Home > Promising Practices

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.

Submit a Promising Practice

Search Filters Clear all
(1022 results)

Save a link to this search

Ranking
Featured
Primary Target Audience
Topics and Subtopics
Geographic Type
Search

Reconciliation Services Depression and Trauma Therapy Services (Kansas City/Jackson/Missouri)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Adults, Women, Men, Urban

Goal: The mission of Reconciliation Services is to cultivate a community seeking reconciliation to transform Troost from a dividing line into a gathering place, revealing the strength of all. Our mental health services are at the heart of how we strive to help clients see their own strength and work towards being reconciled to their own health and well-being.

Impact: Over the past three years, our therapy program participants reported a 71 percent decrease for depression and 79 percent decrease for PTSD.

Strong Seniors (Reno, KS)

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

Goal: The goal of the program is to promote health and prevent injury among seniors through a series of community-based strength training classes.

The INC Well (Kansas City, MO)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The INC Well's goal is to improve upon the built and social environment to establish a health and wellness supportive presence for those who are taking a proactive role in their quality of life.

Impact: The INC Well created a dedicated space where people can utilize health resources and take their wellness into their own hands.

West Nile Virus Surveillance and Control Program (Sedgwick County, KS)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The primary goal of the program is to protect the public from WNV by early detection of WNV and elimination of mosquitoes.

Wheels that Care (Kansas City, MO)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Transportation, Adults, Older Adults

Goal: Shepherd's Center Central is a local leader in the regional effort to ensure that all people can age successfully with dignity, security, and respect.

Impact: The Wheels that Care program helped 77 older adults attend their necessary appointments and maintain their independence through 1,550 hours of travel time to and from participants' homes and their appointments.

Environmental Improvements Brought by the Legal Interventions in the Homes of Poorly Controlled Inner-City Adult Asthmatic Patients (New York City, New York)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Urban

Goal: The goal is to use a medical-legal collaborative intervention to force landlords into maintaining healthy living conditions for residents with poorly controlled asthma.

Impact: This proof-of concept study exhibits that medical-legal collaboration can significantly impact the control of inner-city asthmatics by improving their domestic environment.

Poder Latino: Community AIDS Prevention Program for Inner-City Latino Youth (Boston, MA)

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

Goal: The goal of the Community AIDS Prevention Program is to educate inner city Latino adolescents about how to reduce risk related to HIV/AIDS, and to encourage sexually active teens to use condoms.

Impact: This program shows that prevention programs targeting HIV/AIDS risk-reduction strategies and condom use encouragement can delay male initiation of sexual intercourse, reduce females' number of sexual partners, and increase likelihood of possessing a condom among sexually active youth.

Safe in the City (Denver, Long Beach, and San Francisco)

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

Goal: The goal of this intervention is to prevent new STD infections.

Impact: The Safe in the City program shows that clinic waiting room videos displaying prevention knowledge and techniques can actually help to reduce the number of new infections of certain STDs.

A Living Laboratory: The City of Chattanooga, USA (Chattanooga, TN)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: Chattanooga's vision is to become a city where ecological initiatives generate a strong economic base, nurture social institutions and enhance the natural and made environment.

Flex Your Power Case Study: City of Atascadero (Atascadero, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: The goal of this project was to reduce energy usage in government buildings. Long-term objectives were: Research solar, wind and new roofing project; and consider replacing and upgrading wastewater treatment equipment, which was the city's biggest energy user (representing approximately 47 percent of the annual kilowatt usage.)

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.