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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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Flex Your Power Case Study: City of Poway (Poway, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: The goal of the City of Poway's projects was to improve energy efficiency and to reduce energy costs.

Flex Your Power Case Study: Glenborough Realty Trust (USA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability, Urban

Goal: The goal of Glenborough's energy management program is to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy costs at Glenborough properties nationwide.

Mailed Brochure for Colorectal Screening (Denver, CO)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults

Goal: The goal of this mailing is to increase colorectal cancer screening completion rates.

Impact: Colonoscopy screening adherence rates in the intervention group of the trial were higher than the rates in the control group.

Project Sixteen (Oregon)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of Project SixTeen is to reduce the use of adolescent tobacco use by utilizing a comprehensive community intervention approach.

Salud, Educacion, Prevencion y Autocuidado (SEPA) (Chicago, IL)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Women's Health, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Salud, Educacion, Prevencion y Autocuidado is to eliminate or reduce sex risk behaviors.

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Note: This practice has been Archived.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 Millennium Project

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Governance

Goal: The Project's central objective is to provide information to decision makers and training materials to add focus to important issues, clarify choices and improve the quality of decisions by making future opportunities and dangers more explicit. The Project is not a one-time study of the future, but provides an on-going capacity for global research and collaboration.

Change of Heart (London, UK)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults

Goal: The goal of the Change of Heart behavioral intervention is to reduce risk factors for coronary heart disease.

Disability Awareness Training (San Diego, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Educational Attainment

Goal: The goal of this program was to teach staff the skills necessary to encourage an optimum learning environment for disabled students.

Flex Your Power Case Study: City of Azusa (Azusa, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: The goal of this program was to conserve energy in Azusa, California.

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.