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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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Social Competence Promotion Program for Young Adolescents

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / School Environment, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to teach young adolescents self-control, stress management, social problem solving, and communication skills, and to encourage them to use those skills for the prevention of substance use and high-risk sexual behavior.

Social Decision Making / Problem Solving (New Jersey)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to help students acquire social and decision-making skills and to develop their ability to effectively use those skills in real-life and academic situations.

Sonoma County Healthy Retail Project (Sonoma County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the Healthy Retail Project is to increase access to healthier foods and beverages; decrease the availability of unhealthy products; increase compliance with alcohol, tobacco, and food safety laws; and increase customer loyalty and store profits.

Impact: Over 60% of stores assessed in 2014 met Healthy Retail Project Standards and all participating stores increased their food environment score over baseline.

Southwest Indiana Project AWARE (Vanderburgh County and Warrick County, Indiana)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Teens, Urban

Goal: The Goals of Project Aware include:

1) Increase capacity of adults to respond to behavioral health issues of adolescents
2) Increase the mental health literacy of youth-interacting adults
3) Link adolescents with behavioral health issues to mental, emotional, and behavioral health assistance and services
4) Increase the number of collaborative partnerships with youth- serving community agencies/programs
5) Conduct outreach and engagement strategies with adolescents and their families/caregivers to increase awareness of and promote positive behavioral health

Impact: Collaboration and partnerships can help drive awareness of mental health issues and training adolescents in Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) can help spread awareness of mental health resources and referrals to professionals.

Spark (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia)

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

Goal: Spark's mission is to provide life-changing apprenticeships to youth in underserved communities across the United States.

SparkPoint Centers (San Francisco Bay Area, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Investment & Personal Finance, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of SparkPoint is to help low-income families create step-by-step plans to help them get out of poverty and achieve long-term financial stability.

SpeakOut (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Art & Recreation / Art, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: SpeakOut allows individuals to share their personal stories, through song, poetry, and music, and enjoy a sense of camaraderie and love with their listeners.

SPORT (USA)

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

Goal: The goal of SPORT is to help adolescents avoid substance use by increasing physical activity and bettering their self images.

Impact: This program provides a whole body experience, where youth focus on improvements in their lives instead of drugs.

SPORT

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

Goal: To reduce substance abuse and motivate positive behaviors including physical activity in adolescents age 13-17.

Impact: SPORT integrates content targeting alcohol, tobacco and drug prevention with promotion of physical activity and other health enhancing habits in adolescents.

Sports Medicine Physicals (Montgomery, AL)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children, Teens, Families, Urban

Goal: The free sports medicine physicals provided by Jackson Hospital & Clinic helps thousands of parents, 25 schools, and hundreds of coaches ensure that students are healthy enough to participate in athletic programs when school starts in the fall.

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.