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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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Healthy Families New York (New York)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Children, Families

Goal: The goals of HFNY are to promote positive parent-child interaction; to ensure optimal pre-natal care; to promote healthy childhood growth and development; and to enhance family functioning.

Impact: Mothers participating in the HFNY study were significantly less likely to deliver low-birth-weight babies than mothers in the control group (3.3% vs 8.3%). HFNY parents also reported having engaged in significantly fewer acts of serious abuse and neglect.

Healthy Futures (Northwestern Lower Michigan)

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

Goal: The overall goal of Healthy Futures is to improve community health by ensuring access to health care and community resources for pregnant women and young children in the region.

Impact: In 2012, over 3,500 contacts, 970 home visits, and 30,000 educational mailings were delivered. Of those who initiated breastfeeding at birth, 67% of enrolled infants are still breastfeeding at eight weeks post-partum. Eighty-three percent of enrolled two-year-old children are fully immunized.

Hep Free Hawai'i (Hawai'i)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of Hep Free Hawai'i is to offer hepatitis vaccinations, encourage Hawaiians to learn of their hepatitis status through testing, and connect individuals with hepatitis or liver disease to medical resources and support groups.

HIV Wisdom for Older Women (Kansas City, KS)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Women, Older Adults

Goal: HIV Wisdom for Older Women is dedicated to the prevention of HIV in older women and to life enrichment for those who are infected.

HOMEBUILDERS

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Families

Goal: The goal of this program is to prevent the unnecessary out-of-home placement of children through intensive, on-site intervention, and to teach families new problem-solving skills to prevent future crises.

Homecoming Services Program (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: The program’s mission is to serve San Francisco’s isolated seniors 60 and older in making the transition from hospital to home.

Homeless Families Program (Los Angeles, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Urban

Goal: The mission of Beyond Shelter is to develop systemic approaches to combat poverty and homelessness among families with children and enhance family economic security and well-being.

Hope Street Family Center- School Readiness Program (Los Angeles)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The program’s overall goal is to prepare children and their families for successful entrance into kindergarten through full-day, center-based early childhood education and family support services.

Housing as Health Care - New York’s Boundary-Crossing Experiment (New York)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes

Goal: The goal of this experiment is to estimate the effects of New York’s plan for supportive housing for high-need, high-cost Medicaid recipients.

Impact: Placing people who are homeless in supportive affordable housing paired with supportive services such as on-site case management and referrals to community-based services can lead to improved health, reduced hospital use, and decreased health care costs.

How to Cope (Kansas City, MO)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Adults, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of How to Cope is to help adults impacted by a loved one's substance abuse create a balanced and healthy life, even if their loved one continues to abuse substances.

Impact: Over 100 adults impacted by a loved one's addiction to alcohol or drugs participated in How to Cope in 2013, with 87% showing increased knowledge of the harmful effects and other drugs and 100% completing an action plan.

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.