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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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Long-term Cost Effectiveness of Placing Homeless Seniors in Permanent Supportive Housing (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Women, Men, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: To describe a new model of enriched supportive housing that not only improves the quality of life of seniors but also can provide a return on investment that reduces health care expenditures.

Impact: Housing chronically homeless adults reduces homelessness, improves health outcomes, and reduces health care costs. The greatest reduction in health care costs after placement in supportive housing is seen among chronically homeless adults and seniors.

Lowfat Lucy (New York, NY)

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

Goal: The goal of the Lowfat Lucy program is to encourage children to drink low-fat white milk.

LPN Education Partnership (Juab County, Utah)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Educational Attainment, Adults, Rural

Goal: The goal of this program is to expand educational opportunities in the community while addressing the issue of a continuing nursing shortage at Central Valley Medical Center.

LUNGevity Foundation (Chicago, IL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Cancer, Urban

Goal: The goal of the LUNGevity Foundation is to increase funding for lung cancer research.

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.

McNeil Island Corrections Center Family and Fatherhood Program (Tacoma, WA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment

Goal: The goal of this program is to promote positive family relationships, help incarcerated fathers learn skills to be active and involved fathers, encourage incarcerated fathers to
provide financial support for their children, facilitate programs for offender families through community partnerships, and provide constructive opportunities for children to participate in special activities with their incarcerated father.

Medical-Legal Partnership (Kansas City Metropolitan Area)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Prevention & Safety, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the medical-legal partnership is to improve health outcomes through quality legal services.

Impact: The Medical-Legal Partnership provides legal assistance to patients on issues that directly or indirectly affect health.

Medical-Legal Partnerships: Investing in Social Services as a Core Strategy for Healthcare (New York City)

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

Goal: New York City LegalHealth is a fruitful partnership that operates in 11 clinics of the city's public hospitals. One example is by supporting individuals in tenant-landlord disputes.

Impact: With an average of $225 per case, LegalHealth was able to effectively demand fixes in asthma patients' living conditions. This impact directly resulted in a 90% drop in emergency room visits and hospital admissions for this asthma patient group.

Memphis Central Station (Memphis, TN)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Urban

Goal: The goal of this project was to support community revitalization, retain the integrity of an historic district, and provide transportation links to private land development projects.

Men Unlearning Violence (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Domestic Violence & Abuse, Men, Urban

Goal: Men Unlearning Violence helps men transform their relationships with people and with themselves by learning to respond instead of react, and replacing control with intimacy.

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.