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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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Safe in the City (Denver, Long Beach, and San Francisco)

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

Goal: The goal of this intervention is to prevent new STD infections.

Impact: The Safe in the City program shows that clinic waiting room videos displaying prevention knowledge and techniques can actually help to reduce the number of new infections of certain STDs.

Safer Choices (California, Texas)

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

Goal: The goal of the Safer Choices program is to reduce the number of students engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse.

Impact: The program reduced the frequency of intercourse without a condom, reduced the number of sexual partners with whom students had intercourse without a condom, and increased use of condoms and other protection against pregnancy at last intercourse.

Safer Homes Project (Pacoima)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Children, Teens, Adults

Goal: The mission of the Safer Homes Program is to help residents to create healthy comes for their families in order to prevent environmentally related health problems such as lead poisoning, asthma, mold, and moisture.

Safer Sex (Boston, MA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Women, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Safer Sex project is to increase condom use, prevent recurrent STDs, and eliminate or reduce risky sexual behaviors among adolescent females that have been diagnosed with an STD.

Impact: The Safer Sex project shows that individualized safer sex interventions may improve condom use and decrease the number of partners among adolescent girls who have had an STD.

Safer Sex Skills Building (SSSB) (USA)

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

Goal: The goal of the Safer Sex Skills Building intervention is to decrease unsafe sexual behaviors through increasing condom use, safer sex negotiation skills, and HIV/STD awareness.

Impact: Safer Sex Skills Building decreases unsafe vaginal and anal sexual behaviors and instances.

Safety Street (St. Louis, MO)

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

Goal: The mission of Safety Street is to increase injury prevention knowledge for children through interactive teaching of pedestrian, home, and vehicle safety.

SAHARA: A computer-based HIV intervention (Atlanta, GA)

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

Goal: SAHARA is a computer-based HIV intervention that targets African American women to promote healthy sexual behaviors to reduce the risk of HIV transmission.

Impact: These findings which demonstrate major improvements in HIV-preventive behaviors suggest that SAHARA is an effective evidence-based promising practice; it is inexpensive and only requires two hours.

Saving Lives (Massachusetts)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety

Goal: The goal of this program was to improve transportation safety in Massachusetts.

Impact: The Saving Lives Program successfully reduced drunk driving by 42% and speeding-related crashes by 25% through community-based, innovative, and cost-effective interventions.

Saving Smiles (Lafayette County, Missouri)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Oral Health, Children, Families, Rural

Goal: The goal of Saving Smiles is to improve the oral health and in turn overall health of children in Lafayette County, especially for the poor and underserved.

Impact: Most students from the 11 participating schools in Lafayette County received a screening, fluoride varnish, and oral health education, and most of the children referred for dental care were seen by a dentist.

Say It Straight

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

Goal: The goals of Say It Straight (SIS) training are prevention of risky or destructive behaviors, such as alcohol, tobacco, other drug (ATOD) use, violence, school drop-out, teen pregnancy, behaviors leading to HIV/AIDS; and promotion of wellness, personal and social responsibility, positive self-esteem and positive relationships.

Impact: SIS training results in statistically significant reductions in alcohol/drug related school suspensions. Juvenile criminal police offenses such as assaults, vandalism, burglary, etc. were also lower among trained students.

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.