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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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Springfield Safe Communities (Springfield, IL)

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

Goal: The goal of the Springfield Safe Communities project was to reduce the number of alcohol-related traffic crash fatalities, and to increase seat belt use throughout the city and surrounding areas.

The Orange Grove Recycling Center (OGRC) (Chattanooga, TN)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide a much-needed recycling service to the City of Chattanooga and the surrounding area while providing jobs for developmentally disabled adults.

Youth Suicide Public Service Announcement (PSA) (Suburban Chicago)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Urban

Goal: Community Memorial Foundation's goal was two-fold: to decrease stigma surrounding youth depression and suicide and increase teen utilization of the Crisis Text Line.

Impact: An awareness campaign that incorporates age- and culturally-appropriate actors through various media can successfully increase teen and adolescent usage of a crisis text hotline.

ACTIVE Louisville’s Healthy Eating Initiative (Louisville, KY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity

Goal: The goal of this program is to promote healthy eating in lower-income areas of Louiville. The initiative is part of a larger program with the goal of redesigning low-income urban neighborhoods to promote active living.

Activity Bursts in the Classroom (ABC) Fitness Program (Independence, MO)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children

Goal: The project aims to promote a healthy lifestyle and reverse the trend of obesity among students and their families.

Impact: The ABC Fitness Program demonstrates the feasibility of bursts of structured physical activity for elementary school students with the beneficial effects on fitness and other health measures.

AfterZone Initiative (Providence)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children

Goal: The initiative's mission was to create a citywide system to support and sustain high-quality after-school programs.

Al's Pals

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children

Goal: The goal of the Al's Pals program is to teach children how to practice positive ways to express feelings, relate to others, communicate, brainstorm ideas, solve problems, and differentiate between safe and unsafe substances and situations.

Impact: Studies have shown that the program resulted in higher degrees of positive change in the intervention groups, increases in prosocial behaviors and positive coping behaviors, and decreases in antisocial and negative coping behaviors.

Aurora Firefighters Shots for Tots (Aurora, CO)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Children

Goal: The primary goal of this clinic is to make immunizations more available to parents in an area where children have been identified as lacking needed immunizations.

Becoming a Responsible Teen (BART) (Jackson, Mississippi)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Family Planning, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goals of this intervention include: increasing information and skills to make sound choices, increasing abstinence, and eliminating or reducing sex risk behaviors.

Impact: Among teens who participated, there was a decrease in sexual activity compared to those who did not participate in the program. Also among participants, there was an increase in sexual intercourse occasions that were condom-protected.

Border Binge-Drinking Reduction Program (Tijuana, Mexico)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce public health and safety problems related to U.S. teen & binge drinking in Mexico.

Impact: With IPS leadership, there was a reduction in youth nighttime crashes by 45% and 37% fewer nighttime crossers with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or higher.

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.