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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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Tri-Agency Resource Gang Enforcement Team (Orange County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Public Safety, Children, Urban

Goal: The goal of the TARGET program is to reduce gang crime by selectively incarcerating the most violent and repeat (recidivist) gang offenders (based on their criminal records).

Truant Recovery Program (Richmond, CA)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce truancy in West Contra Costa schools.

Walk Wise, Drive Smart (Hendersonville, NC)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Public Safety, Older Adults

Goal: To build community support for and awareness of senior-pedestrian safety issues.

Weed and Seed (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use

Goal: The goals of Weed and Seed are to control violent crime, drug trafficking, and drug-related crime and provide a safe environment where residents can live, work, and raise their families.

Youth Work Together to Improve Community Conditions

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment

Goal: The goal of this initiative was to pinpoint community conditions that were detrimental to health in the Planada, California community.

Impact: The Student Education Empowerment Development Squad (SEEDS), with the help of the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program (CCROPP), addressed community issues through a youth-led process using Prevention Institute’s Tool for Health and Resilience in Vulnerable Environments (THRIVE).

Child Pedestrian Injury Prevention Project (Perth, Western Australia)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Children

Goal: The goal of this project was to improve children's road-related behavior and to enhance the safety of their road environment.

Seat Belt Promotion in North Carolina (North Carolina)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Adults

Goal: The goal of this program is to increase seat belt use through interactive road signs and law enforcement.

The CrossPoints Project: Using Virtual Reality to Teach Pedestrian Safety to Children (Ontario, Canada)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Children

Goal: The goal of the CrossPoints Project is to use a Virtual Reality software program to teach pedestrian safety to children.

Alcolock (Sweden)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Public Safety, Adults

Goal: The goal of the Alcolock system is to reduce drunk driving.

Bethlehem Police Family Group Conferencing Project (Bethlehem, PA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to divert young first-time offenders from court and into conferences where they can negotiate solutions with their families and their victims.

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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