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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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ACTIVE Louisville’s Healthy Eating Initiative (Louisville, KY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity

Goal: The goal of this program is to promote healthy eating in lower-income areas of Louiville. The initiative is part of a larger program with the goal of redesigning low-income urban neighborhoods to promote active living.

AfterZone Initiative (Providence)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children

Goal: The initiative's mission was to create a citywide system to support and sustain high-quality after-school programs.

Aurora Firefighters Shots for Tots (Aurora, CO)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Children

Goal: The primary goal of this clinic is to make immunizations more available to parents in an area where children have been identified as lacking needed immunizations.

Baby, Be Safe (Washington D.C.)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Children, Families

Goal: The goal of Baby, Be Safe is to increase the use of child injury prevention measures.

Impact: Participants who received tailored educational materials reported greater adoption of home and car safety behaviors than those receiving generic information. This study offers promising findings to help prevent injuries to young children.

Border Binge-Drinking Reduction Program (Tijuana, Mexico)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce public health and safety problems related to U.S. teen & binge drinking in Mexico.

Impact: With IPS leadership, there was a reduction in youth nighttime crashes by 45% and 37% fewer nighttime crossers with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or higher.

Bridging the Gap: Youth Violence Reduction (Richmond)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Prevention & Safety, Children, Teens, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: To develop a useful, sustainable and replicable model designed to reduce the risk of re-injury and mortality in Richmond area youths who have been previously hospitalized with violence related injuries including gunshot wounds, stab wounds, and assault injuries.

Children and Neighbors Defeat Obesity (CAN DO) Houston (Houston, Texas)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Prevention & Safety, Children, Urban

Goal: The goal of CAN DO Houston is to prevent childhood obesity in the Houston area by facilitating programs that encourage good nutrition, physical activity, and healthy minds.

Children's National Universal HIV Screening Program (Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Teens, Adults

Goal: The goal of this project is to achieve high rates of identification of new HIV infection and to decrease the spread of HIV among youth in metropolitan DC, which is severely affected by the epidemic.

Circles of Hope (St. Louis, MO)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Civic Engagement, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: WomanSpirit aims to foster grassroots women's leadership in the St. Louis area by claiming safe community space for women's mutual support and training, gaining access to government funds for women's economic development, and achieving positions in local, regional and national decision-making bodies.

Early Risers 'Skills for Success' Program (Minneapolis, MN)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to prevent behavior problems and substance abuse.

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.