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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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The Character Effect: A Universal Social-Emotional Learning Program for Elementary School Students (Greater Cincinnati Area (SW OH, Northern KY))

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education, Children, Urban

Goal: The goal of The Character Effect is to foster the development of students’ social-emotional skills, improving their behavior and readiness to learn in the classroom.

The Eyes Have It (New Orleans and Baton Rouge)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children

Goal: The goal of The Eyes Have It is to provide free vision screening, examinations and free or discounted eyeglasses to children in Baton Rouge and New Orleans schools.

Together Learning Choices (TLC) (Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Miami)

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

Goal: The goal of Together Learning Choices was to help HIV-infected youth increase their use of health care, decrease drug and alcohol use and risky sexual behaviors, and improve their quality of life.

Impact: Together Learning Choices (TLC) showed that prevention programs can effectively reduce risk acts among HIV-infected youths.

Volunteer Friends (Pasadena, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Older Adults

Goal: The Beverly Foundation's mission is to foster new ideas and options to enhance mobility and transportation for today's and tomorrow's older population.

Young at Heart Project (California)

Filed under Good Idea, Art & Recreation / Music, Older Adults

Goal: The Young at Heart Project aims to provide the therapeutic benefits of music and entertainment for senior citizens in convalescent and residential care facilities throughout Central and Northern California.

Active Design Guidelines (New York City, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Active Design Guidelines is to provide architects and urban designers with tools to create healthier buildings, urban spaces, and outdoor places based on current academic research and best practices.

Aid Success Project (California and Ohio)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Educational Attainment

Goal: The goal of the Aid Success Project is to improve the information that students receive about financial aid in the hopes of improving their academic success.

Asthma Care Training (ACT) for Kids (Bronx, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families

Goal: Effective asthma control can improve quality of life, reduce medical costs, and reduce the number of asthma-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations, school and work days missed, days of restricted activity, and deaths each year.

Bard Prison Initiative (New York)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the Bard Prison Initiative is to prevent reincarceration by providing higher-education to prison populations.

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.