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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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EPA's Clean Water Act Recognition Awards (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The objectives of the program are to educate the public about the contributions that publicly-owned wastewater treatment facilities make to clean water; to encourage public support for municipal and industrial efforts in effective wastewater management, biosolids management, and wet weather pollution control; and to recognize communities that go much beyond the minimum needed to meet Clean Water Act requirements.

Evergreen Action Nutrition Program (Guelph, Ontario)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of the Evergreen Action Nutrition program is to prevent chronic diseases and encourage health eating and nutrition among seniors in the community.

Every Woman Counts (California)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Cancer, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve access to breast cancer information with linguistically and culturally appropriate outreach efforts.

Family and Children's Services: Co-locating to Provide Trauma Services (Nashville, TN)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Families

Goal: The goal oft his program is to provide direct services to children who have suffered or witnessed violence in their homes or neighborhoods.

FAmily-CEntered (FACE) Advance Care Planning (Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Teens, Adults, Families

Goal: The goal of FACE-ACP is to give adolescents and adults living with a serious medical condition a voice by facilitating conversations between patients and their caregivers so they can achieve their goals and match medical treatment to their goals.

Flex Your Power Case Study: City of Atascadero (Atascadero, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: The goal of this project was to reduce energy usage in government buildings. Long-term objectives were: Research solar, wind and new roofing project; and consider replacing and upgrading wastewater treatment equipment, which was the city's biggest energy user (representing approximately 47 percent of the annual kilowatt usage.)

Flex Your Power Case Study: City of Visalia (Visalia, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: The goal of these projects is to conserve energy and to reduce energy costs.

Georgia's Teenage and Adult Driver Responsibility Act (Georgia)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Teens

Goal: The goal of TADRA is to reduce fatal crashes among teenage drivers.

Impact: After the implementation of TADRA, speed-related fatal crashes were cut by 42%, and alcohol-related fatal crashes decreased nearly 60%.

Get on Board (Tucson, AZ)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Transportation, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Get on Board program is to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality in Tucson, AZ.

Green Guerillas (New York City, NY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Urban

Goal: Green Guerillas' goal is to help gardeners cultivate and manage community gardens that thrive as parks, urban farms, and outdoor community centers.

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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