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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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Arthritis Self-Help Course (Pasco County, FL)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of this course is to help participants with arthritis manage their pain so that they can exercise more, take less arthritis medication, and move with ease.

Asthma Outreach Program (Seattle)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goals of the project were to assess the feasibility of the Asthma Outreach Worker model and evaluate any impact on unscheduled health service use for asthma.

CareNet (Florida)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Adults, Families

Goal: The goal of CareNet is to provide underinsured or uninsured workers with discounted health care services.

Child Pedestrian Injury Prevention Project (Perth, Western Australia)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Children

Goal: The goal of this project was to improve children's road-related behavior and to enhance the safety of their road environment.

Climate Action Toolkit

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: As stated in the toolkit, the ultimate goal of Campus Climate Action is to achieve systemic/institutional commitment to a sustainable campus, including carbon neutrality, throughout all constituencies of the college or university (faculty, staff, students, and administration.)

Crime and Safety Team (Los Angeles, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program is to support the creation and sustainability of safer and healthier communities. The Team aims to achieve this objective by facilitating the transfer of skills, knowledge, and resources to public housing residents, Housing Authority staff, and the greater community.

Developing Community Service Career Ladder Programs to Support Welfare-to-Work (Rhode Island)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Poverty, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: A core objective of the career ladder model is to ensure that low-income participants progress beyond the paraprofessional level. The goal is to aid welfare recipients to move from welfare to the paraprofessional level, then on to a career.

Flex Your Power Case Study: City of Azusa (Azusa, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: The goal of this program was to conserve energy in Azusa, California.

Flex Your Power Case Study: Transwestern Commercial Services (USA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: The goals of Transwestern's energy audits are to save energy and money and to contribute to saving the environment and assuring reliable energy in the local communities in which it operates.

Food Stamps and Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) at Arizona Farmer's Markets (Arizona)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Government Assistance

Goal: To help low-income people increase their access to healthy foods while building community and economic assets through local food production and distribution.

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.