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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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Individuals and Communities Acting Now to (I CAN) Prevent Diabetes (Minnesota)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Diabetes, Adults

Goal: To provide the tools to prevent or delay adult type 2 diabetes.

Isles, Inc (Trenton, NJ)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Children, Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: Isles' mission is to foster more self-reliant families in healthy, sustainable communities.

Just Food (New York, NY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Urban

Goal: The goal of Just Food is to build a more just food system in which family farmers make a fair profit for their efforts, and all people have access to affordable, healthy food. Just Food envisions a strong regional food system -- incorporating a diversity of rural farms and a robust urban farming component -- that preserves ecosystems, reduces pollution, promotes social justice, provides education about the environment, and invigorates rural and urban economies.

Juvenile Intervention and Prevention Program (JIPP) (Los Angeles, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Teens, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Juvenile Intervention and Prevention Program is to help at-risk youth who reside in gang-ridden neighborhoods experience success in school, at home, and in the community.

Keep America Beautiful (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health, Children, Teens, Adults

Goal: The goal of Keep America Beautiful is to coordinate and empower local communities to prevent litter, reduce waste, and beautify communities.

Libraries and Autism: We're Connected

Filed under Good Idea, Art & Recreation / Libraries & Museums, Families

Goal: This program aims to educate library staff and train workers how to best serve library patrons with autism and their families.

Live Healthy Iowa (Iowa)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Adults

Goal: The goal of Live Healthy Iowa is to encourage physical activity and weight loss through team-based competition.

Local Shuttles Connecting Neighborhoods - Boulder, Colorado, Community Transit System (Boulder, CO)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation

Goal: GO Boulder's mission is to develop a sustainable and balanced transportation system supporting the quality of life valued by Boulder's residents, employees, and visitors.

McIntosh Middle School's Coordinated School Health Program (Sarasota, FL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens

Goal: The goal of the CSHP is to improve learning, performance, and health for students and teachers.

Medical Legal Partnerships: Embedding Civil Legal Aid Services in Care for High-Utilizing Patients (Lancaster, PA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Governance, Children, Teens, Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the pilot was to assess the impact on health care use of addressing patients’ civil legal problems – the social, financial, or environmental problems that require assistance from lawyers to remedy. The lawyer was embedded in the health care team and present during case management discussions to identify specific civil legal problems and to help the team better understand how to address them. Additionally, this partnership provided civil legal aid services to patients when needed in a community health care system.

Impact: This pilot shows a medical-legal partnership for the super-utilizers of healthcare can lead to efficiencies within the health care system, reduce costs, and improve health outcomes among the most vulnerable patients.

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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