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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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Respiratory Health Association (Chicago, IL)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Respiratory Diseases

Goal: Respiratory Health Association's mission is to promote healthy lungs and fight lung disease through research, advocacy and education.

Impact: Respiratory Health Association provides ongoing education, research funding, and advocacy for respiratory health. The program also partners with organizations that work with underserved populations to reduce tobacco use.

Rock On Cafe (Broome and Tioga, NY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children

Goal: To create a sustainable school lunch program that incorporated healthier food items by leveraging the combined efforts of several school districts.

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.

Smile Alabama! (Alabama)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Oral Health, Children

Goal: The goal of the Smile Alabama! initiative is to improve oral health services for Medicaid-eligible children.

Specialisterne USA

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Employment, Adults

Goal: Specialisterne provides training, education and employment for people with autism and similar challenges.

Impact: Specialisterne seeks to enable one million jobs worldwide for a target population that would otherwise face substantial barriers to employment.

Start Strong (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Urban

Goal: To create and evaluate new ways to prevent teen dating violence and abuse.

Starting Right Initiative

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

Goal: The Starting Right Initiative works to prevent, treat and reverse childhood obesity and malnutrition in low-income communities.

Impact: The Starting Right Initiative aims to encourage healthy eating habits in children and their families and works to reduce childhood obesity and malnutrition at seven project locations nationwide.

Steps to a Healthier Washington (Washington)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Adults

Goal: The mission of the Steps to a Healthier Washington program is to integrate existing chronic disease programs to achieve policy and systems changes.

Stockbox Neighborhood Grocery (Seattle, WA)

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

Goal: Stockbox Neighborhood Grocery improves access to healthy food and eases the burden for families living in food deserts by building small grocery stores that provide alternatives to convenience stores or fast foods.

Impact: Stockbox Neighborhood Grocery improves access to healthy food and eases the burden for families living in food deserts.

Sustainable Rain (Seattle)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Urban

Goal: The goal of Sustainable Rain is to create opportunities for businesses to lead a tangible sustainable landscape project, as well as to increase community awareness of sustainability.

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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