Home > Promising Practices

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.

Submit a Promising Practice

Search Filters Clear all
(2158 results)

Save a link to this search

Ranking
Featured
Primary Target Audience
Topics and Subtopics
Geographic Type
Search

Chronic Lead Poisoning Team Intervention Program (Milwaukee, WI)

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

Goal: The goals of this program are to identify children at risk for chronic lead poisoning, to decrease blood lead levels in chronically poisoned children, and to help families find stable, lead-free housing.

Circles of Hope (St. Louis, MO)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Civic Engagement, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: WomanSpirit aims to foster grassroots women's leadership in the St. Louis area by claiming safe community space for women's mutual support and training, gaining access to government funds for women's economic development, and achieving positions in local, regional and national decision-making bodies.

Club HERO (Helping Everyone Reach Out) (Atlanta, GA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Club HERO is encourage feelings of support at home and school and increase knowledge about the harmful effects of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs to prevent youths' drug use.

Colorectal Cancer Screening in Chinese Americans Project (Seattle, WA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Cancer, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of this project was to promote colorectal cancer screening among Chinese Americans.

Community Corrections Program (Tazewell, Va.)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Teens, Adults, Rural

Goal: The goal of the Community Corretions Program is to provide an alternative to incarceration by providing counseling to the offender and organizing integration back into the community through community service activities.

Community Market Farms (West Oakland, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The Community Market Farms program transforms vacant land into market farms and public spaces in order to grow and distribute organic affordable food with and for the community.

Community Outreach (Sonoma County, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The goal of the program is reduction of public health risk by informing and empowering citizens through the cooperation, communication, collaboration, and coordination of government agencies and the private sector.

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.

Comparative Cost Analysis of Housing and Case Management Program for Chronically Ill Homeless Adults Compared to Usual Care (Chicago, Illinois)

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

Goal: To assess the costs of a housing and case management program in a novel sample: homeless adults with chronic medical illnesses.

Impact: Compared to usual care, the intervention group generated an average annual cost savings of (−)$6,307 per person (95 percent CI: −16,616, 4,002; p = .23). Subgroup analyses of chronically homeless and those with HIV showed higher per person, annual cost savings of (−)$9,809 and (−)$6,622.

Complete Streets

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment

Goal: Complete Streets aims to increase physical activity and contribute to creating safer communities for all users of the road.

Impact: Complete Streets has contributed to safer communities and streets for all users of the road by working with community residents, policy-makers, and the development community.

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.