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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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Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) (USA)

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

Goal: NFTE's mission is to motivate young people from low-income communities to stay in school, learn about entrepreneurship, and plan for successful futures.

Network Therapy (New York, NY)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to effectively treat substance abuse by using the patient's social support network to support abstinence.

Impact: Among Network Therapy clients, 64.5% of all samples submitted were negative for opioids, compared with 45.3% of all samples submitted by medication maintenance clients. Furthermore, 88% of urine samples were negative for cocaine for Network Therapy participants, compared with 66% of urine samples collected from treatment-as-usual clients.

New Beginnings for Children of Divorce (Tempe, AZ)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Families

Goal: A 10-session group program, with two individual sessions, for divorced mothers and their children to promote resilience in children after parental divorce.

Impact: At the fifteen-year followup, NBP reduced the incidence of internalizing disorders for females and males and substance-related disorders and substance use for males.

New Communities Program (Chicago, IL)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the New Communities Program is to strengthen communities from within through planning, organizing, and human development.

New Directions for Youth (Los Angeles, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Public Safety, Teens, Families, Urban

Goal: The mission of New Directions for Youth is to provide comprehensive programs that help at-risk youth become productive, self-sufficient and healthy young adults, and create supportive family environments.

New Mexico School-Based Dental Sealant Program (New Mexico)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Oral Health, Children

Goal: The goal of the New Mexico School-Based Dental Sealant Program is to provide oral health education, dental screenings, and dental sealants.

New Moms Network (Brattleboro, Vermont)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Children, Adults, Women, Rural

Goal: The goal of the New Moms Network is to provide a helpful and supportive environment for new parents.

New York City's Phase Out of Artificial Trans Fat (New York)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Urban

Goal: On December 5, 2006, the NYC Board of Health approved an amendment to the Health Code to phase out artificial trans fat in all NYC restaurants and other food service establishments. It is now in full effect.

Nonpoint Source Pollution Partnership (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The goal of this program is to maintain and restore water quality in the face of threats and impairments caused by nonpoint source pollution.

North Carolina Graduation Project (North Carolina)

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

Goal: The mission is to provide a multi-disciplinary program that prepares students for 21st century careers by giving them community based involvement. The hope of this project is for the students to connect content knowledge, acquired skills, and work habits to real world situations and issues.

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.