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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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Ethnic Cuisine in Elementary Schools (Seattle, WA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to introduce healthy eating habits in elementary schools to counter the recent increase in childhood obesity.

Evaluating Risk and Promoting Public Advocacy (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The goal of the "Environmental Scorecard" is to compare the risks of different chemical releases through a combination of raw data on toxic releases and environmental and human health data.

Even Start (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Literacy, Children, Adults, Families

Goal: The Even Start Literacy Program is an education program for economically challenged families that is designed to improve the academic achievement of young children and their parents, especially in the areas of reading and language.

Evergreen Action Nutrition Program (Guelph, Ontario)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of the Evergreen Action Nutrition program is to prevent chronic diseases and encourage health eating and nutrition among seniors in the community.

Every 15 Minutes (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Teens

Goal: The goal of Every 15 Minutes is to prevent deaths by highlighting the dangers associated with drunk driving and texting while driving.

Every Baby to 1

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families

Goal: Every Baby to 1 works to ensure every infant survives and thrives during their first year of life. Every Baby to 1 engages the faith community to develop education efforts and initiatives that address infant mortality. As a part of this, Every Baby to 1 promotes the "3 S" approach of Safe Sleep, Safe Space, and Social Support to reduce the risk of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID).

Every Woman Counts (California)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Cancer, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve access to breast cancer information with linguistically and culturally appropriate outreach efforts.

Every Woman Southeast (AL, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: Every Woman Southeast's goal is to create a diverse partnership across eight Southern states to improve women's health and birth outcomes.

Exercise to Achievement (Madison, WI)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children

Goal: Tri 4 Schools encourages kids to participate in swimming, biking, and running as a way to live an active lifestyle and support health and fitness resources in schools.

Impact: Results of Exercise to Achievement are pending completion of the pilot program.

Exercise Training for Stroke Survivors (Chicago, IL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program is to use education and exercise improve outcomes for urban African American stroke survivors.

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.