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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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Unused Medications Program (Kansas)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural

Goal: The Unused Medications Repository, administered by Community Health Center of Southeast
Kansas, provides donated medications free of charge to eligible clinics in Kansas.

Impact: Over $20 million worth of prescription medications have been donated to low-income and uninsured Kansans.

Urban Brownfields Program: Rehabilitating Toxic Industrial Land, New Jersey, USA (Trenton, NJ)

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

Goal: Isles, Inc., is a nationally recognized nonprofit community development and environmental organization with the mission to foster more self-reliant families in healthy, sustainable communities. Through their Urban Brownfields program, Isles works to create a deeper understanding of the health and environmental conditions in Trenton.

Urban Women Against Substance Abuse (Hartford, CT)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Women

Goal: The goal of UWASA is to teach girls to build their cultural and gender identity, discourage alcohol and drug use, promote HIV awareness, and explore possible career options.

Utah Skin and Colon Cancer Media Campaigns (Utah)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Cancer

Goal: The goal of these media campaigns was to increase awareness of cancer prevention, protection, and early detection.

Utilization of Food Sample Results to Improve Food Safety (Maricopa County, AZ)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Food Safety

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the risk of foodborne illness for Maricopa County citizens and visitors by using food sample results to address complaints and increase the efficacy of routine inspections.

Vaccines for Children Program (United States)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Children, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: Vaccines for Children was designed to ensure that eligible children do not contract vaccine-preventable diseases because of inability to pay for vaccine.

Impact: Racial and ethnic disparities in vaccination coverage between non-Hispanic white children and children of other groups have declined for vaccines that have been recommended since 1995. By providing increased access, VFC has increased protection for all children from vaccine-preventable diseases.

Vamos a Nadar (Let's Go Swimming) (Sonoma)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Prevention & Safety, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: To promote water safety in the Latino community.

Vandenberg AFB QRP Exceeds 90% Diversion Rate (Santa Barbara County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce waste and encourage recycling at Vandenberg AFB.

Vial of Life (Flagler County, FL)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide emergency responders with crucial medical information about seniors so that they will be better able to assist in the event of an emergency.

Villa-Parke Community Garden (Pasadena, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Community & Business Resources, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The mission of the Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy is to improve family health in urban food desert neighborhoods through grants for community gardens and nutrition education.

Impact: Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy partnered with the City of Pasadena to establish the Villa-Parke Community Center, where community members can learn about gardening, cooking, nutrition.

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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