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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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The 3C Model in Smoking Prevention (Houston, TX)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use

Goal: The goal of this program is to maximize the impact of anti-tobacco education by combining resources across the campus, church, and community.

The Character Effect: A Universal Social-Emotional Learning Program for Elementary School Students (Greater Cincinnati Area (SW OH, Northern KY))

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education, Children, Urban

Goal: The goal of The Character Effect is to foster the development of students’ social-emotional skills, improving their behavior and readiness to learn in the classroom.

Tribal Motor Vehicle Injury Prevention Programs (Arizona and Wisconsin)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of tribal motor vehicle injury prevention programs is to reduce disparities in rates of motor vehicle-related injuries and deaths.

Impact: Projects to increase motor vehicle safety on tribal reservations increased seat belt use among drivers, increased use of child safety seats, and decreased motor vehicle crashes.

Triple P - Positive Parenting Program (South Carolina)

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

Goal: Triple P aims to prevent maltreatment and behavioral, emotional and developmental problems in children by strenghtening the knowledge, skills and confidence of parents.

Impact: The program found a 25-35% reduction in child maltreatment, child maltreatment related hospitalizations and injuries, and foster home placements of children for young children at two-year followup of the program.

Unused Medications Program (Kansas)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural

Goal: The Unused Medications Repository, administered by Community Health Center of Southeast
Kansas, provides donated medications free of charge to eligible clinics in Kansas.

Impact: Over $20 million worth of prescription medications have been donated to low-income and uninsured Kansans.

Welvista (South Carolina)

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

Goal: The goal of Welvista is to provide prescription medications to those who cannot afford them.

A Living Laboratory: The City of Chattanooga, USA (Chattanooga, TN)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: Chattanooga's vision is to become a city where ecological initiatives generate a strong economic base, nurture social institutions and enhance the natural and made environment.

Adopt a Native Elder Program (Arizona and Utah)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Civic Engagement, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The Adopt a Native Elder program was established to build bridges between cultures and between individuals through the native tradition of adoption.

Adopt Your Watershed (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Children, Adults

Goal: The goal of Adopt Your Watershed is to encourage environmental stewardship.

Alive & Free Prescription

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of the Alive & Free Prescription is to keep youth unharmed by violence and free from incarceration, and to provide youth with the support and opportunities to build positive lives that contribute to society.

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.