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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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Something to Smile About Dental Program (Garrett County, MD)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Oral Health, Children, Women

Goal: The purpose of the "Something to Smile About" dental program is to improve dental outcomes for children in Garrett County, Maryland.

Sources of Strength Suicide Prevention Program

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Teens

Goal: The goal of this intervention was to enhance protective factors associated with reducing suicide among high school students.

Impact: The Sources of Strength program was successful in increasing students likelihood of seeking help from an adult at school, as well as those adults ability to help suicidal students.

Sponsor-A-Mind® (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / School Environment, Children, Teens

Goal: The mission of the Sponsor-A-Mind® program is to supply underprivileged school children and classrooms in less affluent neighborhoods with the basic materials needed to exist and thrive in education.

SPORT (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of SPORT is to help adolescents avoid substance use by increasing physical activity and bettering their self images.

Impact: This program provides a whole body experience, where youth focus on improvements in their lives instead of drugs.

SPORT

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens

Goal: To reduce substance abuse and motivate positive behaviors including physical activity in adolescents age 13-17.

Impact: SPORT integrates content targeting alcohol, tobacco and drug prevention with promotion of physical activity and other health enhancing habits in adolescents.

Staying Alive Drug Overdose Prevention and Response Program (Baltimore, MD)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Urban

Goal: The goals of the Staying Alive program are to teach drug users about how to recognize opiate overdose signs and symptoms, how to respond to any overdose cases by calling 911, and how to use rescue breathing and naloxone administration to reduce life-threatening drug overdose.

Impact: Staying Alive reduces mortality due to opiate and heroin drug overdose.

Stepping Up To Health (Michigan)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Adults, Urban

Goal: To determine whether online peer support will increase adherence to an Internet-based pedometer walking program.

Impact: Stepping up to Health shows that online communities can help reduce attrition within online health behavior change interventions.

Steps to Respect: A Bullying Prevention Program

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / School Environment, Children

Goal: The goal of the program is to decrease school bullying problems by 1) increasing staff awareness and responsiveness, 2) fostering socially responsible beliefs, and 3) teaching social-emotional skills to counter bullying and promote healthy relationships. Thus the program also aims to promote skills (e.g., group joining, conflict resolution) associated with general social competence.

Impact: Students in the intervention schools reported significantly less acceptance of bullying/aggression, perceived greater adult responsiveness, and felt more responsible to intervene with friends who were bullied (bystander responsibility) than students in the control schools.

Strengthening Families Program: For Parents and Youth 10-14 (Iowa)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens, Families

Goal: The goals of this program are to (1) prevent teen substance abuse and other behavior problems; (2) strengthen parenting skills; and (3) build family strengths.

Impact: The evaluation demonstrated that youths who participated in the study had less substance use, fewer conduct problems, and better resistance to peer pressure and that program parents were better able to show affection and support and set appropriate limits for their children.

Strong African American Families (SAAF) (Georgia)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Children, Teens, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural

Goal: The SAAF program aims to prevent initiation of risk behaviors such as drug abuse, alcohol and cigarette use, and sexual activity in low-income African American preadolescents.

Impact: This program has helped create positive family interactions and support youth and teens as they take the next steps toward a positive future.

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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