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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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Youth AIDS Prevention Project (Chicago)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of YAPP was to increase awareness of risky sexual behaviors and to reduce the risk of HIV and STD infection associated with such behaviors.

A Model For Increasing Availability Of Community-Based Cancer Trials (Maryland)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to increase the availability of cancer trials and increase patient enrollment in cancer trials in an underserved rural community in Maryland.

ACCESS to Healthcare Information for Culturally Diverse Populations Project (Oneida County, NY)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the ACCESS to Healthcare Information for Culturally Diverse Populations Project is to reduce health disparities for culturally and linguistically diverse populations within the community.

Art Not Crime (Portland, Oregon)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Adults, Urban

Goal: Art Not Crime promotes social sustainability by providing a safe place for individuals to create urban inspired pieces of art and display them where their art is appreciated as the language of this new culture and not classified as crime.

Arthritis Self-Help Course (Pasco County, FL)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of this course is to help participants with arthritis manage their pain so that they can exercise more, take less arthritis medication, and move with ease.

Bicultural Competence Skills Approach

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural

Goal: The goal of the Bicultural Competence Skills Approach is to prevent substance abuse by Native American adolescents.

Campesinos Diabetes Management Program (Yuma County, AZ)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Diabetes, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural

Goal: The goal of the Campesinos Diabetes Management Program was build social support as a means to improve self-management of diabetes.

Community Building in Grinnell (Grinnell, IA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Civic Engagement, Rural

Goal: The primary goal of the CBIG initiative is two-fold: to systematically change the way young people and adults in our community perceive conflict and how they respond to and resolve disputes.

Community Coalition: Crime Reduction Through Closing Liquor Stores in South Los Angeles (South Los Angeles)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Prevention & Safety, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: To reduce alcohol and drug related crime and violence in South Los Angeles by closing liquor stores known to be involved in or at the center of crime, violence and illegal activity.

Community Partnership for Protecting Children (Jacksonville, FL)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Families

Goal: The goal of this program is to change the child protection field by demonstrating a new approach to safeguarding children and supporting families. Based on the premise that many people, agencies, and organizations in a community can contribute to children's safety, the initiative addresses child abuse and neglect by raising neighborhood awareness of child safety issues, empowering neighborhood residents to become more involved with families at risk of abusing or neglecting their children, strengthening locally based organizations and helping them form networks concerned with child safety, and fostering policy, practice, and organizational changes within public sector child protective services agencies. This approach is known as community child protection.

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.