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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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Petitioning EPA to Add New Chemicals to the Toxics Release Inventory (Oakland, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Coalition was to encourage the EPA to add dioxins as reportable chemicals unter the Toxics Release Inventory

Pets for Life (Kansas City Metropolitan Area)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: The purpose of Pets for Life, Inc. is to enhance the care and treatment of people in local hospitals, nursing homes, domestic violence shelters, mental health programs, youth treatment centers, corrections facilities, and hospices through the use of certified therapy teams of pets and volunteers.

Impact: The benefits of pet/volunteer visits to people in the community include increased emotional/sociological well being of these individuals and positive physiological changes.

PFC Emission Reduction Partnerships (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Air

Goal: EPA's partners have committed to reduce PFC emissions 10 percent below their 1995 baseline by 2010.

Photovoice: A Youth Empowering Program (DeKalb County, GA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens

Goal: The goals of Photovoice are for Clarkston High School students to 1) document community health-related strengths and challenges through participatory research; 2) reflect, think critically, and dialogue about their research; 3) present their findings persuasively to pertinent stakeholders.

Physician-Oriented Intervention on Follow-Up in Colorectal Cancer Screening (Pennsylvania & New Jersey)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults

Goal: The goal of this program is to increase recommendation and performance rates of complete diagnostic evaluation for colorectal cancer in primary care practices.

Picture Me Healthy (Madera County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Rural

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve immunization rates in Madera County.

Pioneer Human Services (Seattle, WA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment

Goal: Pioneer's mission is to improve the lives of people on the margins of society through and integrated array of services including housing, employment/training, treatment, counseling, and corrections.

Pitless or Closed-loop Drilling (Texas)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The goals and benefits of piltess drilling include:

-elimination of unsightly and hazardous pits
-a decrease in the need for cuts in sensitive and hilly areas
-a reduction in total surface disturbance associated with a well pad
-elimination of the risk of waterfowl and wildlife mortality related to pits
-elimination of the risk of damaging underground pipelines and utilities
-virtual elimination of drilling waste
-reduction of water consumption by as much as 80%
-elimination of soil segregation, which reduces wind erosion problems
-reduction of truck traffic associated with transporting drilling wastes by as much as 75%

plaNYC (New York)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability, Urban

Goal: The goal of plaNCY is to ensure a higher quality of life for New Yorkers, and reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions by 30%.

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.

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