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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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(2006 results)

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Public Health Expertise Network of Mentors (PHENOM)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Educational Attainment

Goal: To provide a freely-available source of public health expertise in which seasoned professionals can share their wealth of professional expertise with those interested in learning about Public Health and potential career options.

Rainforest Action Network

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Wildlife

Goal: RAN's mission is to protect and sustain healthy forests by campaigning against corporate policies that come at the expense of the environment.

Raising Healthy Children (Seattle, WA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Teens, Families

Goal: The Raising Healthy Children program is a social development approach to positive youth development.

ReachOut Central (Australia)

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

Goal: The goal of ReachOut Central (ROC) is to improve mental health among young people through an online gaming service by teaching them the practical coping skills for dealing with major stressors in life, ranging from issues such as alcohol use to psychological distress.

Impact: The aggregate results of this statistical analysis point to ReachOut Central's potential to impact and improve certain factors, such as coping ability, but also to relatively unexplored gender-dependent outcomes for other factors like alcohol consumption.

REAL Men (Atlanta)

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

Goal: This program aims to promote delay of sexual intercourse, condom use among those who were sexually active, and communication on sexuality between fathers (or father figures) and sons.

Red Hook Farmers' Market (New York, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Women, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Red Hook Farmers’ Market is to ensure that neighborhood residents can access locally grown, healthy, safe, and affordable food.

Reducing Environmental Triggers of Asthma (Minnesota)

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

Goal: The goal of the Reducing Environmental Triggers of Asthma intervention is to improve asthma control by removing environmental allergens and irritants from the home.

Rethink Your Drink / Choose Healthy Drinks (San Francisco Bay Area)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Diabetes, Children, Teens, Adults, Families

Goal: The goal of the Rethink your Drink campaign is to prevent chronic diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease by reducing sugary drink consumption.

Impact: Rethink your Drink is increasing public awareness of the health effects of consuming sugary beverages.

Richmond Comprehensive Homicide Initiative (Richmond, CA)

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

Goal: The goal of this strategy is to reduce homicide in Richmond, California.

Runaway Intervention Program (RIP) (St. Paul, Minnesota)

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

Goal: The goal of the Runaway Intervention Program is to prevent or reduce risky behaviors of young runaway girls that have been sexually abused or exploited in order to return participants to a healthy developmental trajectory.

Impact: This program is a promising intervention for restoring sexually abused runaway girls to a healthy developmental trajectory, with particular benefit to those who are at the highest risk.

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.