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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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Building Tulsa, Building Lives (Tulsa, Oklahoma)

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

Goal: Building Tulsa, Building Lives aims to end chronic homelessness in the city of Tulsa within five years (2007-2012) by creating sustainable, supportive housing through a public-private partnership of government agencies, philanthropic organizations, faith-based organizations and local communities.

Buy Local Berkeley (Berkeley)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Economic Climate, Adults, Families

Goal: The goal of Buy Local Berkeley is to inspire community members to shift their spending to Berkeley owned and operated businesses.

Buying Nutritional Food on a Limited Budget (Wisconsin)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Teens, Older Adults, Families

Goal: This program seeks to encourage low-income elderly, families, and youth to learn about nutrition through research-based education programs. It offers advice on how to eat healthy foods on a limited budget.

By My Side Birth Support Program (New York City, New York)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The mission of the By My Side Birth Support Program is to provide birth support and encourage breastfeeding among low-income and immigrant mothers living in Brooklyn through the use of doula services.

Impact: By March 2012, the By My Side Birth Support Program successfully trained more than 30 women in the community. These doulas, along with those already working for By My Side, participated in more than 100 births.

Cambridge-Somerville Healthy Homes Project (Cambridge and Somerville, MA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Respiratory Diseases, Children, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Cambridge-Somerville Healthy Homes Project is to lower the frequency of asthma attacks in children and help families make their homes safer.

CAMINOS (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Educational Attainment, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of CAMINOS is to help low-income, Latina immigrants create opportunities for self and economic improvement by teaching them how to use technology.

Camp Erin (Stanwood/Snohomish County/Washington)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Teens, Families, Rural

Goal: Camp Erin's goal is to help children through the grieving process by offering grief education and emotional support in a weekend-long camp.

Campaign for Working Families (Philadelphia, PA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Investment & Personal Finance

Goal: The goal of this campaign is to help families close the gap between their income and their expenses, and develop financial assets by connecting them to advice about non-predatory, quality financial services, savings options, wealth building resources, credit building, and public benefits.

Cany Valley Agape Network Family for Rural Healthy Food Access

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Nutrition & Healthy Eating, Rural

Goal: CVAN is the Kansas conduit for tons of healthy produce from the Catholic Charities Mary Martha Organization--the steward of excess highly perishable high quality foods from a huge Walmart Distribution Center in Oklahoma. As food supplies allow, CVAN distributes to the 100 square mile school district and to share with a networked family of pantries and volunteer organizations in five Kansas counties and South Coffeyville, OK. As needed, CVAN has recruited distribution volunteers in covering communities within this economically depressed region. The network family was built upon the CVAN’s supply of fresh produce, but is now blessing this area with distribution of CARES foods during the COVID crisis. Its volunteers are food warriors--winning in the fight against rural hunger.

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.