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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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Achievement through Community Services, Education and Skill-Building (ACES) (Philadelphia, PA)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to promote positive youth development and to help youth gain valuable work experience.

Adults and Children Together - Parents Raising Safe Kids (ACT-PRSK) (USA)

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

Goal: The goal of the program is to teach parents/caregivers effective parenting skills, create a support system for their children, and equip participants with non-violent techniques to encourage a safe environment at home and in the community.

Impact: ACT program has been shown to prevent child maltreatment and promote positive parenting skills, including reducing physical violence towards children, improving knowledge of appropriate discipline, and improving parent methods for teaching children nonviolent social skills.

Al's Pals

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

Goal: The goal of the Al's Pals program is to teach children how to practice positive ways to express feelings, relate to others, communicate, brainstorm ideas, solve problems, and differentiate between safe and unsafe substances and situations.

Impact: Studies have shown that the program resulted in higher degrees of positive change in the intervention groups, increases in prosocial behaviors and positive coping behaviors, and decreases in antisocial and negative coping behaviors.

Analyzing Local Sustainability Trends (Santa Clara County, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition aims to use the Toxics Release Inventory data to reduce pollution.

Antismoking Media Campaign (Massachusetts)

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

Goal: To reduce the number of older adolescents who progress to established smoking.

Impact: The television component of the Massachusetts antismoking media campaign may have reduced the rate of progression to established smoking among young adolescents.

Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Other Conditions, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of the Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program is to increase joint flexibility, range of motion, and muscle strength among individuals with arthritis.

Assisting in Rehabilitating Kids (ARK) (Mississippi)

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

Goal: The goal of Assisting in Rehabilitating Kids (ARK) is to increase abstinence and safer sex behaviors among substance-dependent adolescents.

Impact: The ARK program successfully increased sexual abstinence among those who received all components: health information, behavior skills training, and risk-sensitization manipulation, with the inclusion of the latter being more resistant to decay over time.

Athletes Targeting Healthy Exercise & Nutrition Alternatives (ATHENA) (USA)

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

Goal: The mission of the ATHENA (Athletes Targeting Healthy Exercise & Nutrition Alternatives) program is to promote healthy sports nutrition and discourage the use of body-enhancing substances among middle and high school female athletes.

Impact: Participation in the ATHENA program results in significant reductions in the use of performance-enhancing substances, recreational drugs, diet pills, tobacco, and alcohol among female teen athletes. Healthier eating and other health behaviors, and body image perceptions were also improved.

Athletes Training and Learning to Avoid Steroids (ATLAS) (Portland, OR)

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

Goal: The goal of ATLAS is to reduce anabolic steroid, alcohol, and other illicit drug use by adolescent male athletes.

Impact: Student participants of ATLAS had significantly lower intent to use anabolic steroids at both the end of the athletic season and at the 1-year follow-up. Students in the intervention also significantly reduced illicit drug use and were significantly less likely to report drinking and driving.

BackPack Program (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Poverty, Children, Families

Goal: The mission of the BackPack program is to provide food to hungry children at times when other resources are not available, such as weekends and school vacations.

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.