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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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Teach Baltimore (Baltimore, MD)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: Teach Baltimore sought to prevent summer learning loss and promote academic achievement among early elementary school students.

Teen Pregnancy Project/ Sexual Violence Action Team (Ramsey County, MN)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Family Planning

Goal: The TPP/SVAT was formed to:

- Decrease isolation of persons working on teen pregnancy and sexual violence issues in Ramsey County communities.
- Increase their access to best practice information and culture-specific resources.
- Increase public understanding of teen pregnancy and sexual violence issues and effective prevention.
- Improve public policy related to teen pregnancy and sexual violence issues.

The program's objectives include:

- Developing and continuing to expand a community coalition for members' capacity building and leadership development.
- Increasing use of culture-specific practices.
- Increasing community awareness and understanding of teen pregnancy and sexual violence issues.
- Promoting teen health services.
- Encouraging schools to implement effective comprehensive sexuality education.

TeleKidcare® (Kansas)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children, Families, Rural

Goal: The main goal of this project is to reduce the time that a child spends out of the classroom recuperating from an acute illness. This goal is based on the fact that TeleKidcare® transforms the school health room from a triage center to a site of care. TeleKidcare® also addresses the shared community goal of keeping children healthy and in school learning by providing health care service to children at school.

Texas Emergency Department Asthma Surveillance (Houston and Galveston, TX)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children

Goal: The goal of the TEDAS program is to reduce the number of pediatric asthma-related emergency room visits.

The CrossPoints Project: Using Virtual Reality to Teach Pedestrian Safety to Children (Ontario, Canada)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Children

Goal: The goal of the CrossPoints Project is to use a Virtual Reality software program to teach pedestrian safety to children.

The Fall-Asleep Pacifier (Finland)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Oral Health, Children, Rural

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the dental cavity rate among children.

The Medication Assistance Program (MAP) (Grant County, NM)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The mission of the Health Council is to enhance the quality of life in Grant County, New Mexico, through assessment of needs, planning and prioritizing, and coordinating of efforts to meet those needs.

The Stanford Five-City Project (California)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke

Goal: The goal of this project was to improve cardiovascular health of two California communities.

VERB Summer Scorecard (Kentucky)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: To increase and maintain physical activity among tweens (youth ages 9-13).

VERB: It’s what you do. (USA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The mission of “VERB: It’s what you do” was to increase and maintain physical activity among youth aged 9 to 13 through a national social marketing campaign.

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.