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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 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 QUEST (San Antonio, TX)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education, Adults, Urban

Goal: Project QUEST strengthens the economy and transforms lives by preparing individuals for in-demand, living wage careers.

Project Search (Cincinnati)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Disabilities, Teens, Adults

Goal: Project Search aims to engage an underutilized workforce of individuals with significant disabilities while addressing employer human resource needs that ultimately benefits individuals, organizations, and the community.

Project SEARCH (Cincinnati, OH)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment

Goal: The goal of this program is to increase employment opportunities for qualified persons with disabilities and to advocate on behalf of their employment to other organizations in their communities.

Project SURVIVE (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Domestic Violence & Abuse, Teens, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of Project SURVIVE is to end all forms of power abuse in relationships, social groups, and public institutions.

Promoting Access to Health (PATH) for Women (Los Angeles, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Cancer, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of this program is to extend lifesaving prevention programs and screening services across a variety of cultures by giving communities the materials and plans to implement an effective intervention while allowing them to execute these plans in a manner and at a pace that resonates with their own culture and community.

Promoting Heart Health in Women Municipal Workers (Birmingham, AL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Women's Health, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the Promoting Heart Health in Women Municipal Workers program is to improve women’s knowledge of and perceived susceptibility to heart disease.

Publication: Best Practices for Chiropractic (Lexington, SC)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alternative Medicine

Goal: The publication will address the disparity of best practices information for certain types of spinal and neuromusculoskeletal conditions.

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.

Quality Improvement in the Area of Immunizations (Wichita, KS)

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

Goal: The goal of the project was to increase the number of students current with school-required immunizations through utilization of the state immunization registry and increasing the number of parental consent forms received for immunization in School-Located Vaccine Clinics.

Impact: Of 2,015 children not in compliance with school immunization policies, 1,094 (54%) were brought into compliance through state immunization registry records or immunization in School-Located Vaccine Clinics.

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.