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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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Shape Up Somerville (Somerville, MA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of Shape Up Somerville is to prevent obesity through a community-based environmental change intervention.

Impact: Through multi-level social interventions (community, school, family) intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and screen time can decrease among children.

Silver Comet Trail (Georgia)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Transportation, Children, Teens, Adults, Families

Goal: The goal of the program was to provide an outdoor recreational and bicycle commuting trail along an abandoned railway line in Georgia.

Simply Delivered Meals for ME (Maine)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality

Goal: The goal of this specialized meal delivery program called Simply Delivered for ME (SDM) was to improve care and reduce 30-day hospital readmission rates for those eligible for the program.

SISTERS (New York)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the SISTERS program is to provide outreach/support and case management to pregnant and postpartum women who are on public assistance, are mandated to treatment, report having experienced more than four violent traumas and have smoked crack cocaine during their last pregnancy.

Smart Growth (Maryland)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment

Goal: Smart Growth has three straightforward goals:
- to save our most valuable remaining natural resources before they are forever lost,
- to support existing communities and neighborhoods by targeting state resources to support development in areas where the infrastructure is already in place or planned to support it, and
- to save taxpayers millions of dollars in the unnecessary cost of building the infrastructure required to support sprawl.

Smart Meal Program (Sonoma)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity

Goal: To promote optimal nutritional and physical health for Sonoma County residents, especially children, by increasing the capacity of residents to make informed and healthy food choices.

SNAP 2 It! (St. Louis, Missouri)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Urban

Goal: The program aims to increase the consumption of local, healthy fruits and vegetables in SNAP participants.

Social Competence Promotion Program for Young Adolescents

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / School Environment, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to teach young adolescents self-control, stress management, social problem solving, and communication skills, and to encourage them to use those skills for the prevention of substance use and high-risk sexual behavior.

Social Decision Making / Problem Solving (New Jersey)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to help students acquire social and decision-making skills and to develop their ability to effectively use those skills in real-life and academic situations.

Sonoma County Healthy Retail Project (Sonoma County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the Healthy Retail Project is to increase access to healthier foods and beverages; decrease the availability of unhealthy products; increase compliance with alcohol, tobacco, and food safety laws; and increase customer loyalty and store profits.

Impact: Over 60% of stores assessed in 2014 met Healthy Retail Project Standards and all participating stores increased their food environment score over baseline.

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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