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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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Hope Street Family Center- School Readiness Program (Los Angeles)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The program’s overall goal is to prepare children and their families for successful entrance into kindergarten through full-day, center-based early childhood education and family support services.

Houston READ Commission (Houston, TX)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Literacy

Goal: The Houston READ Commission's mission is to enrich the lives of adult Houstonians and their families by helping them achieve their full potential through literacy, and to contribute to a workforce that will ensure a strong economy and a promising future for the greater Houston area.

Humanim (Howard County, MD)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Disabilities, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: Humanim's mission is to identify those in greatest need and provide uncompromising human services.

Implementing a Coordinated School Health Program: One Local School's Success (Florida)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children

Goal: The goal of McIntosh Middle School's coordinated health program was to improve the attendance and performance of students by decreasing health problems

Improved Solutions for Urban Systems' High Schools (Dayton, OH)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Urban

Goal: The goal of ISUS is to address an escalating dropout problem and to better prepare these youth for work in high-demand industries.

Incorporating HIV Services into Tuberculosis Contact Investigations (New York)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide HIV testing and services to individuals involved in tuberculosis contact investigations.

Increased Medicaid Reimbursements to Enhance Breast/Cervical Cancer Screening Project (Leon County, FL)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to increase breast and cervical cancer screening among medically underserved women.

Inner-City Asthma Intervention (San Antonio, TX)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families

Goal: Effective asthma control can improve quality of life, reduce medical costs, and reduce the number of asthma-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations, school and work days missed, days of restricted activity, and deaths each year.

Interface's Journey to Sustainability (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: Interface's sustainability goals involve reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, reducing non-renewable energy use, and increasing renewable energy use in their production process.

Interlocal Association's Youth with Disabilities Project (Indianapolis region, IN)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Educational Attainment, Children

Goal: The purpose of the Interlocal Association's (IA) Youth with Disabilities Project was to support demonstration projects to help Workforce Investment Act (WIA)-assisted youth programs develop the capacity to serve youth with disabilities. Although youth with disabilities had been served under previous employment and training programs during the latter years of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), with the implementation of WIA, services such as work experience, summer employment, and others decreased substantially. IA looked to expand and enhance the quality of services to youth with disabilities.

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.