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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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Child-Parent Center (Chicago, IL)

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

Goal: The goals of this program are to provide a stable learning environment that will promote scholastic development, to enhance parent-child relationships, and to prevent delinquency.

Comparative Cost Analysis of Housing and Case Management Program for Chronically Ill Homeless Adults Compared to Usual Care (Chicago, Illinois)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Urban

Goal: To assess the costs of a housing and case management program in a novel sample: homeless adults with chronic medical illnesses.

Impact: Compared to usual care, the intervention group generated an average annual cost savings of (−)$6,307 per person (95 percent CI: −16,616, 4,002; p = .23). Subgroup analyses of chronically homeless and those with HIV showed higher per person, annual cost savings of (−)$9,809 and (−)$6,622.

Effect of a housing and case management program on emergency department visits and hospitalizations among chronically ill homeless adults: a randomized trial (Chicago, Illinois)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: To assess the effectiveness of a case management and housing program in reducing the use of urgent medical services among homeless adults with chronic medical illnesses.

Impact: For every 100 homeless adults offered the intervention, the expected benefits over the next year would be 49 fewer hospitalizations, 270 fewer hospital days, and 116 fewer ED visits.

Elev8 (Chicago, Oakland, Baltimore, and New Mexico)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Teens, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: Elev8 brings together schools, families and the community in low-income areas to ensure that students succeed in school and in life.

Exercise Training for Stroke Survivors (Chicago, IL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program is to use education and exercise improve outcomes for urban African American stroke survivors.

Gilda's Club (New York, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Cancer

Goal: The mission of Gilda's Club is to provide places where men, women, and children with cancer and their families and friends join with others to build social and emotional support as a supplement to medical care.

Health and Wellness Outreach Initiative (Chicago, IL)

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

Goal: White Crane's health outreach model strives to reduce the incidence of risk factors for preventable disease, to motivate and educate seniors to take control of their health, and to make primary health care services accessible to vulnerable elders.

Housing and the Role of Hospitals (Chicago, IL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal was to create a housing program as one way to respond to chronic homelessness and associated health concerns.

Lawndale Health Promotion Project (Chicago, IL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Diabetes, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Lawndale Health Promotion Project was to eliminate health disparities in type 2 diabetes and heart disease among Hispanics and African Americans.

LUNGevity Foundation (Chicago, IL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Cancer, Urban

Goal: The goal of the LUNGevity Foundation is to increase funding for lung cancer research.

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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