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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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Starting Right Initiative

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

Goal: The Starting Right Initiative works to prevent, treat and reverse childhood obesity and malnutrition in low-income communities.

Impact: The Starting Right Initiative aims to encourage healthy eating habits in children and their families and works to reduce childhood obesity and malnutrition at seven project locations nationwide.

Step By Step: Thoughtful Fall Prevention (Hartford, CT)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to embed a sustainable evidence-based fall prevention program within greater Hartford senior centers by enhancing fall prevention-related knowledge and behavior, while also building or enhancing relationships between senior centers and relevant community and health care organizations.

Step Forward, Erlanger (Erlanger, KY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Art & Recreation / Sports Recreation & Parks, Families

Goal: The purpose of the initiative is to construct a complete sidewalk loop throughout the City of Erlanger in order to promote physical activity.

Stockbox Neighborhood Grocery (Seattle, WA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: Stockbox Neighborhood Grocery improves access to healthy food and eases the burden for families living in food deserts by building small grocery stores that provide alternatives to convenience stores or fast foods.

Impact: Stockbox Neighborhood Grocery improves access to healthy food and eases the burden for families living in food deserts.

STOP-DWI (New York)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Adults

Goal: The goal of the Broome County STOP-DWI comprehensive DWI countermeasure program is to improve highway safety by preventing drunk driving through increased certainty of arrest and conviction.

Storytelling to Promote Colorectal Cancer Screening (Arizona)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Cancer, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of this program is to use storytelling to increase colorectal cancer screening and improve nutrition and physical activity among underserved Latina women.

Strategy: Community Beautification (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Families

Goal: The goal of beautification and restoration projects is to restore neighborhoods and communities in order to prevent criminal activity and encourage community engagement.

Strengthening Families Program (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goals of this program are to improve parenting skills and children’s behaviors and decrease conduct disorders; to improve children’s social competencies; and to improve family attachment, harmony, communication, and organization.

Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) (Wisconsin)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to increase the academic achievement of children living in poverty.

Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepeneurship (SAGE) (Chico, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Civic Engagement, Children, Teens

Goal: The overall goal of the Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE) program is to establish a collaboration among high school students, college mentors, and local business leaders as the high school students complete experiential learning projects related to global entrepreneurship.

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.