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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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Reach Out (Chicago, IL)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Cancer, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of this program is to encourage low-income African American and Hispanic women to seek early breast and cervical cancer screening.

Reconciliation Services Depression and Trauma Therapy Services (Kansas City/Jackson/Missouri)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Adults, Women, Men, Urban

Goal: The mission of Reconciliation Services is to cultivate a community seeking reconciliation to transform Troost from a dividing line into a gathering place, revealing the strength of all. Our mental health services are at the heart of how we strive to help clients see their own strength and work towards being reconciled to their own health and well-being.

Impact: Over the past three years, our therapy program participants reported a 71 percent decrease for depression and 79 percent decrease for PTSD.

Red Hook Farmers' Market (New York, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Women, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Red Hook Farmers’ Market is to ensure that neighborhood residents can access locally grown, healthy, safe, and affordable food.

Renewal House (Western Connecticut region)

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

Goal: The goal of renewal house is to reduce homelessness of older individuals in Greater Danbury Area, CT, by providing safe, secure housing, renewing a sense of hope, reinforcing self-worth and restoring dignity and confidence.

Rhode Island’s Health Equity Zones: Addressing Local Problems with Local Solutions

Filed under Good Idea, Health

Goal: The goal of the program was to recognize and address the diversity of local health disparities by marshaling local community involvement in the place-based Health Equity Zones.

Impact: The framework established through the Health Equity Zones allows for the continued collaboration between governmental public health entities and stakeholders in the community to address health disparities.

Rural medical-legal partnership and advocacy: a three-year follow-up study. (southern Illinois)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Economy, Rural

Goal: Medical-legal partnerships perform advocacy services for vulnerable and under-served populations. These populations are typically burdened disproportionately by legal and medical problems. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness and sustainability of a rural medical-legal partnership (MLP).

Impact: The rural medical-legal partnership continued to show social and financial impacts, such as health care recovery dollars (319% return on investment between 2007 and 2009), Social Security benefits, family law services, and end-of-life guidance.

Safe Dates (North Carolina)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Domestic Violence & Abuse, Children, Teens

Goal: The goals of the program are to increase students’ awareness of what constitutes healthy versus abusive dating relationships; to increase students’ awareness of dating abuse as well as its causes and consequences; to equip students with the skills and resources to help themselves or friends in abusive dating relationships; and to equip students with the skills to develop healthy dating relationships, including positive communication, anger management, and conflict resolution.

Impact: Safe Dates educates and equips youth to identify, address, and mitigate abusive and violent dating relationships.

Safe Routes for Seniors (New York City)

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

Goal: To improve cardiovascular health among seniors by improving the pedestrian environment in New York.

Safe Routes to School (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Children, Families

Goal: The goal of the Safe Routes to School program is to empower communities to make walking and bicycling to school a safe and routine activity.

School-Based Asthma Therapy (Rochester, NY)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Respiratory Diseases, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The objective of this study was to examine the health benefits and cost-effectiveness of the School-Based Asthma Therapy (SBAT) program compared with usual care.

Impact: School-Based Asthma Therapy resulted in 158 symptom-free days per month per 100 children and a cost-effectiveness of $10 per symptom-free day.

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.