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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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Queens Botanical Garden (Flushing, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Urban

Goal: The Queens Botanical Garden, a living museum serving the most ethnically diverse county in the United States, is committed to presenting collections, education and research initiatives and programs that demonstrate environmental stewardship, promote sustainability and celebrate the rich cultural connections between people and plants.

Raising A Reader (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: Raising A Reader's mission is to foster healthy brain development, encourage parent and child bonding through reading together and facilitate future school success by increasing reading skills.

Ramp Metering Strategies in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul region of Minnesota)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Urban

Goal: The goal was to evaluate the regionwide impacts of turning off the ramp meters for a six-week period.

Re/Storing Nashville (Davidson)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: Re/Storing Nashville seeks to end hunger through creating a healthy, just and sustainable food system.

Reach Out and Read: Palm Beach (Palm Beach)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Literacy, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The mission of Reach Out and Read is to help prepare young children to succeed in school, by partnering with physicians to encourage parents and children to read aloud together.

Reading Recovery

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Literacy, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to help children who are having difficulty learning to read and write.

Reciprocal Teaching

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve students' ability to read, understand, and analyze text.

Reconnecting Youth (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Teens

Goal: The Reconnecting Youth program has three main goals: 1) increase school performance; 2) decrease drug involvement; and 3) decrease suicide-risk behaviors.

Impact: Significant increases in positive connections with teachers, friends, and family members; significant improvements in GPA; lasting reductions in hard drug use; decreases in anger-control problems; reductions in depression and hopelessness; and increases in enhancing personal control were observed.

Red Hook Farmers' Market (New York, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Women, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Red Hook Farmers’ Market is to ensure that neighborhood residents can access locally grown, healthy, safe, and affordable food.

Repeat Offender Prevention Program (Orange County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of the program is to prevent young offenders from becoming chronic delinquents.

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.