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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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Chicago Fitness Plus (Chicago, IL)

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

Goal: The overall program goal is the maintenance of a physically active lifestyle, in order to optimize one's functional capacity and ability to perform daily activities. In order to achieve this goal, the following impact objectives were established:

- Enhance enjoyment and participation in a variety of physical activities
- Develop and enhance the skills, knowledge, and self-efficacy needed to
establish and maintain an active lifestyle
- Ensure the affordability and accessibility of the program

Color Me Healthy (North Carolina)

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

Goal: The goal of Color Me Healthy is to promote and encourage physical activity and healthy eating among children ages four and five.

Impact: The program has had a positive impact on children's knowledge of and participation in physical activity. Similarly, it has had a positive impact on children's ability to recognize and their willingness to try fruits and vegetables. It has also increased children's fruit/vegetable snack consumption.

Colorectal Web (Michigan)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults

Goal: The goal of the Colorectal Web interactive website is to promote colorectal cancer screening.

Impact: Colorectal Web is more effective than a standard colorectal cancer website at prompting previously unscreened individuals to choose a preferred colorectal cancer screening test and to be screened for colorectal cancer.

Communities That Care (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Children, Teens, Families

Goal: The goal of Communities That Care is to mobilize communities to prevent future substance abuse by reducing risk factors for children between the ages of 10 and 14.

Impact: Communities That Care reduces initiation of substance abuse behaviors in youth aged 10-14.

Community Action Model (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The original goal of the Community Action Model has been to improve the health and environment of a community by reducing tobacco influences while building community capacity. It can be applied to a variety of health and welfare issues and has been used successfully in many communities with multiple topics of intervention.

Impact: The Community Action Model has resulted in new tobacco control policies within San Francisco, many of which serve as models for other communities.

Community Market Farms (West Oakland, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The Community Market Farms program transforms vacant land into market farms and public spaces in order to grow and distribute organic affordable food with and for the community.

Community Mental Health System

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Teens, Adults, Older Adults

Goal: CredibleMind helps surface resources with scientific validity to empower community members to take control of their mental health and spiritual well-being.

Impact: CredibleMind is available to the public and is also available as a customizable solution for community coalitions, health departments, hospitals, health plans, employers and other professional organizations to connect users to local services and resources.

Congenital Heart Disease Screening Program (Washington, D.C.)

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

Goal: The Congenital Heart Disease Screening Program values early diagnosis of Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) with a goal of making screening for CHD a standard practice for all newborns.

Impact: The physicians at Children's National in the National Heart Institute created a toolkit that nurseries may use to start a screening program to improve detection of serious CHD.

Connect (New York, NY)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of Connect is to increase relationship communication and safer sex practices among couples.

Cool Kids (Australia)

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

Goal: To teach children and parents how to manage anxiety disorders.

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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