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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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Child-Parent Center (Chicago, IL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Urban

Goal: The goals of this program are to provide a stable learning environment that will promote scholastic development, to enhance parent-child relationships, and to prevent delinquency.

Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program - Community Capacity Project (Milwaukee, WI)

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

Goal: The CCP is a part of a comprehensive childhood lead poisoning program that seeks to eradicate childhood lead poisoning in Milwaukee by the year 2010.

Children's Futures (Trenton)

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

Goal: Children's Futures' mission is to improve child health and developmental outcomes through public-private collaboration.

Children’s Power Play! (California)

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

Goal: The goal of the Children’s Power Play! Campaign is to improve youth physical activity and nutrition.

Chronic Lead Poisoning Team Intervention Program (Milwaukee, WI)

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

Goal: The goals of this program are to identify children at risk for chronic lead poisoning, to decrease blood lead levels in chronically poisoned children, and to help families find stable, lead-free housing.

Chronic Pain Self-Management Program (Canada)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Other Conditions, Adults

Goal: CPSMP seeks to help build self-management skills in individuals who have a primary or secondary diagnosis of chronic pain.

Chronic Truancy Initiative

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the initiative was to address poor attendance and other problems within families of identified chronic elementary school truants who missed 20 percent or more of school days within a 6-week period.

Circles of Hope (St. Louis, MO)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Civic Engagement, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: WomanSpirit aims to foster grassroots women's leadership in the St. Louis area by claiming safe community space for women's mutual support and training, gaining access to government funds for women's economic development, and achieving positions in local, regional and national decision-making bodies.

Class Wide Peer Tutoring Program (Kansas City, KS)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve school performance through reciprocal peer tutoring.

Clean School Bus USA (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Transportation, Children

Goal: The goal of Clean School Bus USA is to reduce both children's exposure to diesel exhaust and the amount of air pollution created by diesel school buses.

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.