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

Cognitive Behavioral Social Skills Training (San Diego, CA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Adults

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce disability in middle-aged and older people with schizophrenia.

Impact: At the end of treatment, CBSST participants had significantly greater cognitive insight scores, indicating more objectivity in reappraising psychotic symptoms relative to treatment as usual. At 1-year follow-up, participants in CBSST showed greater skill acquisition and significant improvements in social functioning relative to participants receiving treatment as usual.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adolescent Depression (Pittsburg, PA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Teens

Goal: The goal of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adolescent Depression is to treat depressive symptoms in adolescents.

Impact: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adolescent Depression showed more rapid treatment response than both systematic behavior family therapy and non-directive support therapy. CBT also showed a greater rate of decline in self-reported depression over time.

Color Me Healthy (North Carolina)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children

Goal: The goal of Color Me Healthy is to promote and encourage physical activity and healthy eating among children ages four and five.

Impact: The program has had a positive impact on children's knowledge of and participation in physical activity. Similarly, it has had a positive impact on children's ability to recognize and their willingness to try fruits and vegetables. It has also increased children's fruit/vegetable snack consumption.

Colorectal Cancer Screening Intervention for Veterans (Chicago, IL)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program was to increase colorectal cancer screening recommendations and completion rates at a Veterans Affairs medical center.

Impact: Veterans Affairs (VA) patients in the intervention group received more recommendations for colorectal cancer screening and completed more screening tests compared to those in the control group.

Colorectal Web (Michigan)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults

Goal: The goal of the Colorectal Web interactive website is to promote colorectal cancer screening.

Impact: Colorectal Web is more effective than a standard colorectal cancer website at prompting previously unscreened individuals to choose a preferred colorectal cancer screening test and to be screened for colorectal cancer.

Commit to Quit (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Women

Goal: The goal of Commit to Quit is to help female smokers quit smoking through group programming and exercise.

Communities Supporting Breastfeeding (Kansas)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Families

Goal: The purpose of the Community Supporting Breastfeeding (CSB) designation program is to create a culture of breastfeeding support in communities, ultimately increasing breastfeeding initiation and duration rates and the health and well-being of families.

The CSB program’s immediate goals are to increase positive perceptions toward breastfeeding, increase the availability of breastfeeding resources, and reduce barriers experienced in the community by women of child-bearing age. The long-term goal of the project is to increase exclusive breastfeeding rates through a sustainable model of cross-sector support for breastfeeding.

The project also effectively addresses the racial and socioeconomic disparities in breastfeeding rates. The Kansas Breastfeeding Coalition’s collective impact approach supports efforts of those serving African-American and lower income women. As a result of this project, these organizations receive the support they need to increase their impact when they become aligned with other, larger organizations working toward similar goals, creating a synergy across groups working on breastfeeding support.

Impact: Based on results from our evaluation, along with improved exclusive breastfeeding rates in the majority of the communities that could be associated with the CSB criteria, we believe the CSB program is impactful.

Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The clear goal of CARE is to foster projects that will become self-sustaining and use CARE funding as seed money. The CARE Process is designed to encourage communities to enlist the support of project partners that will enable the project to continue even without EPA resources. Rather than supporting one time projects, CARE will support community partnerships that will endure and provide environmental benefits long into the future.

Community Aging in Place - Advancing Better Living for Elders (CAPABLE) (Baltimore, MD)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Older Adults, Adults, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: CAPABLE is a 5-month structured home visit program delivered by an occupational therapist (OT), a registered nurse (RN), and a handyman to improve daily function in older adults and to lower the monthly average Medicaid expenditure and likelihood of costly healthcare services.

Impact: This study demonstrates that home visit programs can improve the daily quality of life in aging adults. Additionally, they can lead to a reduction in Medicaid expenditures via lower inpatient costs and lower long-term care costs.

Community of Civano (Tuscon, AZ)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment

Goal: The overall mission of the Civano Community is:
- To create a sense of place that fosters community and connects people to one another and their natural environments
- To tread lighter on the land through innovative design, and
- To introduce sustainable construction materials and new technologies to advance the quality of life.

Specific performance targets include:
- Reduce energy consumption by 75%
- Reduce potable water consumption by 65%
- Reduce landfill-destined solid waste by 90%
- Reduce internal vehicle trip miles by 40%, and
- Create one community job for every 2 residences.

An Effective Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

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.
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:

The program description includes: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program funding source, program implementation steps and outcomes.
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:

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.
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.
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.