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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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Focus on Youth (FOY) with Informed Parents and Children Together (ImPACT) (Baltimore, MD)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Teens, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Focus on Youth is to teach youth the skills and knowledge they need to protect themselves from HIV and other STDs.

Impact: The Focus on Youth intervention increased self-reported condom use and positively affected perceptions six months after the end of the program.

Food on the Run (California)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Teens

Goal: The mission of Food on the Run is to increase healthful eating and physical activity among teens as a way to improve health and reduce the risk of chronic disease.

Foster Children's Project (Palm Beach)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Governance, Children, Urban

Goal: To advocate for children and help them resolve their most pressing legal problem: being in the custody of the state when they need to be in the custody of a family - biological or adoptive - within the 12 months provided by law.

Impact: Children represented by the Foster's Children Project were more likely to exit the foster system to permanency due to higher rates of adoption and long-term custody, but not reunification, than their peers not represented by FCP.

Foundations of Learning Project (Newark, New Jersey)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children

Goal: The program's goal was to improve child behavioral problems during the early preschool years.

Impact: The FOL program positively impacted preschool children's behavior in the classroom.

Fred G. Acosta Job Corps Center (Tuscon, AZ)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Educational Attainment, Children

Goal: It is the mission of the Fred G. Acosta Job Corps Center to create a pathway of economic success for disadvantaged youth through a career service delivery system. The program strives to teach marketable skills in a safe and supportive setting, and to find meaningful employment for students when they leave the program.

Free Income Tax Assistance Program (Tulsa, OK)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Income

Goal: The goal of CAP's program is to decrease poverty and to expand economic development in Tulsa by increasing the participation rate and use of the EITC by eligible low- and moderate-income families.

Functional Adaptation Skills Training (FAST) (San Diego, CA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Adults

Goal: The goal of FAST is to improve patients' independence and quality of life.

Impact: Studies have shown that FAST-treated patients' performance on everyday living skills improved significantly compared to non-participants. They also demonstrated significant improvement in social and communication skills at 6-month follow-up.

Functional Family Therapy

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Families

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide positive family strengthening resources to youth at risk and in need.

Georgia's Teenage and Adult Driver Responsibility Act (Georgia)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Teens

Goal: The goal of TADRA is to reduce fatal crashes among teenage drivers.

Impact: After the implementation of TADRA, speed-related fatal crashes were cut by 42%, and alcohol-related fatal crashes decreased nearly 60%.

Girls Inc. Preventing Adolescent Pregnancy

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Family Planning, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to decrease pregnancy in adolescent and teenage girls.

Impact: Those who participated in one or more program components were significantly less likely to experience pregnancy than nonparticipants (5.9% vs 12.3%). Those who participated in two or more program components were significantly less likely to engage in sexual intercourse without birth control than those who participated in only a single program component (8.9% vs 20.6%).

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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