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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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Club Denver After School Program (Denver, CO)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to engage middle school students in constructive activity by getting them interested in future careers.

Colorectal Cancer Screening (North Carolina)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve early detection of colorectal cancer through regular screening.

Colorectal Cancer Screening Video Decision Aid (North Carolina)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults

Goal: The goal of this video decision aid is to inform patients of their colorectal cancer screening options and increase screening rates.

Community Building in Grinnell (Grinnell, IA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Civic Engagement, Rural

Goal: The primary goal of the CBIG initiative is two-fold: to systematically change the way young people and adults in our community perceive conflict and how they respond to and resolve disputes.

Computer-Based Heart Failure Education (Sweden)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve patient's knowledge about heart failure.

Cool Schools Tree Planting and Education Program (Los Angeles)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: Cool Schools aims to reduce energy consumption, improve air quality, teach children about the environment, create greener spaces for children to learn and play, and provide career development assistance to young adults.

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.

Don't Borrow Trouble Antipredatory Lending Campaign

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Investment & Personal Finance

Goal: The goal of this program is to help homeowners avoid lending practices that strip away their home's equity.

Engaging Elementary Students with Seniors in a Bird Feeder Project (Lewiston, ID)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of the project was to find a way for elementary school children to learn about the environment and participate in community service.

Engaging Parents and Adults in Educational Activities at School (Princeton, NJ; Philadelphia, PA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: By providing programs for students and adults in the areas of literacy, the visual and performing arts, and service learning, NSCC's goals include improving students' performance in school and encouraging parents to become more involved.

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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