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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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Project CRAFT

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Educational Attainment, Teens

Goal: Project CRAFT is designed to improve educational levels, teach vocational skills and reduce recidivism among adjudicated youth, while addressing the home building industry's need for entry level workers.

Project Health Education Awareness Research Team (HEART) (El Paso, TX)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults, Women, Men, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The objective of Project HEART (Health Education Awareness Research Team) was to promote behavior changes to decrease cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in a high-risk Hispanic border population.

Project Homeless Connect (San Francisco)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Urban

Goal: The mission of Project Homeless Connect (PHC) is to connect homeless San Franciscans with the care they need to move forward. The goals of Project Homeless Connect are to:

- Improve access to services for homeless San Franciscans.
- Improve the system of care through collaboration and the sharing of best practices among San Francisco’s homeless service provider community.
- Engage and increase the involvement of the business, nonprofit community, and individual volunteers to work together to provide access to services for homeless San Franciscans.
- To leverage the private sector, corporations, and foundations to expand service capacity and funds.

Project Live Active in Yancey (PLAY) (Yancey)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Adults, Families

Goal: The mission of Project Live Active in Yancey is to enhance the built environment in the community in order to prevent obesity and encourage community members to be physically active.

Project SWAT (Share the Work to Alleviate the Threat) (Erie County, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The goal of Project SWAT is to reduce the population of mosquitoes potentially carrying West Nile Virus by applying larvicide to common breeding habitats.

Provider Intervention to Improve Colorectal Cancer Screening (Suffolk County, NY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of this provider intervention is to increase provider recommendation and patient adherence to colorectal cancer screening in publicly-funded health centers.

Put It Out Rockland (Rockland County, NY)

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

Goal: The goal of "Put It Out Rockland" and the entire tobacco control program has been to promote quitting among youth and adults and to reduce the adult smoking rate to 12 percent by 2010.

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

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

Goal: The mission of Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is to create a nationwide network of trails from former rail lines and connecting corridors to build healthier places for healthier people.

Impact: Rails-to-Trails Conservancy encourages people of all ages and abilities to get outside and be active on a rail-trail. The organization serves 150,000 members and supporters on over 20,000 miles of rail-trail.

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.

REACH for Wellness (Fulton County, GA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve cardiovascular health among residents of the Atlanta Empowerment Zone (AEZ).

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.