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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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Midwestern Prevention Project

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana among adolescents.

Impact: Evaluations of the project showed that there was a smaller increase in students who intend to use cigarettes, alcohol, and tobacco within the upcoming months and that there were significant effects on the proportion of students reporting the use of cigarettes, alcohol, and tobacco.

Million Hearts (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults

Goal: Million Hearts seeks to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes in the next five years (by 2017) by coordinating cardiovascular prevention implementations in its private-public partnerships.

Mind, Exercise, Nutrition...Do it! (MEND) Program (United Kingdom)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children

Goal: The goal of the MEND program is to reduce obesity levels in children by offering free healthy living programs that aim to encourage small lifestyle changes that improve health.

Impact: The MEND program was successful in reducing waist circumferences and BMI scores while increasing cardiovascular fitness, physical activity, and self esteem in children placed within the intervention group. The results of this study suggest that the MEND program is a promising intervention to combat rising child obesity rates.

Mispillion River Greenway (Milford, DE)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Children, Teens, Adults, Families

Goal: The goal of the Mispillion River Greenway is to provide new transportation options for downtown travel and encourage reinvestment in the business district.

Mobile C.A.R.E. Foundation

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Respiratory Diseases, Children

Goal: The Mobile C.A.R.E. Foundation’s mission is to provide complimentary and comprehensive asthma care and education to children and families in Chicago’s underserved communities via mobile medical units called "Asthma Vans."

Impact: The Mobile C.A.R.E. Foundation’s Asthma Vans provide children and families in Chicago’s underserved communities with complimentary and comprehensive asthma care and education resulting in reduced school absenteeism, decreased ER visits and lower hospitalization rates.

More than a Meal: Meals on Wheels America

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Older Adults

Goal: Meals on Wheels has been guided by a single goal since the first known U.S. delivery by a small group of Philadelphia citizens in 1954 – to support our senior neighbors to extend their independence and health as they age.

Motivational Interviewing-based HIV Risk Reduction

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Women

Goal: To reduce sexual and drug use behaviors among recently incarcerated, HIV-negative women at risk for HIV.

Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens, Families

Goal: The goal of MDFT is to reduce adolescent drug abuse and increase self-efficacy in the teen population.

Impact: Systematic reviews comparing the effective of adolescent drug use interventions across studies found that MDFT reduces substance use, delinquency, behavior problems, and symptoms of anxiety and depression. The program has also been found to improve educational performance.

Multisystemic Therapy (MST) for Juvenile Offenders

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children

Goal: The ultimate goal of MST is to empower families to build a healthier environment through the mobilization of existing child, family, and community resources.

Impact: Compared to youth receiving usual-treatment services, those receiving MST were arrested about half as often in the post-treatment period. Recidivism rates were significantly less for MST-treated youth. Youth who received MST also had an average of 73 fewer days of incarceration.

My Turn (Brockton, MA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment, Children

Goal: MY TURN's mission is to help youth develop goals, skills and confidence needed to transition successfully into post-secondary education or training and the world of work.

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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