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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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Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Adults, Families

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide parents with the necessary skills to improve their parent/child communication and overall family functioning.

Impact: STEP has been implemented in more than 1,000 schools, agencies, churches, and mental health treatment facilities since 1976, reaching more than 4 million parents. Outside the US, STEP has been implemented in Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Romania, and South Korea.

Teaching Students to Be Peacemakers

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Civic Engagement, Children, Teens

Goal: The intent of this program is to provide each student with at least 12 years of training in how to manage conflicts constructively and thereby significantly change the way they manage their conflicts for the rest of their lives.

Teams-Games-Tournaments Alcohol Prevention (Georgia)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to educate students about alcohol and to prevent alcohol abuse.

Impact: Evaluations showed significant gains in alcohol-related knowledge, significantly better attitudes toward drinking and driving, and reductions in alcohol consumption.

Teen Advocates for a Healthy KCK (Kansas City, KS)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Young Women on the Move is to help girls gain the knowledge, skills and personal power to become change agents in their lives and their communities. The mission of Teen Advocates for a Healthy KCK is to empower underserved, at-risk adolescent girls to live healthy lives filled with positive options with the vision that girls, when healthy in mind, body and spirit, will be strong leaders and advocates for thriving, healthy families and communities.

Impact: Teen Advocates for a Healthy KCK helped girls discover their personal power and develop skills and behaviors that led to healthier lifestyle choices.

Teen Health Project (cities in Wisconsin, Virginia, and Washington)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Teen Health Project is to provide adolescents with the skills necessary to prevent HIV risk behaviors.

Impact: The Teen Health Project shows that community-level interventions that include skills training and engage adolescents in neighborhood-based HIV prevention activities can produce and maintain reductions in sexual risk behavior, including delaying sexual debut and increasing condom use.

Teen Outreach Program (TOP)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens

Goal: The program aims to develop healthy behaviors, life skills, and a sense of purpose in order to prevent problem behaviors.

Impact: Studies have shown that adolescents in the Teen Outreach Program are at 52% lower risk of school suspension, 60% lower risk of course failure, and 53% lower risk of teenage pregnancy.

TeenRehabCenter.org

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Adults, Families

Goal: The goal of TeenRehabCenter.org is to give parents the tools they need to be able to talk to their children and teens about drugs and alcohol. By providing these resources, it hopes to prevent more teens and young adults from substance abuse. It also aims to help those who are already struggling by furnishing recovery information that is tailored both for parents and for teens.

Impact: Time spent in treatment is forward progress, since the individual is removed from substance use and negative peer and environmental influences. At least half of teens who graduate from rehab will enjoy an extended period of sobriety. How they follow-up after rehab is over can play a massive role in how strong and stable these healthy habits become.

The Diabetes Self-Management Program (USA)

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

Goal: The Diabetes Self-Management Program is a group workshop that educates individuals with diabetes on techniques to help them manage their disease and live more active lives.

The Green Suppliers Network (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Air

Goal: The goal of this program is to help suppliers continuously learn ways to save money, optimize resource use, and eliminate waste through on-site technical reviews.

The HEALTHY Study (USA)

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

Goal: The primary goal of the intervention was to reduce overweight and obesity prevalence among middle school students. Ancillary goals were to improve BMI and fasting insulin values, increase water consumption, reduce consumption of beverages with added sugar, increase healthy food choices, improve self-monitoring, and increase exercise time among sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students.

Impact: School-based programs that aim to address childhood obesity and adiposity may reduce individuals' risk of developing childhood-onset of non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus.

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.