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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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Healthy San Francisco (San Francisco)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Urban

Goal: The goal of Healthy San Francisco is to make health care services accessible to San Francisco's uninsured population.

Help Educate to Eliminate Diabetes (HEED) (New York)

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

Goal: The goal of Project HEED is to lessen the incidence of diabetes in ethnic minority communities through peer-led educational interventions focusing on weight loss.

Helping Kids Grow (West Allis, WI)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Families

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve the well-being of pre-school children.

High Point Walking for Health Project (Seattle, WA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: To increase physical activity among residents of the in the High Point Seattle public housing area through improvement in the built environment.

Hometown Walk of Hope (Union City, TN)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Cancer, Urban

Goal: The goal of Hometown Walk of Hope is to raise money to help Obion County residents who have been diagnosed with cancer.

Immunize LA Kids (Los Angeles, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Immunize LA Kids is to improve immunization rates among children.

Imua Project (Honolulu, HI)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Disabilities, Children

Goal: The goal of the Imua Project is to support youth with disabilities transition from high school to employment or higher education.

Increasing Screening Colonoscopy in an Urban Public Hospital (New York, NY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program is to increase access to colorectal cancer screening by improving the efficiency in health care clinics.

Isles, Inc (Trenton, NJ)

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

Goal: Isles' mission is to foster more self-reliant families in healthy, sustainable communities.

La Casa de las Madres (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Domestic Violence & Abuse, Children, Teens, Women, Urban

Goal: The mission of La Casa de las Madres is to help victims of domestic violence.

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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