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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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First Step to Success

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

Goal: The mission of the Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior (IVDB) is to empower schools and social service agencies to address violence and destructive behavior, at the point of school entry and beyond, in order to ensure safety and to facilitate the academic achievement and healthy social development of children and youth. The primary goal of this program is to divert antisocial kindergartners from an antisocial behavior pattern during their subsequent school careers and to develop in them the competencies needed to build effective teacher- and peer-related, social-behavioral adjustments.

Fish Advisory Program (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Wildlife

Goal: The goal of this program is to establish a national consistency in the methods, protocols, and approaches to developing and managing noncommercial fish and wildlife consumption advisories. Fish consumption advisories are issued to warn consumers of unsafe levels of chemical contaminants in noncommercial fish and wildlife.

Fit Kids/Fit Families (Wisconsin)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children

Goal: To improve children's nutritional status, increase their activity level, enhance their self-esteem, and create life-long health habits by using a multidisciplinary, community- and family-based system approach, and by engaging local health care professionals with community agencies.

Impact: The Fit Kids/Fit Families program shows that multidisciplinary, community- and family-based approaches to children's exercise, weight, & nutrition can have an effect on healthier nutritional choices, increased physical activity, decreased sedentary activity, healthier behaviors, and BMI reductions.

Flex Your Power Case Study: City of Atascadero (Atascadero, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: The goal of this project was to reduce energy usage in government buildings. Long-term objectives were: Research solar, wind and new roofing project; and consider replacing and upgrading wastewater treatment equipment, which was the city's biggest energy user (representing approximately 47 percent of the annual kilowatt usage.)

Flex Your Power Case Study: South Tahoe Public Utility District (South Lake Tahoe, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: The overall purpose of the energy evaluation was to demonstrate how operational and process modifications could be made to lower the demand and energy costs for various facilities within STPUD. More specifically, the goal was to reduce electrical energy consumed at the plant and to reduce SPPC billings.

Florida Youth ChalleNGe Academy (Florida)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Teens, Rural

Goal: The goal of the program is to intervene in the lives of high-school dropouts and provide them with the values, life skills, education, and self-discipline necessary to succeed.

Forsyth County Cancer Screening (FoCaS) Project (Forsyth County, NC)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Women's Health, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the FoCaS Project is to improve breast and cervical cancer screening participation among low-income women.

Functional Family Therapy

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Families

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide positive family strengthening resources to youth at risk and in need.

Georgia's Teenage and Adult Driver Responsibility Act (Georgia)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Teens

Goal: The goal of TADRA is to reduce fatal crashes among teenage drivers.

Impact: After the implementation of TADRA, speed-related fatal crashes were cut by 42%, and alcohol-related fatal crashes decreased nearly 60%.

GIS Walking Maps (Boston, MA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Adults, Older Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: Walking maps are designed to encourage low-income individuals to increase their physical activity by providing information on safe walking routes and destinations within their neighborhood.

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.