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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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Partnership for a Tobacco-Free Maine (Maine)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens, Adults

Goal: The mission of the Partnership for a Tobacco-Free Maine is to reduce death and disability due to tobacco use.

Partnership for Safe Water (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The goal of this common sense cooperation is to provide a new measure of safety to millions of Americans by implementing prevention programs where legislation or regulation does not exist. The preventative measures are based around optimizing treatment plant performance and thus increasing protection against microbial contamination in America's drinking water supply.

Partnerships That Work: National Service and Business in Welfare to Work (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment, Teens, Families

Goal: This study addresses how to use national service to build effective welfare-to-work programs, and to encourage business collaborations. Two major suggestions are partnering with Employer Advisory Groups and generating national level support.

Pasadena Community Asthma Program (PCAP) (Pasadena)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Respiratory Diseases, Children, Families

Goal: The program’s goal is to help families prevent and/or successfully manage asthma.

Pediatric Weight Control Program (Palo Alto)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health

Goal: The goals of the Packard Pediatric Weight Control Program are to (1) help children improve their eating and exercise habits; (2) create a balanced diet; and (3) help participating children maintain or gradually lose weight.

Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The goal of PESP is to reduce the health and environmental risks associated with pesticide use.

Petitioning EPA to Add New Chemicals to the Toxics Release Inventory (Oakland, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Coalition was to encourage the EPA to add dioxins as reportable chemicals unter the Toxics Release Inventory

Pioneer Human Services (Seattle, WA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment

Goal: Pioneer's mission is to improve the lives of people on the margins of society through and integrated array of services including housing, employment/training, treatment, counseling, and corrections.

Pitless or Closed-loop Drilling (Texas)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The goals and benefits of piltess drilling include:

-elimination of unsightly and hazardous pits
-a decrease in the need for cuts in sensitive and hilly areas
-a reduction in total surface disturbance associated with a well pad
-elimination of the risk of waterfowl and wildlife mortality related to pits
-elimination of the risk of damaging underground pipelines and utilities
-virtual elimination of drilling waste
-reduction of water consumption by as much as 80%
-elimination of soil segregation, which reduces wind erosion problems
-reduction of truck traffic associated with transporting drilling wastes by as much as 75%

plaNYC (New York)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability, Urban

Goal: The goal of plaNCY is to ensure a higher quality of life for New Yorkers, and reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions by 30%.

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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