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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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Developing Community Service Career Ladder Programs to Support Welfare-to-Work (Rhode Island)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Poverty, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: A core objective of the career ladder model is to ensure that low-income participants progress beyond the paraprofessional level. The goal is to aid welfare recipients to move from welfare to the paraprofessional level, then on to a career.

Disability Awareness Training (San Diego, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Educational Attainment

Goal: The goal of this program was to teach staff the skills necessary to encourage an optimum learning environment for disabled students.

Enrolling and Supporting Organizations Who Encourage Donation of Organs, Marrow, Tissue, or Blood (Buncombe County, NC)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Civic Engagement

Goal: In May, 2002, the Buncombe County Medical Society committed to enrolling 100 organizations into the Workplace Partnership initiative. BCMS declared itself "community headquarters" for recruiting Buncombe County businesses and organizations in the Workplace Partnership for Life program, and implemented a plan to support these organizations in their efforts to urge donation.

Families Facing the Future (Seattle, WA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program is to prevent parents who are addicted to drugs from relapsing, and to prevent substance abuse among their children.

Impact: Although studies evaluating the effectiveness of this program on the behaviors of drug-using parents and their children showed some positive findings, the overall evidence suggested no effects.

Flex Your Power Case Study: City of Azusa (Azusa, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: The goal of this program was to conserve energy in Azusa, California.

Florida's Marriage and Family Support Initiatives (Florida)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Families

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide comprehensive statewide strategies for Florida to promote violence-free, substance-abuse-free, respectful, nurturing families based on the foundation of a healthy marriage relationship between parents.

Focus on Diabetes (Denver, CO)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Diabetes, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Focus on Diabetes was to improve the health and health-related quality of life of African Americans with diabetes through community-based self-care education and events.

Healthy Hoops (USA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: Healthy Hoops uses a holistic approach to not only enhance disease management and health outcomes, but also improve quality of life, helping children live healthy and happier lives.

Healthy Neighborhoods Program (Niagara County, NY)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The goal of this program is improve the health and safety of the residents of Niagara County.

Heart Buddies (Scranton, PA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of this program is to educate Senior Companions and senior women in general about cardiovascular disease.

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.
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