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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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SparkPoint Centers (San Francisco Bay Area, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Investment & Personal Finance, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of SparkPoint is to help low-income families create step-by-step plans to help them get out of poverty and achieve long-term financial stability.

Summer Bridge (Marin)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families

Goal: The program's goal is to help four- and five-year old children become better prepared for kindergarten.

Tai Chi -- Moving for Better Balance

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

Goal: To use tai chi exercise to improve balance and decrease incidence of falls among older adults.

Impact: The program shows that ta chi can significantly improve health-related outcome measures in older adults and such a program can be practically and effectively implemented and maintained in community settings.

826 National (Chapters in CA, NY, IL, WA, MI, MA, DC)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Literacy, Children, Teens, Urban

Goal: The mission of 826 National is to help children ages 6-18 develop their writing skills, and to help teachers get their students excited about writing. The mission is based on the understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.

Active Choices (San Francisco)

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

Goal: The goal of this promising practice is to increase physical activity in a diverse older adult population.

Impact: Participants in the Active Choices program showed significant increases in physical activity and a greater satisfaction with their body appearance and function. Participants of the program also showed decreases in their BMI.

Asthma Home Visiting Program (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Respiratory Diseases, Children, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The Asthma Home Visiting Program aims to reduce asthma triggers present in the home.

Impact: Home visiting can help reduce asthma triggers in the home, decreasing symptoms, missed days of work or school, and emergency room visits and hospitalizations.

Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII) (San Francisco Bay Area)

Filed under Good Idea, Health

Goal: The mission of BARHII is to transform public health practice for the purpose of eliminating health inequities using a broad spectrum of approaches that improve community health. Consistent with that mission, BARHII has set the following objectives:

- Train staff on broad spectrum of strategies to improve nutrition and physical activity, and reduce health inequities.
- Develop regional collaborations of public health departments, organizations, coalitions and communities to participate in a comprehensive approach to improve nutrition and physical activity.
- Develop a media advocacy campaign to raise awareness among policy makers and the general public about key issues of nutrition and physical activity, and their link to chronic disease and health inequities.
- Use the regional platform to achieve changes in institutional practices and public policies, and increase support for public health.

Bay Area SCORES (Bay Area, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Bay Area SCORES program is to reduce obesity, increase physical fitness, and manage cardiovascular health-related risks while improving academic performance in children between the ages of 6 and 12 through soccer, creative expression, service learning, “hip hop for health,” and creative writing.

Bayview Safe Haven (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: To provide academic, vocational, recreational and life skills for at risk youth ages 12-21 in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco.

Breathmobile® (San Bernardino, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children

Goal: The goal of the Breathmobile® program is to help children control their asthma by providing accessible care at local school sites.

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.