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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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Domestic Violence Emergency Response Teams for Zero Tolerance (DVERT/ZT) (Santa Barbara County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Domestic Violence & Abuse, Families, Urban

Goal: The program works to counsel and assist domestic violence victims by providing them with information about available resources and services, as well as their legal and other options. They also offer medical assistance and emergency shelter, including transportation to the shelter. Through legal advocacy and education, DVERT teams work to reduce domestic violence in Santa Barbara County.

Door-to-Door Van Service for Outpatient Services (Aliquippa, PA)

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

Goal: To increase attendance rates and decrease transportation-related barriers to outpatient PT clinic patients.

Impact: When patients were offered a van service, attendance rates increased at the physical therapy clinic.

Drive-Through Flu Clinic (Grand Forks, ND)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The goal of the Greater Grand Forks Immunization Coalition is to have all residents protected from vaccine-preventable diseases.The Drive-Through Flu Clinic was designed to address barriers to vaccination in the community for residents six months of age and older.

Drug Treatment Choice Program (Washington, DC)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Urban

Goal: It is the mission of the Addiction Prevention and Recovery Administration (APRA) to promote and enforce the highest quality regulatory standards for delivering services related to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs (ATOD) addictions; to prevent ATOD addictions; and to identify, treat and rehabilitate persons who are addicted giving priority to residents of the District of Columbia.

DrugRehab.com

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: At DrugRehab.com, our mission is to equip patients and families with the best information, resources and tools to overcome addiction and lead a lifelong recovery.

Early Childhood Cavities Prevention Program

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Oral Health, Children, Women

Goal: The Early Childhood Cavities Prevention Program (ECCPP) is a community-based intervention program to promote preventive oral care for both mothers and their infants in Klamath County, Oregon.

Impact: The Early Childhood Cavities Prevention Program (ECCPP) educates pregnant women about dental hygiene to prevent dental infection in their children. Ninety-three percent of all participating infants were 100% cavity-free on their second birthday.

Employment Training Center (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Educational Attainment, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Employment Training Center is to provide at-risk, low-income youth and young adults with training in the green construction field in order to help them gain vital life and employment skills and achieve self-sufficiency.

Family Health Promotion (Tuscon, AZ)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the FHP program is to seek seeks to reduce risk factors and increase protective factors in the child and family domains.

FamilyWize (Ventura County, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children, Adults, Families, Rural

Goal: The goal of FamilyWize is to reduce the cost of medicine for children, families, and individuals with no prescription drug coverage.

Farm 2 School Lunch Program (Kansas and Missouri)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children

Goal: The goal of the Farm 2 School program is to improve the health and wellbeing of school-aged children and prevent childhood obesity by providing healthy, seasonal, and locally grown meals to children at school.

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.