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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 / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Teens

Goal: The Penn Resiliency Program is a depression prevention program that seeks to reduce the longevity of symptoms exhibited and the severity of symptoms at onset of depression, through cognitive-behavioral therapy and problem-solving techniques.

Impact: The Penn Resiliency program shows that a group-based program seeking to prevent the initial onset of and decrease the exacerbation of depression children and teens by incorporating specific coping and problem-solving skills can reduce depressive symptoms over time.

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 Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Teens

Goal: The goal of ReachOut Central (ROC) is to improve mental health among young people through an online gaming service by teaching them the practical coping skills for dealing with major stressors in life, ranging from issues such as alcohol use to psychological distress.

Impact: The aggregate results of this statistical analysis point to ReachOut Central's potential to impact and improve certain factors, such as coping ability, but also to relatively unexplored gender-dependent outcomes for other factors like alcohol consumption.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: The mission of Safety Stop is to increase the number of children who are properly secured in safety seats during trips made in a vehicle by educating parents and caregivers participating in Safety Stop car seat fittings and consultations.

Impact: Safety Stop increased mean scores on child safety seat knowledge by 5% (p < 0.01) among participating parents and caregivers.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders

Goal: The goal of this program is to help clients move beyond trauma and substance abuse.

Impact: Multiple evaluations of the Seeking Safety program in various settings have shown positive outcomes for substance abuse/addiction, substance abuse disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of Shape Up Somerville is to prevent obesity through a community-based environmental change intervention.

Impact: Through multi-level social interventions (community, school, family) intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and screen time can decrease among children.

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 Evidence-Based Practice, Education, Children, Urban

Goal: The goal of The Character Effect is to foster the development of students’ social-emotional skills, improving their behavior and readiness to learn in the classroom.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Diabetes, Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Healthy Diabetes Plate was to increase understandability and accessibility of diabetes nutrition education for people living with diabetes.

Impact: The Healthy Diabetes Plate curriculum solves two problems encountered in diabetes education — understandability and accessibility. Participants were able to correctly plan breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals and improved their intake of fruit and vegetables.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Families, Rural

Goal: The Perfect 10 Project objective is to increase the initiation rates of breastfeeding to 84%, increase our duration rates of breastfeeding by 25% at 6 months to 35.8% (currently 28.6%), and 32.6% at one year (currently 18.1%).

Impact: There were 102 physician referrals from the Lower 8 counties for breastfeeding assistance in the first six months of 2016, 148 breastfeeding moms were helped through our after-hours hotline in the first six months, and 24 moms attended our Mommy & Me breastfeeding support group.