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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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Florida Youth ChalleNGe Academy (Florida)

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

Goal: The goal of the program is to intervene in the lives of high-school dropouts and provide them with the values, life skills, education, and self-discipline necessary to succeed.

Foster Children's Project (Palm Beach)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Governance, Children, Urban

Goal: To advocate for children and help them resolve their most pressing legal problem: being in the custody of the state when they need to be in the custody of a family - biological or adoptive - within the 12 months provided by law.

Impact: Children represented by the Foster's Children Project were more likely to exit the foster system to permanency due to higher rates of adoption and long-term custody, but not reunification, than their peers not represented by FCP.

Fred G. Acosta Job Corps Center (Tuscon, AZ)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Educational Attainment, Children

Goal: It is the mission of the Fred G. Acosta Job Corps Center to create a pathway of economic success for disadvantaged youth through a career service delivery system. The program strives to teach marketable skills in a safe and supportive setting, and to find meaningful employment for students when they leave the program.

Free Community Colorectal Screening (Salina, KS)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Cancer, Adults, Rural

Goal: To get as many age appropriate people screened as possible in the community and to raise awareness about the life-saving practice of colorectal screening.

Impact: Many cancers have been found and many have been prevented. The population has expressed gratitude for this program and the partners (such as the pharmacies and the hospital lab) are proud to be part of it.

Functional Adaptation Skills Training (FAST) (San Diego, CA)

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

Goal: The goal of FAST is to improve patients' independence and quality of life.

Impact: Studies have shown that FAST-treated patients' performance on everyday living skills improved significantly compared to non-participants. They also demonstrated significant improvement in social and communication skills at 6-month follow-up.

Functional Family Therapy

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide positive family strengthening resources to youth at risk and in need.

Geisinger's Fresh Food Farmacy

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to combat high obesity rates, pre-diabetes, and diabetes by providing fresh, healthy food to those most in need.

Impact: The Fresh Food Farmacy has positively impacted the lives of nearly 600 individuals. Patients are seeing significant HBA1C improvements, are better able to manage their diabetes with fewer complications, and several participants have been able to reduce or even eliminate their diabetes medications.

Geriatric Initiative (Charleston, West Virginia)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Geriatrics Initiative is to make healthcare more accessible and of higher quality for the elderly population served by Charleston Area Medical Center.

Get Tulsa Kids Trekkin' (Tulsa County, OK)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to encourage Tulsa children to increase physical activity and learn to make better food choices.

Girls 2000 (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Girls 2000 is to provide low-income girls with exposure and experiences to help them overcome obstacles that they may encounter.

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.