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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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Schools of Hope (Sonoma, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Literacy, Children

Goal: Schools of Hope aims to increase third-grade reading proficiency to 75% by 2015 and 90% by 2020.

Impact: Students tutored through Schools of Hope have an increased reading proficiency compared to other students.

Schools on Train Safety Program (Washington)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / School Environment, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to introduce teachers, students, and chaperones to rail and train safety, the environment, and train travel. This program targets all students from kindergarten through high school.

See You in School (Whatcom, WA)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of See You in School is to improve the grades, self confidence and engagement of high school students through mentor/mentee relationships. Decreasing the dropout rates in Whatcom County is a long term goal that begins with the mentor/mentee relationship and a network inside the schools.

Shape Up SF (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: Shape Up SF aims to reduce health disparities by creating healthy eating and active living environments and improving physical activity and nutrition.

Impact: Shape Up SF implemented Safe Routes to School, Bayview HEAL Zone, PE4SF, Rethink Your Drink, Southeast Food Access (SEFA) Working Group, SEFA Food Guardians, and Walking Challenge, and increased physical activity and access to healthy foods in San Francisco.

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.

Smile Programs... the mobile dentists (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Oral Health, Children, Families

Goal: The Smile Programs... the mobile dentists mission is to bring state-of-the-art, dental care to those students in need in the most comfortable and effective way possible.

Impact: Smile Programs provides mobile dental care to children in schools in over a dozen states.

SOS Signs of Suicide Program

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Teens

Goal: The program's primary objectives are to educate teens that depression is a treatable illness and to equip them to respond to a potential suicide in a friend or family member using the SOS technique.

SpeakOut (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Art & Recreation / Art, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: SpeakOut allows individuals to share their personal stories, through song, poetry, and music, and enjoy a sense of camaraderie and love with their listeners.

Special Needs Project (SNP) (California)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families

Goal: The project's goal is to identify children with disabilities and other special needs at an early age and provide those identified with the appropriate support so they can be successful when entering kindergarten.

Specialisterne USA

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Employment, Adults

Goal: Specialisterne provides training, education and employment for people with autism and similar challenges.

Impact: Specialisterne seeks to enable one million jobs worldwide for a target population that would otherwise face substantial barriers to employment.

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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