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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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Geisinger's Fresh Food Farmacy

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Diabetes, Adults, Families

Goal: The goal of this program is to combat high obesity rates, pre-diabetes, and diabetes by providing fresh, healthy food to those most in need.

Impact: The Fresh Food Farmacy has positively impacted the lives of nearly 600 individuals. Patients are seeing significant HBA1C improvements, are better able to manage their diabetes with fewer complications, and several participants have been able to reduce or even eliminate their diabetes medications.

Get Real About AIDS (Colorado)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Teens

Goal: The goal of the Get Real About AIDS program is to help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, and AIDS among high-school-aged young people.

Get Real About Violence (Evanston, IL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to prevent violence among children and adolescents.

Great Allegheny Passage (Pittsburgh, PA to Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Children, Teens, Adults, Families

Goal: The goal of the Great Allegheny Passage is to provide hikers, bicyclists, cross-country skiers and people with disabilities with a trail through the region.

Grown in Ivanhoe (Kansas City, MO)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: Grown in Ivanhoe strives to achieve a just and equitable food environment in the Ivanhoe community by ensuring that residents have the information and resources needed to provide healthy, affordable foods for themselves and their families.

Impact: Grown in Ivanhoe has increased local food production and established resources for access to healthy foods.

Hair, Heart & Health (Baltimore, MD and Washington, D.C.)

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

Goal: The Hair, Heart & Health program embraces the notion that health education at the community level is an effective intervention strategy for preventable diseases like CHD, stroke and kidney disease.

Harris County Pollution Control Ozone Monitoring (Harris County, TX)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Air

Goal: The goal of this program is to increase the amount of reliable air quality data that is available to the public in Harris County.

Health Education to Reduce Obesity (HERO) (Jacksonville, FL)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: To combat childhood obesity through mobile health education, community partnership, and access to existing federal, state, and local health and nutrition programs.

Healthy Generations Program (Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Children, Teens, Families

Goal: The program aims to provide comprehensive, family-centered health care for adolescent parents and their children.

High Production Volume (HPV) Challenge Program (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The HPV Challenge Program aims to ensure that a baseline set of health and environmental effects data on approximately 2800 high production volume chemicals is made available to EPA and the public.

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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