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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.

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Get Real About Violence (Evanston, IL)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to prevent violence among children and adolescents.

Get Tulsa Kids Trekkin' (Tulsa County, OK)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to encourage Tulsa children to increase physical activity and learn to make better food choices.

Girls 2000 (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Girls 2000 is to provide low-income girls with exposure and experiences to help them overcome obstacles that they may encounter.

GirlStars (Boston, MA)

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

Goal: The goal of the GirlStars intervention was to promote a lifetime of physical activity and positive health behaviors.

GIS Walking Maps (Boston, MA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Adults, Older Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: Walking maps are designed to encourage low-income individuals to increase their physical activity by providing information on safe walking routes and destinations within their neighborhood.

GLIDE Housing (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: GLIDE Housing provides housing and housing assistance to homeless families, individuals recovering from substance abuse, and individual who are chronically homeless.

Going Places, Making Choices

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Transportation, Teens

Goal: The curriculum is designed to build upon a young person's capacity for critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making and other life skills essential for a systematic approach to addressing issues of community sustainability. More specifically, they chose transport as a lens through which a community's environment, culture, and value systems are examined.

Great Allegheny Passage (Pittsburgh, PA to Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Children, Teens, Adults, Families

Goal: The goal of the Great Allegheny Passage is to provide hikers, bicyclists, cross-country skiers and people with disabilities with a trail through the region.

Green Chemistry (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The goal of Green Chemistry is to promote environmentally benign design of chemical products and processes.

Green Engineering (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Air

Goal: The goal of the Green Engineering Program is to incorporate risk related concepts into chemical processes and products designed by academia and industry.

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.