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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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Family Friends (Philadelphia, PA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families

Goal: The goal of Family Friends is to offer support to families who are raising children with developmental disabilities or special needs.

Family Health Promotion (Tuscon, AZ)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the FHP program is to seek seeks to reduce risk factors and increase protective factors in the child and family domains.

Family Matters (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to prevent tobacco and alcohol abuse among adolescents.

Farm 2 School Lunch Program (Kansas and Missouri)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children

Goal: The goal of the Farm 2 School program is to improve the health and wellbeing of school-aged children and prevent childhood obesity by providing healthy, seasonal, and locally grown meals to children at school.

Father Friendly Initiative (Boston)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Father Friendly Initiative is to work with low or no income fathers to improve their health and social well being in order to increase involvement with their children and communities.

Father/Male Involvement Preschool Teacher Education Program (Urbana, IL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Families

Goal: The goal of this program was to increase father/male involvement in state-funded preschool programs for at-risk students.

Feed The Hungry (San Francisco, CA)

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

Goal: Feed The Hungry aims to fill your body and soul with a nourishing meal in an atmosphere of respect, acceptance and love.

Finanzas (Georgetown, DE)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Investment & Personal Finance, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of this program is to promote financial literacy and encourage home purchasing by Spanish-speaking employees.

First Place for Youth (California)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Teens

Goal: FirstPlace for Youth seeks to fill the gap in services available to youth transitioning out of the foster care system to independent living.

Fit Community (North Carolina)

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

Goal: The goal of the Fit Community initiative is to recognize communities that are making better quality of life a real priority by granting them awards to help in the implementation of community interventions targeting physical activity and healthy eating.

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.