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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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Children's National Universal HIV Screening Program (Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Teens, Adults

Goal: The goal of this project is to achieve high rates of identification of new HIV infection and to decrease the spread of HIV among youth in metropolitan DC, which is severely affected by the epidemic.

Class Wide Peer Tutoring Program (Kansas City, KS)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve school performance through reciprocal peer tutoring.

Design for the Environment (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The goal of DfE is to facilitate the identification, adoption and innovation of clean products, processes, technologies, and management systems.

Environmental Health Leadership Training (New York)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Environmental Justice, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Environmental Health Leadership Training is to inform and empower the predominately low income people of three urban communities in Northern Manhattan (Central Harlem, West Harlem, and Washington Heights) to improve their capacity to organize for community environmental health and justice in New York City. The long term goal of these efforts is to help intervene and reduce exposure to environmental toxicants which are adversely affecting the health of disadvantaged, medically underserved, predominantly African American and Latino populations in Northern Manhattan.

Ethnic Cuisine in Elementary Schools (Seattle, WA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to introduce healthy eating habits in elementary schools to counter the recent increase in childhood obesity.

First 5 Power of Preschool (PoP) (California)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families

Goal: The program's goal is to create free, high-quality preschool opportunities for children in California and help guide efforts to create a statewide preschool system.

GLIDE Housing (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: GLIDE Housing provides housing and housing assistance to homeless families, individuals recovering from substance abuse, and individual who are chronically homeless.

Good NEWS for Better Living through Improved Fitness and Education (Good NEWS for a Better L.I.F.E.) (Azle, TX)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of Good NEWS for a Better L.I.F.E. is to improve the health of senior citizens through participation in educational and physical activities.

Grab n Go (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Teens, Urban

Goal: The goal of Grab n Go's is to ensure students begin the day with a healthy meal, in turn affecting overall health and education of students.

Green Engineering (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Air

Goal: The goal of the Green Engineering Program is to incorporate risk related concepts into chemical processes and products designed by academia and industry.

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.