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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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Illumination Foundation (Orange County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Children, Teens, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Illumination Foundation is to bridge the gaps in existing services for the most underserved to break or prevent the cycle of homelessness in Orange County.

Mornings in Motion (Tennessee)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children

Goal: The goal of Mornings in Motion is to incorporate high quality and structured physical activity into the school day.

Play/Write Program (New York City)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children

Goal: To create confident, literate students equipped with a variety of tools for written, verbal, and artistic expression and to improve the relevance and effectiveness of in-school learning.

Project DIRECT (Raleigh, NC)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Diabetes, Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Project DIRECT was to reduce the burden of diabetes and its impact on the African-American community through partnerships with the community in Raleigh, NC.

Providing Education by Bringing Learning Environments to Students (PEBBLES)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / School Environment, Children

Goal: This program uses technology and innovative design to help hospitalized children stay involved with their classrooms and other students.

Safer Homes Project (Pacoima)

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

Goal: The mission of the Safer Homes Program is to help residents to create healthy comes for their families in order to prevent environmentally related health problems such as lead poisoning, asthma, mold, and moisture.

San Francisco Unified School District Healthy Food Policy (San Francisco)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Urban

Goal: SFUSD aimed to provide students with healthy and appealing food choices and to diminish the dependence of schools and school-related organizations on selling unhealthy foods.

STOP-DWI (New York)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Adults

Goal: The goal of the Broome County STOP-DWI comprehensive DWI countermeasure program is to improve highway safety by preventing drunk driving through increased certainty of arrest and conviction.

Taller Tech (Santa Ana, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment

Goal: The goal of this program is to help high-risk youth develop marketable skills and to instill in students the values of dignity, responsibility and community.

The Adolescent Parenting Program (Newark, NJ)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Family Planning, Teens, Women, Urban

Goal: This program aimed to improve birth and early child outcomes among high-risk pregnant and parenting adolescents.

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.