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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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Early Literacy Skills Builder (ELSB) (USA)

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

Goal: The goal of ELSB is to help moderately to severely disabled children develop the skills and behaviors they need to succeed in a standard reading program.

Impact: ELSB demonstrates that reading skills curriculum adapted to alternative instructional needs of cognitively disabled children can more effectively improve literacy as compared to sight-word-only programs.

Every Woman Southeast (AL, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN)

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

Goal: Every Woman Southeast's goal is to create a diverse partnership across eight Southern states to improve women's health and birth outcomes.

Family and Children's Services: Co-locating to Provide Trauma Services (Nashville, TN)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Families

Goal: The goal oft his program is to provide direct services to children who have suffered or witnessed violence in their homes or neighborhoods.

Family Nutrition Health Education Program (Greenwood, South Carolina)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Food Insecurity, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural

Goal: The objectives of the FNHE program are to reduce incidents of chronic disease and improve nutrient intake and general quality of life by:

• Access to food that meets nutritional needs
• Preparing and serving meals that are nutritious
• Managing food-related resources, including WIC and SNAP
• Access to benefits available through other community agencies and services
• Increased knowledge about physical activity

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.

Farmworker Case Management Across Borders (Putnam County, FL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the Farmwork Case Management Across Borders program is to improve migrant and seasonal farm worker health.

Fight The Bite Colorado (Tri-County, CO)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The goal of this program is to prevent the spread of this illness and protect human lives.

Foster Children's Project (Palm Beach)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Governance, Children, Urban

Goal: To advocate for children and help them resolve their most pressing legal problem: being in the custody of the state when they need to be in the custody of a family - biological or adoptive - within the 12 months provided by law.

Impact: Children represented by the Foster's Children Project were more likely to exit the foster system to permanency due to higher rates of adoption and long-term custody, but not reunification, than their peers not represented by FCP.

Functional Adaptation Skills Training (FAST) (San Diego, CA)

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

Goal: The goal of FAST is to improve patients' independence and quality of life.

Impact: Studies have shown that FAST-treated patients' performance on everyday living skills improved significantly compared to non-participants. They also demonstrated significant improvement in social and communication skills at 6-month follow-up.

Girls Inc. Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Family Planning, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to decrease pregnancy in adolescent and teenage girls.

Impact: Those who participated in one or more program components were significantly less likely to experience pregnancy than nonparticipants (5.9% vs 12.3%). Those who participated in two or more program components were significantly less likely to engage in sexual intercourse without birth control than those who participated in only a single program component (8.9% vs 20.6%).

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.