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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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Washington DC One-Stop (Washington, DC)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment

Goal: The goal of this program is to help move people from public assistance to employment.

Water Jets in School Cafeterias (New York)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the program is to improve access to fresh drinking water as a calorie-free beverage option in select NYC school cafeterias at lunchtime.

Window Guard Law/ Window Falls Prevention Program (New York City)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Governance, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal is to reduce the frequency of accidental falls from apartment buildings.

Youth United Through Health Education (YUTHE) Program (San Francisco)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the program is to increase awareness of screening for sexually transmitted infections in African-American adolescents.

Nurses for Newborns (Missouri and Tennessee)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Families

Goal: Nurses for Newborns aims to provide a safety net for families at-risk and in-need of extra assistance, with programs serving teen moms, mothers with disabilities, infants that are sick, and other families in-need to prevent infant mortality, child abuse, and neglect.

Eat Well and Keep Moving (Baltimore)

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

Goal: The goals of the Eat Well and Keep Moving program are to improve eating habits, increase physical activity, and reduce television viewing among upper elementary school students.

Flex Your Power Case Study: Vallejo Sanitation and Flood Control District (Vallejo, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: Vallejo Sanitation's goals in 2001 were to seek the most cost effective treatment of wastewater and to find financial rebates/grants where possible to implement cost saving measures. In order to qualify for generator replacement rebates, the agency needed to design and complete the project in a short time.

Good NEWS for Better Living through Improved Fitness and Education (Good NEWS for a Better L.I.F.E.) (Azle, TX)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of Good NEWS for a Better L.I.F.E. is to improve the health of senior citizens through participation in educational and physical activities.

New Beginnings (Intervention for Children of Divorce) (Arizona)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Women

Goal: New Beginnings promotes resilience in children after parental divorce by providing mothers and their children with group and individual-based sessions.

Impact: The New Beginnings program improves post-divorce adjustment outcomes such as interparental conflict, mother-child relationships, and coping strategies by targeting predictive behaviors.

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.