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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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Charlotte REACH 2010 (Charlotte, North Carolina)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Diabetes, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: To improve three health behaviors that are risk factors for diabetes and heart disease (fruit & vegetable consumption, physical activity, and cigarette smoking) in an African American community.

Child Pedestrian Injury Prevention Project (Perth, Western Australia)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Children

Goal: The goal of this project was to improve children's road-related behavior and to enhance the safety of their road environment.

Community Partnership for Protecting Children (Jacksonville, FL)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Families

Goal: The goal of this program is to change the child protection field by demonstrating a new approach to safeguarding children and supporting families. Based on the premise that many people, agencies, and organizations in a community can contribute to children's safety, the initiative addresses child abuse and neglect by raising neighborhood awareness of child safety issues, empowering neighborhood residents to become more involved with families at risk of abusing or neglecting their children, strengthening locally based organizations and helping them form networks concerned with child safety, and fostering policy, practice, and organizational changes within public sector child protective services agencies. This approach is known as community child protection.

Condom Promotion (Phoenix, AZ)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Adults, Women, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Condom Promotion program was to increase condom use.

Crime and Safety Team (Los Angeles, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to support the creation and sustainability of safer and healthier communities. The Team aims to achieve this objective by facilitating the transfer of skills, knowledge, and resources to public housing residents, Housing Authority staff, and the greater community.

Don't Gamble on Food Safety (Seattle-King County, WA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Food Safety

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide more dynamic and effective food safety training programs in order to engage food service workers and get them to adopt healthier food handling practices. In turn, this will reduce the number of food borne disease outbreaks and improve public health.

Engaging Parents and Adults in Educational Activities at School (Princeton, NJ; Philadelphia, PA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: By providing programs for students and adults in the areas of literacy, the visual and performing arts, and service learning, NSCC's goals include improving students' performance in school and encouraging parents to become more involved.

Experience Corps (USA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Experience Corps is to improve the cognitive, physical, and psychological function of retired senior citizens while simultaneously employing their free time to help narrow the achievement gap in urban, low-income elementary schools

Good Behavior Game (Baltimore, MD)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / School Environment, Children

Goal: The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is designed to improve aggressive/disruptive classroom behavior and prevent later criminality.

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.