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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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Strengthening the Bonds of Chicano Youth and Families (Eloy, AZ)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of this project was to prevent substance abuse among high-risk youth in Arizona.

Impact: Participants in the experimental group experienced significant differences in family relations, significant decrease in alcohol and other drugs, and also a significant decrease of alcohol use by family members. Participants of the control group did not experience similar impacts.

Teach Baltimore (Baltimore, MD)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: Teach Baltimore sought to prevent summer learning loss and promote academic achievement among early elementary school students.

Texas Emergency Department Asthma Surveillance (Houston and Galveston, TX)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children

Goal: The goal of the TEDAS program is to reduce the number of pediatric asthma-related emergency room visits.

The CrossPoints Project: Using Virtual Reality to Teach Pedestrian Safety to Children (Ontario, Canada)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of the CrossPoints Project is to use a Virtual Reality software program to teach pedestrian safety to children.

The NineZero Project (Riverside, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Teens, Women

Goal: The goal of the program was to reduce Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and encourage zero alcohol use by pregnant women through educational and social marketing techniques for select target groups.

Impact: The NineZero program increased knowledge regarding FAS, and also showed that an approach with more emphasis on health education principles that have been shown to be effective in changing other substance use behaviors would have a more successful effect on attitudes, beliefs, and intentions.

The Self Center (School-Linked Reproductive Health Services) (Maryland)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the program was to provide year-round reproductive and contraceptive education and services to students of two inner-city schools in Baltimore, Maryland with high rates of sexual activity and teen pregnancy.

Yerba Buena Gardens Neighborhood Revitalization (San Francisco)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Economic Climate, Urban

Goal: The YBG neighborhood was developed to (1) reclaim a severely blighted sector of the City, (2) provide public amenities, (3) support San Francisco's hospitality industry, and (4) increase economic vitality and employment.

Yes We Can Urban Asthma Partnership (San Francisco, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of the Yes We Can Urban Asthma Partnership is to improve asthma control among low-income children with asthma.

Youth AIDS Prevention Project (Chicago)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of YAPP was to increase awareness of risky sexual behaviors and to reduce the risk of HIV and STD infection associated with such behaviors.

231 Change Teams (San Diego, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Educational Attainment

Goal: The major focus of this program is on empowering classroom instructors with the knowledge, time, and compensation needed to design, implement, and evaluate 231 program activities. These activities are designed to increase and improve access for students and allow them to move through the program to reach their goals.

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.