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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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Lighten Up (South Carolina)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the Lighten Up program is to encourage lifestyle change and improve health through faith-based lessons.

Little Kids Rock (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / School Environment, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of Little Kids Rock is to offer music education free of charge to students in grades K-12.

Live Healthy Iowa (Iowa)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Adults

Goal: The goal of Live Healthy Iowa is to encourage physical activity and weight loss through team-based competition.

Live Well Omaha Kids (Omaha, NE)

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

Goal: The mission of Live Well Omaha Kids is to help all children living in Omaha achieve improvements in nutrition and physical activity.

LiveWell Colorado (Colorado)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Adults

Goal: The mission of LiveWell Colorado is to advance lifestyle, environmental, and policy changes that promote health through the reduction and prevention of obesity.

Living in the Face of Trauma (LIFT)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Women, Men

Goal: Eliminate or reduce sexual transmission risk behavior and to improve coping with the combined stressors of HIV infection and child sexual abuse.

Impact: LIFT intervention participants reported significantly fewer counts of unprotected vaginal and anal intercourse with all partners (p < .001) and with HIV-negative or unknown serostatus partners (p < .001), compared to support group participants.

Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma (LBACA) (Long Beach, CA)

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

Goal: The goal of the Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma is to raise awareness about asthma to improve clinical outcomes and influence policy change.

Lowfat Lucy (New York, NY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Lowfat Lucy program is to encourage children to drink low-fat white milk.

Market Bucks (Minneapolis, MN)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity

Goal: The goal of the Market Bucks program is to encourage shopping at farmers' markets and healthier eating.

Impact: Market Bucks have successfully increased the amount of EBT purchases made at farmers markets and increased fruit and vegetable consumption among participants.

Massachusetts Local Board of Health Emergency Operations Plan Template (Massachussetts)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The goal of this program is to help local public health organizations to prepare for public health emergencies.

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.