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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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Developing Civic Service with a Teen Corps (USA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Civic Engagement, Teens

Goal: The goal is to encourage middle and high school students to increase their civic involvement.

Elders Living at Home Program (ELAHP) (Boston, MA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Older Adults

Goal: The mission of the Elders Living At Home Program is to support elders in making the transition out of homeless, to provide supportive services that build on the individual abilities of elders and to help them overcome the barriers to permanent housing.

Experience Corps (USA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Experience Corps is to improve the cognitive, physical, and psychological function of retired senior citizens while simultaneously employing their free time to help narrow the achievement gap in urban, low-income elementary schools

Focus on the Future (Kentucky)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of Focus on the Future is to reduce STD reinfections among young African American heterosexual males through correct and consistent condom use.

Girls Inc. Friendly PEERsuasion

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to help girls in middle school (ages 11-14) acquire knowledge, skills, and support systems to avoid substance abuse.

Impact: In 2016, independent evaluation of PEERsuasion failed to find evidence that Friendly PEERsuasion was effective in delaying or reducing girls’ use of ATOD or changing girls’ attitudes toward ATOD use and their associations with peers who use substances.

Growing Healthy (USA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The main objective of Growing Healthy is to give students the tools to resist the social pressures to smoke, use alcohol or other drugs, and engage in other risky behavior.

HIV Sexual Risk Reduction Intervention (San Francisco, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: To increase consistent condom use among low-income African American young adults.

Homeward Bound of Marin (HBOM) (Marin, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Rural

Goal: Homeward Bound of Marin's mission is to address and solve the homelessness problem in Marin County.

InnVision the Way Home (San Jose to Redwood City)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: InnVision's mission is to empower homeless and at-risk families and individuals in finding a permanent home by offering various levels of housing and day programs in a safe and supportive environment that promotes self-worth and independent living.

Internet-Based Case Management for Secondary Prevention of Heart Disease (Virginia)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide risk factor management training and services to individuals with cardiovascular disease.

Impact: Intervention participants had significantly fewer cardiovascular events than patients who received usual care (4.1% vs. 15.7%, p = 0.053). Reduced hospitalization and emergency room expenses resulted in a gross cost savings of $1,418 per patient.

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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