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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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Massachusetts Local Board of Health Emergency Operations Plan Template (Massachussetts)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The goal of this program is to help local public health organizations to prepare for public health emergencies.

Mayor's Healthy Hometown Movement (Louisville, KY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle

Goal: MHHM was rolled out with the following overall goal: to create a community wide culture that encourages and supports healthy lifestyles by promoting increased physical activity (10,000 steps/day goal), optimal nutrition, healthy public policy and access to resources and facilities that bolster the stated goal. Specific goals include:

- Increasing the number of people in Louisville Metro who engage in 30 minutes of moderate physical activity at least 5 days a week by 15%.
- Decreasing the percentage of overweight or obese people in Louisville Metro by 10%.
- Increasing from 22% to 38% the number of people in Louisville Metro who eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

Past and future Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) surveys will be used to measure baseline and follow-up indicators.

Measure Up

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Adults

Goal: The Measure Up program helps participants lose weight and learn to live healthier lifestyles through better eating habits.

Impact: Participants of the Measure Up program receive personalized assistance from registered dietitians to improve eating and exercise habits.

Media-Smart Youth: Eat, Think and Be Active! (San Francisco)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens

Goal: Media-Smart Youth aims to stimulate youth to think about physical activity and nutrition by developing an awareness of the link between media and health.

Medical-Legal Partnership (Kansas City Metropolitan Area)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Prevention & Safety, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the medical-legal partnership is to improve health outcomes through quality legal services.

Impact: The Medical-Legal Partnership provides legal assistance to patients on issues that directly or indirectly affect health.

Medication Management Improvement System (MMIS) (Burbank, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce medication-related problems among senior home health patients.

Methodist Germantown Diabetes-Self Management Education & Support (DSMES) Service (Shelby County, TN)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Diabetes, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The organization goal for the DSMES Service is to help each person living with diabetes attain knowledge and/or skills that may enable and empower them to perform effective self-care, promote wellness and prevent sickness and complications

MHD-MWW Water Quality Technical Workgroup (Milwaukee, WI)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Urban

Goal: The overriding goal of the workgroup is to develop, institute and evaluate preventive measures (e.g. procedures, protocols and policies) that would mitigate the impact of any future waterborne disease incidents. Post 9/11, the workgroup has evolved to include discussions on water security in the context of an intentional contamination event.

Michigan Family Independence Agency (Kent County, MI)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment

Goal: The goal of this program is to move employable TANF recipients into the workforce and to provide job retention support.

Michigan State Diversion Project (Michigan)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide effective and affordable treatment for juvenile offenders.

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.