Promising Practices

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Women's Health, Children, Teens, Women

Goal: The goal of Girls' Circles is to enhance girls' abilities so they are able to take full advantage of their talents, academic interests, career pursuits, and potential for healthy relationships.

Impact: The program has shown statistically significant improvements for girls in Girls Circle programs with the following outcomes: increases in self-efficacy, attachment to school, positive body image, and social support, and decreases in self-harming behavior and alcohol use rates.

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Governance

Goal: The goal of Health in All Policies is to ensure that health effects are routinely taken into consideration when developing policy.

Impact: Health in All Policies initiatives have helped create healthier communities through implementing policies with health consequences in mind. For many counties, this includes creating cross-agency teams and workgroups to address problems in their community.

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children, Teens, Rural

Goal: The primary goal of the Independence Youth Court is to reduce incidents of juvenile crime, divert offending youth from the Juvenile Justice System and to provide an alternative to the Jackson County Family court process and further contact with the police.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Families, Urban

Goal: Research shows that children benefit from kinship care in many ways. Kinship care can reduce the trauma that children may have previously endured and the trauma that accompanies parental separation by providing them with a sense of stability and belonging in an otherwise unsettling time. Children who have been placed with relatives may have experienced chronic neglect and physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. While these experiences place children at risk for behavioral and health problems, a positive relationship with a caregiver and a stable and supportive living environment can mitigate their impact.1 Grandparents, other relative caregivers, and “fictive kin” — close friends holding a family-like bond with a child — are in a unique position to fill this supportive role and promote resiliency.

The goal of Kinship Connections is to support kin families' social, emotional, and economic needs to increase placement stability within the child’s community. Specific program objectives are to improve family economic security, family relationship functioning, child well-being, and to increase kin caregiver social support.

1Center on the Developing Child. (2007). The impact of early adversity on children’s development (InBrief). Retrieved from https://developingchild.harvard.edu/ resources/inbrief-the-impact-of-early-adversity-onchildrens-development.
2 Generations United. (2017). In loving arms: The protective role of grandparents and other relatives in raising children exposed to trauma. Retrieved from https://dl2.pushbulletusercontent.com/ uhDY7UgdGYnOod6G7VFkdKnuzE3yALmr/17- InLovingArms-Grandfamilies.pdf.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Children, Women, Families

Goal: To increase daily fruits and vegetables servings by half in women served by WIC participants with the long term goal of reducing risk of cancer.

Impact: The Maryland WIC 5-A-Day Program shows that while multi-faceted community based interventions can effectively promote and sustain dietary change among low-income populations in order to reduce the risk of cancer, many obstacles remain in implementing such programs.

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

Goal: The goals of the program are to 1) assist mothers in obtaining treatment, maintaining recovery, and resolving the complex problems associated with their substance abuse, 2) guarantee that the children are in a safe environment and receiving appropriate health care, 3) effectively link families with community resources, and 4) demonstrate successful strategies for working with this population and thus reduce the numbers of future drug- and alcohol-affected children.

Impact: At a 36-month follow-up women in PCAP were more likely to have received alcohol/drug treatment than the control group. Cost savings were suggested by a reduction in length of out-of-home care and prevention of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

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 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 Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children, Teens, Families, Urban

Goal: The free sports medicine physicals provided by Jackson Hospital & Clinic helps thousands of parents, 25 schools, and hundreds of coaches ensure that students are healthy enough to participate in athletic programs when school starts in the fall.