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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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Silver Comet Trail (Georgia)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Transportation, Children, Teens, Adults, Families

Goal: The goal of the program was to provide an outdoor recreational and bicycle commuting trail along an abandoned railway line in Georgia.

Smart Growth (Maryland)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment

Goal: Smart Growth has three straightforward goals:
- to save our most valuable remaining natural resources before they are forever lost,
- to support existing communities and neighborhoods by targeting state resources to support development in areas where the infrastructure is already in place or planned to support it, and
- to save taxpayers millions of dollars in the unnecessary cost of building the infrastructure required to support sprawl.

Smart Start (North Carolina)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to help all North Carolina children enter school ready to succeed.

SMARTteam (Students Managing Anger and Resolution Together)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to teach conflict-resolution skills to middle-school students.

Impact: Studies showed a statistically significant increase in students' awareness of how their own behaviors contribute to the escalation of a conflict situation for students participating in SMARTteam when compared with the control group not receiving the intervention. Students in the intervention group were also less likely to value violence as an option in conflict situations than their peers in the control group.

Smiles for a Lifetime (South Carolina)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Oral Health, Children

Goal: The goal of Smiles for a Lifetime is to make pediatric dental care accessible for all children.

Social work-based transitional care intervention for super utilizers of medical care

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Intervention Data, Urban

Goal: The goal of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a social work intervention aimed to address the medical and social needs of inpatient super-utilizers.

Impact: This intervention was modeled after the "Bridge Model" by intensifying patient engagement with an average of 40 patient contacts over 6 months following an index admission. This intervention has the potential to reduce health services utilization and cost among inpatient super utilizers.

Sonoma County Healthy Retail Project (Sonoma County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the Healthy Retail Project is to increase access to healthier foods and beverages; decrease the availability of unhealthy products; increase compliance with alcohol, tobacco, and food safety laws; and increase customer loyalty and store profits.

Impact: Over 60% of stores assessed in 2014 met Healthy Retail Project Standards and all participating stores increased their food environment score over baseline.

Sources of Strength Suicide Prevention Program

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

Goal: The goal of this intervention was to enhance protective factors associated with reducing suicide among high school students.

Impact: The Sources of Strength program was successful in increasing students likelihood of seeking help from an adult at school, as well as those adults ability to help suicidal students.

SpeakOut (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Art & Recreation / Art, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: SpeakOut allows individuals to share their personal stories, through song, poetry, and music, and enjoy a sense of camaraderie and love with their listeners.

St. Peter's Dental Program (Albany, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Oral Health, Children, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of St. Peter's Dental Program is to improve access to dental care and treatment for the poor, elderly, and under served populations living in and around Albany, New York.

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.