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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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The Southern Maryland Tri-County Community Action Committee, Inc. (SMTCCAC) (Maryland)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes

Goal: The mission of this organization is to provide services for eligible citizens that alleviate the causes and conditions of poverty, promote upward mobility, and enrich the quality of life.

Wayne County Intensive Probation Program (Wayne County, MI)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Teens, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program is to prevent further criminal activity and incarceration among juvenile delinquents.

Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Adults

Goal: The goal of WRAP is to teach participants recovery and self-management skills and strategies.

Impact: The WRAP program shows that the efficacy and effectiveness of peer-led self-management interventions has the potential to enhance self-determination and promote recovery for people with psychiatric disabilities.

Wright County Public Health Wellness On Wheels Program (Wright County, MN)

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

Goal: The objectives of WOW are to promote optimal health, to reduce behavioral risks and to promote early detection and improved management of health problems and risks.

Assisted Competitive Employment Project (ACE) (Syracuse, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Assisted Competitive Employment Project is to assist individuals who have been diagnosed with a mental disorder in obtaining and maintaining employment.

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.

CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Assessment of Health Risks with Feedback to Change Employees' Health (USA)

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle, Adults

Impact: There is strong evidence that the use of assessments of health risks with feedback, combined with health education programs, improves outcomes regarding tobacco use, dietary fat intake, blood pressure, cholesterol, and number of days lost due to illness or disability.

Clinician-Based Cognitive Psychoeducational Intervention for Families (Family Talk)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Families

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide information about mood disorders to parents, equip parents with skills they need to communicate this information to their children, and open dialogue in families about the effects of parental depression.

Impact: Parents in the program scored better in their reports of child-related behavior and attitude changes of parental illness than parents who received a group-format presentation. Children in the program scored higher on measures of improved understanding of parental mood disorder than children who received a group-format lecture.

FAmily-CEntered (FACE) Advance Care Planning (Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Teens, Adults, Families

Goal: The goal of FACE-ACP is to give adolescents and adults living with a serious medical condition a voice by facilitating conversations between patients and their caregivers so they can achieve their goals and match medical treatment to their goals.

Health and Safety Intervention with First-Time Mothers

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Children, Women

Goal: The goal of CBFRS is to advance the health and development of first-time mothers and infants through a home visit program.

Impact: The findings indicate positive health and safety outcomes for first-time mothers and infants in the program: higher household safety levels, higher use of birth control methods, lower smoking behavior, higher knowledge of the effects of smoking on child development, and higher use of county clinics.

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.