Home > Promising Practices

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.

Submit a Promising Practice

Search Filters Clear all
(2405 results)

Save a link to this search

Ranking
Featured
Primary Target Audience
Topics and Subtopics
Geographic Type
Search

New Communities Program (Chicago, IL)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the New Communities Program is to strengthen communities from within through planning, organizing, and human development.

New Directions for Youth (Los Angeles, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Public Safety, Teens, Families, Urban

Goal: The mission of New Directions for Youth is to provide comprehensive programs that help at-risk youth become productive, self-sufficient and healthy young adults, and create supportive family environments.

Northern Manhattan Start Right Coalition (New York City, NY)

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

Goal: The goal of the Northern Manhattan Start Right Coalition is to increase the timely vaccination coverage rate for the 4:3:1:3:3 series for children ages 19 to 35 months.

Impact: The Start Right Coalition increased timely vaccination coverage from 63.0% in 2002 to 96.8% in 2007.

Nurturing Father's Program (NFP)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Men, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the Nurturing Fathers Program is to teach men parenting and nurturing skills.

Impact: Thousands of fathers have benefited from the Nurturing Fathers Program. The program has been successfully implemented by non-profit organizations as well as federal, state, and municipal government entities.

Nurturing Parenting Program (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Families

Goal: The long-term goals of this program are to decrease the rate of recidivism in families receiving social services, lower the rate of multiparent teenage pregnancies, reduce the rate of juvenile delinquency and alcohol abuse, and stop the intergenerational cycle of child abuse by teaching positive parenting behaviors.

Nutrition Education for Families with Financial Problems (The Netherlands)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Families

Goal: To increase dietary variety, decrease the intake of saturated fat and increase the intake of vegetables during the main meal among families with financial problems.

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.

Open Circle Curriculum

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / School Environment, Children

Goal: This program has three goals: (1) to strengthen students' social competency skills in communication, self-control, and interpersonal problem-solving; (2) to promote the creation of growth-fostering relationships among students and between students and the adults in their lives; and (3) to build a sense of community in classrooms and schools by providing a common "language" that fosters communication among students and between students and their teachers and other adults.

Open Meadow Alternative School (Portland, OR)

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

Goal: The goals of the Open Meadow program are 1) to re-engage high risk youth so they will complete their education; and 2) to connect high risk youth to their community in a positive way.

Open Wide (Connecticut)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Oral Health, Children, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the program is to train non-dental health and childcare professionals in dental disease screening and dental referrals for children.

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.
Impact DuPage