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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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Heart Buddies (Scranton, PA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of this program is to educate Senior Companions and senior women in general about cardiovascular disease.

Philadelphia Youth Violence Reduction (Philadelphia, PA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce Philadelphia's homicide rate and put violent youthful offenders on the path toward a productive majority.

Project A.S.K. (Adolescents Seeking Knowledge) (Nashville, TN)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens

Goal: Project A.S.K. seeks to raise youth self-efficacy, improve knowledge of health issues, highlight math and science concepts tested in school, build leadership qualities, and improve the sense of community.

RealBenefits (Boston, MA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goals of RealBenefits are to allow users to 1) maximize benefits designed to promote self-sufficiency and stability for low-income families and their communities; 2) create capacity in public and private health and human service agencies that increases services offered to low-income families and maximizes revenues; and 3) promote change in public benefit application systems.

Shoulder to Shoulder (Twin Cities, MN)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Families

Goal: The goal of Shoulder to Shoulder is to reach parents of teens with good advice about parenting their adolescents and help parents adopt strategies that are proven to reduce risky behaviors.

Take Charge of Your Health (Augusta, GA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of the program is to reduce medical costs, to prevent premature institutionalization, and to save taxpayers' dollars. Additionally, the program aims to prevent depression among the elderly, reduce daily living activity limitations caused by chronic diseases and lack of exercise, and increase the quality of life among the older adults.

Teen Pregnancy Project/ Sexual Violence Action Team (Ramsey County, MN)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Family Planning

Goal: The TPP/SVAT was formed to:

- Decrease isolation of persons working on teen pregnancy and sexual violence issues in Ramsey County communities.
- Increase their access to best practice information and culture-specific resources.
- Increase public understanding of teen pregnancy and sexual violence issues and effective prevention.
- Improve public policy related to teen pregnancy and sexual violence issues.

The program's objectives include:

- Developing and continuing to expand a community coalition for members' capacity building and leadership development.
- Increasing use of culture-specific practices.
- Increasing community awareness and understanding of teen pregnancy and sexual violence issues.
- Promoting teen health services.
- Encouraging schools to implement effective comprehensive sexuality education.

The Care Team Network (USA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Older Adults

Goal: The goal of this program is to use a team model to offer practical, emotional, and spiritual support to individuals and families with health care concerns or other special needs.

The Stanford Five-City Project (California)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke

Goal: The goal of this project was to improve cardiovascular health of two California communities.

Building Community Supports for Diabetes (Galveston County, TX)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Diabetes, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural

Goal: The goal of the program was to improve the health outcomes of people with type 2 diabetes by training community coaches to teach effective self-care.

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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