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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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The HEBS Walking Campaign (Scotland)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Adults

Goal: The goal of this mass media campaign was to promote walking as a form of exercise.

The Living Room (DuPage County, IL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders

Goal: The end goal of The Living Room is to reduce recidivism to the hospital and pair those in need with the right resources to help them be able to handle their mental health crises and move away from using The Living Room. Additionally, a main goal of The Living Room is matching those in need with a particular peer specialist to create a lasting connection.

Impact: Connects individuals experiencing mental health illness or crises to peer specialists which help reduce recidivism to the emergency room or hospital, help manage future crises, and provide a connection to continued non-clinical support and resources.

The Memphis Environmental Court (Shelby County, TN)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Governance, Families

Goal: The Memphis Enviromental Court was designed to serve as the chief vehicle for enforcing a wide range of laws relating to the health and quality of life of its residents, and to give new meaning to the term "expedient justice" by its ability to respond in a quick and consistent manner. In 1991 the Tennessee State Legislature created the Shelby County Environmental Court, and expanded the new court's powers to include the "injunctive authority" to mandate that defendants comply with the environmental codes.

The National Center on Financing for Children with Special Health Care Needs

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children

Goal: The purpose of this four year project is to work in support of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau to meet its Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) National Agenda performance outcome that “all families of CSHCN will have adequate private and/or public insurance to pay for the services they need.” The work of the cooperative agreement will be multi-faceted and will (1) overcome the gaps in knowledge about CSHCN’s health care use and charges, (2) assess the extent to which CSHCN are receiving the health care services they need and the degree to which reimbursement is adequate to meet those needs, (3) identify trends in and developing recommendations for financing strategies, and (4) disseminate this information to families, health care providers, public and private health plans, and policy makers.

The Seven Challenges (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of the program is to treat adolescents with drug and behavioral problems using an individualized counseling method incorporating the Seven Challenges.

The Strategies for Workforce Inclusion and Family Training (SWIFT) Project (Minneapolis, MN)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment

Goal: Since Project SWIFT was not a direct service program, the major goal was for youth to receive direct services from partner agencies. Toward this aim, the project educated parents and staff from partner agencies to better meet the needs of youth with disabilities.

Threshold 21

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Economic Climate

Goal: MI seeks to build a critical mass of people and organizations with systems thinking skills, by promoting systems literacy and dynamic modeling tools in the public policy realm, civil society, private sector, and academic institutions in the developing and industrialized world.

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.