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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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Common Ground (California)

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

Goal: Common Ground seeks to help homeless individuals and families develop stability and independence by providing housing and support services.

Communicable Disease Prevention/Public Health Preparedness: HealthSentry (Kansas City, MO)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The goal of HealthSentry is to meet the challenge of linking public health organizations to reliable clinical data without burdensome manual data collection and reporting.more timely and accurate reporting.

Community Gardens Program (San Antonio)

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

Goal: The Community Gardens Program aims to improve the health of the residents of San Antonio and the environment by creating community gardens, which provide a place for gathering, exercising, and learning, as well as preserving San Antonio’s green space.

Community Planning Program (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Community Planning Program is to provide underserved communities with the tools and support they need to be able to shape equitable, safe, and vibrant neighborhoods throughout San Francisco, CA.

Community United Against Violence (CUAV) (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Adults, Urban

Goal: The mission of Community United Against Violence is to prevent and respond to violence against and within LGBTQQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning) communities.

CommuteShare (Burlington, VT)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide affordable, reliable, and flexible transportation to low-income residents of Burlington.

Corporation for Supportive Housing (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Urban

Goal: Corporation for Supportive Housing's mission is to help communities create permanent housing with services to prevent and end homelessness.

Diabetes Management for the Homeless: Sojourner Clinic (Kansas City, MO)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Sojourner Health Clinic is to pick up where the current medical system leaves off by providing free acute and ongoing healthcare to patients who do not have access--or are reluctant to access—traditional routes to a doctor or medicine.

Impact: During 2012, the Sojourner Health Clinic managed to increase the number of diabetic patients with A1C levels below 9 percent from 15% to 83%, reducing the average blood glucose level of patients and giving them a better sense of control over their diabetes.

Eat Well! El Paso (El Paso, TX)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Families

Goal: The main purpose of the Eat Well! El Paso program is to improve the local food environment by expanding healthy food options for children and their families, as well as to increase awareness and knowledge of the positive effects that healthy food choices can have on our health and our community.

Impact: Many locally-owned restaurants in El Paso have worked with the Eat Well! El Paso program to improve the healthy meal choices on their menus, helping to create a healthier food environment for the community.

Edible Schoolyard (Berkeley, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / School Environment, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of the Edible Schoolyard program is to teach students about gardening, cooking, and healthy eating through the creation and maintenance of an organic garden.

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.