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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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DLM Early Childhood Express/Imagine It! (Palm Beach)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Urban

Goal: To improve the school readiness of children in Palm Beach County.

Flex Your Power Case Study: Arden Realty and next>edge (Los Angeles, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability, Urban

Goal: The goal of next>edge is to maximize energy efficiency for commercial facilities.

Homeward Bound of Marin (HBOM) (Marin, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Rural

Goal: Homeward Bound of Marin's mission is to address and solve the homelessness problem in Marin County.

Information & Education Campaign for Health Care Providers (Santa Cruz County, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of the project was to publish an up-to-date Essential Reporting Guidelines which would be distributed to approximately 90% of healthcare providers in Santa Cruz county. As mentioned above, they wanted to increase reporting and surveillance activities with the primary physicians and also educate them on bioterrorism agents.

Relationship Model for Accessing and Assessing Underserved Communities (St Louis, MO)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The model was developed to improve the ability of the American Cancer Society (ACS), the organization with the lead role, to reach underserved communities in order to increase colorectal cancer screening.

Teen Pregnancy Project/ Sexual Violence Action Team (Ramsey County, MN)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Family Planning

Goal: The TPP/SVAT was formed to:

- Decrease isolation of persons working on teen pregnancy and sexual violence issues in Ramsey County communities.
- Increase their access to best practice information and culture-specific resources.
- Increase public understanding of teen pregnancy and sexual violence issues and effective prevention.
- Improve public policy related to teen pregnancy and sexual violence issues.

The program's objectives include:

- Developing and continuing to expand a community coalition for members' capacity building and leadership development.
- Increasing use of culture-specific practices.
- Increasing community awareness and understanding of teen pregnancy and sexual violence issues.
- Promoting teen health services.
- Encouraging schools to implement effective comprehensive sexuality education.

The Abuela Project (Yakima County, WA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Food Safety, Children, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural

Goal: The goal of the Abuela Project is to reduce the number of cases of salmonellosis caused by Salmonella Typhimurium due to consumption of queso fresco made from raw-milk in Yakima County, Washington.

The Medication Assistance Program (MAP) (Grant County, NM)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults, Rural

Goal: The mission of the Health Council is to enhance the quality of life in Grant County, New Mexico, through assessment of needs, planning and prioritizing, and coordinating of efforts to meet those needs.

Charlotte REACH 2010 (Charlotte, North Carolina)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: To improve three health behaviors that are risk factors for diabetes and heart disease (fruit & vegetable consumption, physical activity, and cigarette smoking) in an African American community.

Choices (Seattle-King County, WA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Women

Goal: The goal of the Choices intervention is to provide heterosexually active women with skills to decrease risky sexual behaviors and prevent STD transmission.

Impact: Significantly reduced risky sexual behaviors from baseline levels and maintained this reduction at twelve months post-intervention. Choices participants were significantly likely to acquire a new STD.

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.