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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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Backyard Gardens (West Oakland, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The Backyard Garden Program builds food self-sufficiency by empowering low-income households to grow fresh produce where they live.

Bard Prison Initiative (New York)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the Bard Prison Initiative is to prevent reincarceration by providing higher-education to prison populations.

Brainfood (Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Teens, Urban

Goal: The goal of Brainfood is to engage young people in healthy, creative cooking activities to build life skills and promote healthy living.

Bridging the Gap (Seattle)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Urban

Goal: The nine-year goals of Bridging the Gap are to:
* Reduce the infrastructure maintenance backlog.
* Pave and repair Seattle streets.
* Make seismic upgrades to the most vulnerable bridges.
* Improve pedestrian and bicycle safety and create safe routes to schools.
* Increase transit speed and reliability.

Cambridge-Somerville Healthy Homes Project (Cambridge and Somerville, MA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Respiratory Diseases, Children, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Cambridge-Somerville Healthy Homes Project is to lower the frequency of asthma attacks in children and help families make their homes safer.

Campaign for Working Families (Philadelphia, PA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Investment & Personal Finance

Goal: The goal of this campaign is to help families close the gap between their income and their expenses, and develop financial assets by connecting them to advice about non-predatory, quality financial services, savings options, wealth building resources, credit building, and public benefits.

Car Seat Program (Washington County, NY)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to increase the proper usage of child safety seats in Washington County, NY.

Center in the Square (Roanoke, VA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Art & Recreation / Libraries & Museums

Goal: The goal of this project was to create a regional cultural center that would provide rent-free housing, security, building maintenance, and housekeeping for several struggling museums and live theater.

Cervical Cancer Screening and Follow-up (Brevard County, FL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Women's Health, Women

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide timely, effective, clinically appropriate intervention for abnormal Pap tests at no or very-low cost in order to reduce cervical cancer mortality.

Challenging College Alcohol Abuse (Tucson, AZ)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the negative impact of alcohol abuse on campus life by correcting students' perceptions about alcohol use and by making the campus less conducive to drinking.

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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