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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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Teaching Nutrition and Life Skills to Adults with Low Incomes (Verona, VA)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Poverty, Rural

Goal: The goal of the program is to help clients reach self-sufficiency through life-skills and nutritional education.

Teaching Students to Be Peacemakers

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Civic Engagement, Children, Teens

Goal: The intent of this program is to provide each student with at least 12 years of training in how to manage conflicts constructively and thereby significantly change the way they manage their conflicts for the rest of their lives.

Teen Choices (Collier County, FL)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Family Planning, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the repeat birth rate for teen women in Collier County and to encourage positive choices for teen mothers to ensure a brighter future for them and their children.

TEEN LINE (California)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Urban

Goal: The organization’s goal is to provide a safe space where a teenager can talk to another teenager who will listen, understand and not judge them.

Telephone Intervention for Family Caregivers of Stroke Survivors (Birmingham, AL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults

Goal: The goal of this intervention is to provide family caregivers of stroke survivors with problem-solving skills and support to manage problems and cope with the stresses of care giving.

Telephone Outreach to Increase Colon Cancer Screening (New York, NY)

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

Goal: The goal of this telephone outreach program was to increase colorectal cancer screening in a predominantly lower- to moderate-income African American population.

Texas: Improving Data Collection for a Comprehensive Cancer Control Program (Texas)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Cancer

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve the collection and utilization of cancer data in Texas.

Text Reminders for Immunization Compliance in Kids (TRICKs): A Demonstration Project (Wichita, KS)

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

Goal: The goal of TRICKs was to reach out to parents using a novel reminder system and increase immunization rates at the KU pediatric clinic.

Impact: There was a significant increase in immunization rate following the implementation of parent text reminders when compared to the initial immunization rate.

The 16th Avenue Tiled Steps Project (San Francisco)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Adults, Older Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: The 16th Avenue Tiled Steps Project was a neighborhood effort to create a mosaic running up the risers of 163 steps.

The 3C Model in Smoking Prevention (Houston, TX)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use

Goal: The goal of this program is to maximize the impact of anti-tobacco education by combining resources across the campus, church, and 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.