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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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Combining Innovative Recycling Initiatives and Job Creation in Graz (Austria)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Urban

Goal: The goals of the program include both ecological waste management and job creation.

Communicare - a Statewide Volunteer Network of Care Providers (South Carolina)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality

Goal: Communicare strives to help patients maintain and improve their health. Through regular doctor's visits and improved medication adherence, patients actively participate in preventive care. Another goal is to reduce the dependence on emergency departments through a free clinic partnership.

Communities and Schools for Career Success (CS2) (Petaluma, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children

Goal: The Communities and Schools for Career Success (CS2) partnership's goal is to increase academic achievement, civic engagement, and career awareness by reshaping the relationships between schools and the community.

Community Home Buyer's Programme

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes

Goal: Fannie Mae is committed to helping more people achieve the American Dream and to expanding minority homeownership.

Computer-Based Heart Failure Education (Sweden)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve patient's knowledge about heart failure.

Condom Availability in New York Public Schools (New York City)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Urban

Goal: To increase condom use among sexually active high school students.

Cool Shops (British Columbia)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: The goal of the Cool Shops program is to identify and implement in-store energy management measures that reduce energy consumption and utility costs.

Crime and Safety Team (Los Angeles, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to support the creation and sustainability of safer and healthier communities. The Team aims to achieve this objective by facilitating the transfer of skills, knowledge, and resources to public housing residents, Housing Authority staff, and the greater community.

CYFAR New Communities Project (Idaho)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural

Goal: CYFAR New Communities Project's goal is to bridge the digital divide and offer under served youth in low-income communities experiential learning activities that develop workforce preparation skills.

Developing Community Service Career Ladder Programs to Support Welfare-to-Work (Rhode Island)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Poverty, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: A core objective of the career ladder model is to ensure that low-income participants progress beyond the paraprofessional level. The goal is to aid welfare recipients to move from welfare to the paraprofessional level, then on to a career.

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.