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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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Flex Your Power Case Study: Natural Resources Defense Council (Santa Monica, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: The goal of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Robert Redford Building is to provide an example of sustainable and efficient design.

Flex Your Power Case Study: Swinerton, Inc. (San Francisco)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability, Urban

Goal: The goal of this project was to improve energy efficiency, reduce costs, and provide a better work atmosphere for employees.

Free Nicotine Patch Program (New York, NY)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Urban

Goal: The program was designed to direct-mail a free, six-week course of nicotine treatment to eligible callers, thereby increasing access and reducing cost to people who wanted to stop smoking and improve their health.

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Note: This practice has been Archived.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.

Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (USA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: Specific goals of this program include:
- Virtually eliminating mercury-containing waste from health care facilities' waste streams by 2005
- Reducing the overall volume of waste (both regulated and non-regulated waste) by 33 percent by 2005 and by 50 percent by 2010
- Identifying hazardous substances for pollution prevention and waste reduction opportunities, including hazardous chemicals and persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic pollutants

Improved Childhood Blood Lead Screening in Rhode Island (Rhode Island)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The main objective of this program is to enhance blood lead screening rates of children who are enrolled in all major managed care plans in Rhode Island.

Latino Education and Prevention Initiative (Clark County, NV)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of this program is to increase awareness about the hazards of secondhand smoke within the adult Hispanic/Latino community using a culturally and linguistically appropriate intervention.

National Partnership for Environmental Priorities (NPEP) (USA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The goal of the program is to encourage, through recognition, networking, and case example distribution, the minimization of hazardous and industrial wastes, particularly those waste streams containing one or more of the 31 priority chemicals. Under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), EPA has established a goal of reducing the amount of Priority Chemicals reported to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) by ten percent by 2008, using the year 2001 as a baseline.

Philadelphia Allies Against Asthma (Philadelphia, PA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of the Philadelphia Allies Against Asthma is to improve asthma care for those at greatest risk through education, outreach, and advocacy.

Setting up a Building Components Exchange in Basel (Switzerland)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Urban

Goal: The program aims to both reduce waste disposal of usable building materials and create long-term jobs by dismantling, transporting, cleaning, presenting and selling the components.

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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