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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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The Fall-Asleep Pacifier (Finland)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Oral Health, Children, Rural

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the dental cavity rate among children.

AIDS Prevention and Health Promotion among Women (Akron, OH)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Women, Urban

Goal: The goal of the AIDS Prevention and Health Promotion among Women program was to reduce risk of HIV infection among women pregnant for less than six months.

Communities and Schools for Career Success (CS2) (Petaluma, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children

Goal: The Communities and Schools for Career Success (CS2) partnership's goal is to increase academic achievement, civic engagement, and career awareness by reshaping the relationships between schools and the community.

Montana Diabetes Prevention and Control Program (DPCP) (Montana)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Diabetes, Children, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of this project is to monitor trends in diabetes among Montana's American Indian youth, to evaluate the effectiveness of their diabetes prevention activities, and to identify opportunities to improve care for their patients with diabetes.

National Partnership for Environmental Priorities (NPEP) (USA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The goal of the program is to encourage, through recognition, networking, and case example distribution, the minimization of hazardous and industrial wastes, particularly those waste streams containing one or more of the 31 priority chemicals. Under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), EPA has established a goal of reducing the amount of Priority Chemicals reported to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) by ten percent by 2008, using the year 2001 as a baseline.

PACE MySteps: A Web-based Behavior Change Program for Adolescent Weight Loss

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Teens

Goal: To facilitate behavior change among adolescents such that the adoption of healthy lifestyle behaviors yields weight loss and sustained weight control.

PAVEd for Success

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Rural

Goal: The goal of the PAVEd for Success program is to improve the literacy outcomes of children.

Planning and Facilitating Life Skills Classes for Welfare Recipients (Kentucky)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Poverty

Goal: The goal is to provide welfare recipients with life skills courses to aid them in their path towards self-sufficiency. Life skills are topics that are often not covered in academic or technical training courses but can be just as important for ensuring a successful and stable lifestyle.

Present and Prevent (Florida)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Teens

Goal: The purpose of Present and Prevent is to educate teens about the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle in order to prevent obesity.

Reducing the Risk- Rural schools (Arkansas)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens

Goal: The goal of the program was to reduce the risk for pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease by one or more of the following behaviors: a delay in initiating sexual intercourse; a reduction in the number of sexual partners and acts of intercourse; or an increase in contraception use.

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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