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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.

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Partners Clinic (St Lucie County, FL)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve access to health care for uninsured and underinsured adults.

Partners in School Innovation (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Literacy, Children, Teens, Urban

Goal: Partners in School Innovation enables public schools in high-poverty Bay Area communities to achieve educational equity through school-based reform.

Prenatal Oral Hygiene (Dental Hygiene Kits) (Clinton County, NY)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve the individual oral hygiene practices of the prenatal women in order to reduce the number of low birth weight, pre-term infants born to this population.

Prenatal Plus Program (Lake Worth, FL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Women, Urban

Goal: The overall goal of the Prenatal Plus Program, combined with the Partners for a Healthy Baby curriculum, is to improve birth outcomes, decrease rates of child abuse and neglect, and strengthen families.

Impact: Reduced low birth weight rate through risk reduction during pregnancy.

Project Live Active in Yancey (PLAY) (Yancey)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Adults, Families

Goal: The mission of Project Live Active in Yancey is to enhance the built environment in the community in order to prevent obesity and encourage community members to be physically active.

Project SUCCESS - Clay Behavioral Health Center (Middleburg, FL)

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

Goal: The goal of Project SUCCESS is to prevent and reduce substance abuse in high-risk middle-school and high-school aged adolescents.

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.

Santa Monica Urban Runoff Recycling Facility (Los Angeles)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: SMURRF aims to mitigate the pollution affecting Santa Monica Bay from urban runoff and raise public awareness of Santa Monica Bay pollution. We have reviewed the SMURRF system and began an investigation of installing a RO system to produce potable water in the coming years. This goal is to contribute to the city’s new sustainable master water plan to become self-reliant on local water by 2020

School Based Mentoring Program: Palm Beach (Palm Beach and Martin, FL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Teens, Adults

Goal: The goal of the program is to make a positive difference in the lives of children, primarily through professionally guided one-to-one relationships with caring adults, and to assist them in achieving their highest potential, as they grow to become confident, competent and caring individuals.

Taking the HyRoad (Alameda and Contra Costa County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation

Goal: The goal of Taking the HyRoad is to improve fuel economy and reduce the emissions from public transit buses through the use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

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.