledge, self-efficacy, and behavioral intentions to seek and provide quality sexual health care.

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Teens

Goal: The program's main goal is to improve academic deficiencies. A secondary emphasis is to establish meaningful, long-term relationships between the participants and program Coordinators. Finally, the program encourages involvement and commitment to school and community.