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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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Hearts N’ Parks (USA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Adults

Goal: The goal of Hearts N’ Parks was to reduce obesity and the risk of heart disease among Americans by encouraging them to aim for a healthy weight, follow a healthy eating plan, and engage in regular physical activity.

Homeward Bound of Marin (HBOM) (Marin, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Rural

Goal: Homeward Bound of Marin's mission is to address and solve the homelessness problem in Marin County.

Hypertension Initiative of South Carolina (South Carolina)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke

Goal: The goal of the Hypertension Initiative is to improve blood pressure control rates to meet the Healthy People 2010 goal of 50% of all hypertensive patients controlling their blood pressure.

Information & Education Campaign for Health Care Providers (Santa Cruz County, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of the project was to publish an up-to-date Essential Reporting Guidelines which would be distributed to approximately 90% of healthcare providers in Santa Cruz county. As mentioned above, they wanted to increase reporting and surveillance activities with the primary physicians and also educate them on bioterrorism agents.

InnVision the Way Home (San Jose to Redwood City)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: InnVision's mission is to empower homeless and at-risk families and individuals in finding a permanent home by offering various levels of housing and day programs in a safe and supportive environment that promotes self-worth and independent living.

Kids Walk-to-School Day (Washington)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of the KidsWalk-to-School program is to encourage physical activity as an integral part of a child’s daily routine, promote the development of safe walking and bicycling routes, and teach safe pedestrian practices to potentially reduce injury among children.

Linking Inmates with Needed Care (LINC) (Florida)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the LINC program is to provide health education and care to prison inmates while they are incarcerated and following their release.

Maine Juvenile Drug Treatment Court (Maine)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve the quality of juvenile justice in Maine through timely and effective substance abuse, social services, and juvenile justice interventions.

Matching Volunteer Mentors with Adults Working towards Self-Sufficiency (Amarillo, TX)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Poverty, Adults

Goal: The goal of the program is to help people living in poverty to become self-sufficient by working toward short and long term goals of self-improvement.

Native American Prevention Project Against AIDS and Substance Abuse

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural

Goal: The primary goals of this project are to prevent HIV/AIDS and substance abuse among Native Americans.

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.