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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.

Practices that were submitted by local partners are listed first and will have a green box below them that indicates they are local. Users can also use the search features to find promising practices from across the country.

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Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: NFTE's mission is to motivate young people from low-income communities to stay in school, learn about entrepreneurship, and plan for successful futures.

NYC FITNESSGRAM (New York)

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

Goal: The goal of the program is to assist students in establishing physical activity as part of their daily lives.

NYC WasteLe$$ (New York, NY)

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

Goal: The goal of NYC WasteLe$$ is to promote waste prevention at businesses, agencies, schools, and at home.

One City One Book: San Francisco Reads (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Literacy, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of One City One Book: San Francisco Reads is to encourage enjoyment of reading, literacy, and community by having San Franciscans read and discuss the same book at the same time.

Parenting a Second Time Around (PASTA) (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of Parenting the Second Time Around (PASTA) is to train facilitators to lead workshops on childcare for grandparent/caregiver relatives.

Per Scholas Employment

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Educational Attainment, Adults

Goal: The Per Scholas mission is to not only open doors to technology careers, but to build the foundation for future sustainability and growth for our communities.

Play Streets with Strategic Alliance for Health (SaFH) (East Harlem and South Bronx, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: To promote physical activity and healthy eating in resource-poor neighborhoods.

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 VIVA (New York, NY)

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

Goal: The goal of Project VIVA is to rapidly immunize hard-to-reach urban populations through a community-public health partnership.

Protocol for the Isolation and Quarantine of Communicable Disease (Rockland County, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The main objective of the Protocol is to provide a medicolegal framework for the protection of public health and safety in the face of emerging threats of infectious diseases and bioterrorism agents with due regard to a citizen's right to due process.

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.
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