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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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PACE+: Counseling Adolescents for Exercise and Nutrition (California)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Teens, Families

Goal: The goal of PACE+ for adolescents is to: decrease total dietary fat consumption; increase fruits & vegetable consumption; increase participation in moderate and vigorous physical activity; decrease sedentary habits among adolescents aged 11-15.

Physical Activity and Teenage Health (PATH) Program (New York, NY)

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

Goal: The goal of the PATH Program is to improve knowledge of cardiovascular health and reduce risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease.

Providers And Teens Communicating for Health (PATCH) Program

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

Goal: PATCH envisions a supportive environment in which all adolescents are able to reach optimal health, safety, and economic security.

MISSION: To improve adolescent health and well being by engaging, educating, and empowering youth and adults as trusted partners in care.

Impact: Health care providers and teens who participate in the PATCH program show significant improvements in knowledge, self-efficacy, and behavioral intentions to seek and provide quality sexual health care.

Rural medical-legal partnership and advocacy: a three-year follow-up study. (southern Illinois)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Economy, Rural

Goal: Medical-legal partnerships perform advocacy services for vulnerable and under-served populations. These populations are typically burdened disproportionately by legal and medical problems. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness and sustainability of a rural medical-legal partnership (MLP).

Impact: The rural medical-legal partnership continued to show social and financial impacts, such as health care recovery dollars (319% return on investment between 2007 and 2009), Social Security benefits, family law services, and end-of-life guidance.

The City as a Park - Climate change reduction and city beautification in Denver (City of Denver)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Air

Goal: To slow climate change by reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere while also establishing a network of public spaces where residents can walk to enjoy a vibrant urban landscape and healthy ecosystem.

Villa-Parke Community Garden (Pasadena, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Community & Business Resources, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The mission of the Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy is to improve family health in urban food desert neighborhoods through grants for community gardens and nutrition education.

Impact: Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy partnered with the City of Pasadena to establish the Villa-Parke Community Center, where community members can learn about gardening, cooking, nutrition.

Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach (A-CRA) and Assertive Continuing Care (ACC) (Illinois)

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

Goal: The goal of the Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach is to help adolescents recover from alcohol and drug addiction.

Impact: Results from studies on this treatment program demonstrate that there can be superior engagement, retention, and short-term substance use outcomes for those in the A-CRA and ACC approaches compared to UCC. The ACC protocol can also result in significantly more patients linking to continuing care.

Common Sense Parenting (CSP) (USA)

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

Goal: The goal of Common Sense Parenting is to develop or enhance parenting skills.

Impact: Results from the Common Sense Parenting program indicated improvement in child behavior, parent attitudes, family satisfaction and parent problem-solving ability.

Healthy Families: Palm Beach (Palm Beach County)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of Healthy Families Palm Beach is to prevent child abuse and neglect.

Impact: The Healthy Families program improves birth outcomes, nurtures child development, prevents child abuse and neglect, improves family functioning, and help parents develop more positive beliefs in their parental roles.

Parent Connext: Parent Coaching in Pediatric Practices (Cincinnati)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Urban

Goal: The goal of Parent Connext is to support parents in reducing and/or preventing toxic stress in the family and help children develop critical life skills and coping skills. Recent studies have found that up to 50% of health outcomes are attributable to social and economic factors and that lifetime costs associated with child maltreatment are comparable to other costly healthcare conditions such as stroke or type 2 diabetes. Moreover, 4 in 5 physicians report lacking confidence in their ability to meet patients’ social needs, which can impede their ability to provide high quality medical care. As a result, interventions that target parents’ social needs may have important implications for reducing healthcare costs and have the added benefit of enabling physicians to provide high-quality care to their patients.

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.