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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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Bayview HEAL Zone (Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Diabetes, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the program is to reduce chronic disease health disparities by making the healthy choice the easy choice.

Impact: The Bayview HEAL Zone has brought together a variety of organizations and supported healthy eating and active living projects in the community.

Bayview Safe Haven (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: To provide academic, vocational, recreational and life skills for at risk youth ages 12-21 in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco.

Be Proud! Be Responsible! (Philadelphia, PA and Trenton, NJ)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Teens, Urban

Goal: The curricula aim to increase participants' knowledge about the risks of various behaviors and educate participants on how condoms and/or abstinence can effectively be used to lower those risks.

Beats and Rhymes (Minneapolis, MN)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Teens, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The mission of Beats & Rhymes is to provide schools and community centers with the knowledge and resources they need to implement their own successful program, and subsequent music group.

Impact: Beats & Rhymes teaches youth music-making skills through implementation in various Minneapolis after-school programs.

Beginning Education Early: Strengthening Rural Alabama Families (Choctaw County, AL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families, Rural

Goal: The BEE Program seeks to strengthen parents' abilities to provide the physical and emotional support necessary for children's healthy growth and development by giving them otherwise unavailable access to parenting and early childhood education.

Behavioral Intervention Program to Increase Condom Use

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Women, Urban

Goal: The Behavioral Intervention Program seeks to increase condom use by females who are at high risk of pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, or reinfection.

Best Start for Families: A Health Equity Approach (Illinois)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Adults, Women, Men, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: To partner within communities and organizations to train professionals, community and parent leaders so the “Best Start” program can reach and support all families, but especially marginalized or struggling families and communities; to build the strong family/home, school and community environments that are necessary to support positive mental health, confidence, resilience and hope to achieve health equity, academic and economic opportunities for positive futures for all.

The Changing Children’s Worlds Foundation (CCWF) mission is for every child and adolescent to be supported in positive development by caregivers and professionals within loving, non-violent families and peaceful communities. Through parent groups and educational workshops we strive to promote a sense of community and foster empathy.

Best Workplaces for Commuters (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Air

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the environmental impact of commuting and to help get employees to work safely, on time, and free of commute-related stress.

BLAST Lyme Disease Prevention Program (Ridgefield, CT)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The goal of the program is to raise awareness of the most effective Lyme disease prevention practices, to educate the community about the early signs and symptoms of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, and to promote timely diagnosis and treatment.

Impact: The BLAST program has raised awareness of the most effective Lyme disease prevention practices through various outlets and has been recommended by the CDC.

Blessings in a Backpack

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Civic Engagement, Children, Families

Goal: The mission of the Blessings in a Backpack program is to help meet the nutritional needs of children by providing weekend meals for children and generating public awareness on the issue of child hunger.

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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