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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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Community Voice: Taking it to the People (Lynchburg, VA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the program is to decrease African American infant mortality through raising awareness of racial health disparities, encouraging safe and healthy lifestyle practices, and providing correct perinatal health education.

Community-Based Multiple Risk Factor Intervention for Cardiovascular Risk (Baltimore, MD)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease among African American families with a history of coronary disease.

CommuteShare (Burlington, VT)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide affordable, reliable, and flexible transportation to low-income residents of Burlington.

Compassionate Healthcare (San Francisco, CA)

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

Goal: Compassionate Healthcare seeks to provide affordable, accessible, and quality healthcare to the homeless and poor, offering a full range of traditional health care services, as well as HIV/AIDS, diabetes, mental health, substance abuse, and non-Western medicine services.

Complete Streets

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment

Goal: Complete Streets aims to increase physical activity and contribute to creating safer communities for all users of the road.

Impact: Complete Streets has contributed to safer communities and streets for all users of the road by working with community residents, policy-makers, and the development community.

Comprehensive Diabetes Lower Extremity Amputation Prevention Program (Louisiana)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural

Goal: The goal of the Comprehensive Diabetes – Lower Extremities Amputation Prevention initiative is to improve foot care and reduce lower extremity amputations among people with diabetes.

Comprehensive Homeless Access to Nontraditional Clinical Experiences (CHANCE) (Syracuse, NY)

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

Goal: The goal of CHANCE is to facilitate a connection between mental health services and homeless individuals.

Computers4Kids (Charlottesville, VA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Urban

Goal: The overall goal of Computers4Kids is to empower disadvantaged children in the community by giving them computer skills and instilling in them self-confidence and a lifelong love of learning. C4K also strives to provide a safe, comfortable place for middle and high school students to explore their creative abilities.

Connecting Activities (Massachusetts)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to give students the academic, technical/technological and employability skills necessary to compete in higher education and high performance workplaces.

Connections (Clark County, WA)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to address the needs of juvenile offenders with emotional and behavioral disorders and their families.

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.