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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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SMART Leaders (USA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Teens, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program is to help youths identify and resist peer and other social pressures to smoke, drink, and engage in sexual activity.

Spit Tobacco Intervention for High School Athletes (California)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Teens, Rural

Goal: The goal of this program is to prevent young athletes from using spit tobacco.

Steps to a Healthier Salinas (Salinas)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Diabetes, Children, Adults, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The Steps to a Healthier Salinas program aims to improve the health and quality of life for individuals at risk or diagnosed with diabetes, asthma, and obesity and other chronic diseases by addressing three primary risk factors - physical inactivity, poor nutrition, and tobacco use.

Stopping Teenage Addiction to Tobacco (Illinois)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Governance, Teens

Goal: The aim of the program is to persuade merchants to obey the law by refusing to sell tobacco to minors.

Student Outreach for College Enrollment (Los Angeles)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Educational Attainment, Teens, Urban

Goal: SOURCE aims to help students from low-income families in the Los Angeles Unified School District to select and apply for college and financial aid.

Supporting At-Risk Youth with Summer High School Preparatory Programs (Cherokee-Graham-Swain Counties, NC)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal is to help prepare at-risk youth to develop their academic skills and self-confidence for as they transition from middle school to high school.

Teen Videofest (Tarrant County, TX)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens

Goal: The goal of this project is to give teenagers a meaningful and valuable way to help other teens improve their health and well-being through the positive messages they incorporate in their videos.

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 Continuum of Program-Enriched Services (Denver, CO)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes

Goal: The goal of this program is to promote economic survival and stability for vulnerable populations.

The F.U.N. Initiative (Garfield, NJ)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Education / School Environment

Goal: The overall mission of this initiative is to develop an active, healthy community. Goals of this initiative include increasing the number of children walking or biking to school, and developing opportunities for Garfield's children and families to be more physically active and eat more healthily.

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.