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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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Parent to Parent Program (Marin, Napa, Solano and Sonoma, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Disabilities, Children, Families

Goal: The program's mission is to empower families of children with special needs to understand and access the systems that serve them.

Parent-Child Home Program: Palm Beach (Palm Beach)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: To prepare children of disadvantaged families for academic success and to strengthen families through intensive home visiting.

Impact: The Parent-Child Home Program builds school readiness, starting from the home. PCHP utilizes a non-directive, in-home modeling approach that encourages children's development, builds meaningful relationships between parents and children, and allows underserved families to access educational early-childhood services.

Pasos Adelante (Arizona)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: Pasos Adelante is a lifestyle intervention that aims to prevent and control chronic disease such as heart disease and diabetes in Mexican Americans by providing a supporting environment for improving nutrition and increasing walking activity in U.S.-Mexico border communities.

PeaceBuilders (Pima County, AZ)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / School Environment, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce youth violence and aggressive behavior by initiating prevention early in childhood, increasing children's resilience, and reinforcing positive behaviors.

Impact: One evaluation found that there was an 89% decrease in physical aggression and an 82% decrease in verbal aggression for participating students.

Per Scholas Employment

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Educational Attainment, Adults

Goal: The Per Scholas mission is to not only open doors to technology careers, but to build the foundation for future sustainability and growth for our communities.

Phoenix Healthy Homes (Phoenix, AZ)

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

Goal: The goal of the Phoenix Healthy Homes project was to use a multi-factorial approach to reduce hazard prevalence and improve self-reports of home safety and respiratory health.

Impact: The Phoenix Healthy Homes project showed that a tailored healthy homes improvement package significantly improves self-reported respiratory health and safety, reduces respiratory health and injury hazards, and can be implemented in concert with a mobile clinical setting.

Physical Activity and Teenage Health (PATH) Program (New York, NY)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Urban

Goal: The goal of the PATH Program is to improve knowledge of cardiovascular health and reduce risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease.

Picture Me Healthy (Madera County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Rural

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve immunization rates in Madera County.

Pregnancy Health: Exercise Programs to Prevent Gestational Hypertension

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends exercise programs for pregnant women to reduce the development of gestational hypertension.

Pride Alliance Network (Mendocino and Lake Counties, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle, Children, Teens, Adults

Goal: The mission of the Pride Alliance Network is to promote and support equality and acceptance for all people without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity.

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.