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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.

Please note: Separate your search terms with spaces, and use quotes to search for specific text (example: "mental health"). 

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Protocol for the Isolation and Quarantine of Communicable Disease (Rockland County, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The main objective of the Protocol is to provide a medicolegal framework for the protection of public health and safety in the face of emerging threats of infectious diseases and bioterrorism agents with due regard to a citizen's right to due process.

San Francisco Healthy Corner Stores Project (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Teens, Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the San Francisco Healthy Corner Stores Project is to bring healthy food to neighborhoods with limited access to fresh produce.

Impact: Four stores in San Francisco were converted to sell fresh produce. Legislation was passed in San Francisco that established Healthy Food Retailer Incentives Program to promote healthy food access in corner stores citywide.

Schools of Hope (Sonoma, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Literacy, Children

Goal: Schools of Hope aims to increase third-grade reading proficiency to 75% by 2015 and 90% by 2020.

Impact: Students tutored through Schools of Hope have an increased reading proficiency compared to other students.

Starting Right Initiative

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Families

Goal: The Starting Right Initiative works to prevent, treat and reverse childhood obesity and malnutrition in low-income communities.

Impact: The Starting Right Initiative aims to encourage healthy eating habits in children and their families and works to reduce childhood obesity and malnutrition at seven project locations nationwide.

Stockbox Neighborhood Grocery (Seattle, WA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: Stockbox Neighborhood Grocery improves access to healthy food and eases the burden for families living in food deserts by building small grocery stores that provide alternatives to convenience stores or fast foods.

Impact: Stockbox Neighborhood Grocery improves access to healthy food and eases the burden for families living in food deserts.

The Acid Rain Kids Web Site (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Children

Goal: The goal of this website is to provide younger children with basic information about acid rain and help them form a foundation of knowledge about, and an interest for, a variety of environmental issues.

The Greene Community Health Foundation (Greene County, OH)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality

Goal: The mission of the Greene Community Health Foundation is to 1. help assist underserved GCCHD clients with funding for medical needs, 2. find avenues of funding for clients, 3. develop partnerships with providers for reduced charges for clients, 4. develop community partnerships to strengthen programs and projects at GCCHD, and 5. develop state and national partnerships to strengthen the programs and projects at GCCHD.

Tobacco Control Compliance Check Program (5 Counties in SW Utah)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use

Goal: The goal of the program is to reduce the tobacco buy rate to minors. To accomplish this, the program aims to produce a "zero sale" result in each of the retail establishments every time a compliance check is conducted.

Volunteer Friends (Pasadena, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Older Adults

Goal: The Beverly Foundation's mission is to foster new ideas and options to enhance mobility and transportation for today's and tomorrow's older population.

Yoga Ed (Los Angeles, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the program was to improve the physical and mental well-being of students through practicing yoga.

An Effective Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success and/or promise in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures of improvement in outcome of interest (i.e. increase in voter registration, not just delivery of voter registration drive) and/ or the outcome measure is increased or improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant.

A Good Idea meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program funding source, program implementation steps and outcomes.
  2. The program evaluation is limited to descriptive measure(s) of success/accomplishment (i.e., program participation rates, number of services/education sessions/radio messages provided). Note: oftentimes, the program has been newly implemented and a program evaluation has not yet been conducted. Programs that have not yet been evaluated, but which show promise in improving health or quality of life, are classified as Good Ideas until an evaluation is conducted.

An Evidence-Based Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

  1. The program description includes at a minimum: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program implementation steps, and outcomes that have demonstrated program success in achieving the program goal in one or more localities.
  2. The results from an evaluation of the program include quantitative measures showing improvement in the outcome(s) of interest after the implementation of the program (i.e. increase in smoking cessation, not just the delivery of a smoking cessation program). The outcome measure(s) is/are compared at relevant time periods before and after the intervention or program implementation. Alternatively, the evaluation study compares the outcome(s) between an intervention group and an appropriate control group.
  3. The study is of peer-review quality and presents numbers in a scientific manner; measurements of precision and reliability are included (e.g. confidence intervals, standard errors), results from statistical tests show a significant difference or change in the outcome measure(s), and relevant point estimates and p-values are presented. Note: if the results from an evaluation of a program are presented in a scientific manner and the outcome measure is improved compared to the baseline measurement or the control group but the difference is not statistically significant, the practice is classified as effective and not evidence-based.