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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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Food Day (USA)

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

Goal: Food Day seeks to bring together Americans from all walks of life to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way.

Four Seasons Hotel Composting Partnership (Philadelphia, PA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The goal of the Four Seasons Hotel Composting Partnership is to reduce the hotel's waste by recycling kitchen scraps with a local composter.

Guys Only! After School Program (Frederick County, MD)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Family Planning, Teens

Goal: The goals of GO! are:

- to delay the initiation of sexual intercourse among males ages 12-14 to reduce teenage pregnancy in Frederick County
- to increase parent child communication
- to increase community awareness regarding adolescent sexuality

Health Leads (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality

Goal: The goal of Health Leads is to provide patients with access to various things, besides medication, that they need to improve their health.

Healthy Children, Healthy Weights (Columbus, OH)

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

Goal: The goal of the HCHW toolbox is to provide focused messages related to promoting a healthy weight in young children, along with practical strategies that may be used in multiple settings.

IMMUNITY Campaign (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Adults, Women, Men, Urban

Goal: The goal of the IMMUNITY campaign is to increase awareness around the importance of adults receiving vaccinations for commonly preventable diseases.

Immunize LA Kids (Los Angeles, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Immunize LA Kids is to improve immunization rates among children.

Increasing the Unit Price for Tobacco Products (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Adults

Goal: The goal of this review was to determine whether increasing the unit price for tobacco products is an effective strategy for reducing the overall use of those products.

Increasing Wildlife Compatibility of Farmland; Habitat Corridors (Yolo County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Wildlife, Rural

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide greater wildlife habitat value on agricultural lands without significantly affecting crop production.

Indiana's Earned Income Tax Credit Campaign (Indiana)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Government Assistance, Families

Goal: The goal of this program is to encourage eligible families to utilize the Earned Income Tax Credit.

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.