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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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Pasos Adelante (Arizona)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: Pasos Adelante is a lifestyle intervention that aims to prevent and control chronic disease such as heart disease and diabetes in Mexican Americans by providing a supporting environment for improving nutrition and increasing walking activity in U.S.-Mexico border communities.

Post-Assistance Self-Sufficiency (PASS) Program (Riverside, CA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Economy / Employment, Adults, Families

Goal: The goal of the PASS Program is to promote job retention and advancement among individuals leaving the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.

Impact: The PASS program did not meet the goal of having its participants retain their initial jobs. However, PASS did result in PASS participants being more likely to find new jobs (occasionally with higher earnings) after having lost or moved on from previous jobs.

Project Access of Durham County (Durham, NC)

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

Goal: Project Access Durham County seeks to provide comprehensive healthcare to low-income, uninsured individuals residing in the county for at least six months.

Project Dulce (San Diego County, CA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of Project Dulce is to improve the lives of people with diabetes through culturally appropriate, community-based diabetes management, education, and support programs.

Protocol for the Isolation and Quarantine of Communicable Disease (Rockland County, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The main objective of the Protocol is to provide a medicolegal framework for the protection of public health and safety in the face of emerging threats of infectious diseases and bioterrorism agents with due regard to a citizen's right to due process.

Reach Out and Read: Palm Beach (Palm Beach)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Literacy, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The mission of Reach Out and Read is to help prepare young children to succeed in school, by partnering with physicians to encourage parents and children to read aloud together.

Rock and Wrap It Up! (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Civic Engagement

Goal: The goal of Rock and Wrap It Up! is to collect leftover food from large events and donate it to local agencies.

Safe and Sustainable Housing for American Indians

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The Red Feather Development Groups (RFDG) goal is to bring sustainable and affordable housing to Tribal Lands.

Impact: The Red Feather Development Groups (RFDG) community development work has seen promising results. In seven years, the organization has reached over 1,000 individuals and distributed over 700 "home health kits" to tribal land homeowners.

San Diego County Breaking Cycles (San Diego County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children, Teens

Goal: The goals of this program are to

- Prevent youth from becoming delinquent by focusing strengths-based, family-centered community resources and programs on "at-risk" youth and their families.
- Improve the juvenile justice and community intervention for juvenile offenders through a system of Graduated Sanctions (Intervention).

SISTERS (New York)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the SISTERS program is to provide outreach/support and case management to pregnant and postpartum women who are on public assistance, are mandated to treatment, report having experienced more than four violent traumas and have smoked crack cocaine during their last pregnancy.

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.