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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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Options/Opciones Project (New Haven and Hartford, CT)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Options/Opciones Project is to reduce or eliminate risky sexual and drug use behaviors of HIV-infected patients.

Impact: The Options/Opciones Project shows that a clinician-delivered HIV prevention intervention targeting HIV-infected patients can result in reductions in unprotected sex and that interventions of this kind should be integrated into routine HIV clinical care.

Pets for Life (Kansas City Metropolitan Area)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: The purpose of Pets for Life, Inc. is to enhance the care and treatment of people in local hospitals, nursing homes, domestic violence shelters, mental health programs, youth treatment centers, corrections facilities, and hospices through the use of certified therapy teams of pets and volunteers.

Impact: The benefits of pet/volunteer visits to people in the community include increased emotional/sociological well being of these individuals and positive physiological changes.

Project SHINE

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Civic Engagement, Teens, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Project SHINE is to build strong, healthy, and sustainable communities by fostering positive growth and relationships among its participants.

Project VIVA (New York, NY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Project VIVA is to rapidly immunize hard-to-reach urban populations through a community-public health partnership.

Promoting Water Consumption in Schools to Prevent Overweight (Germany)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Urban

Goal: To promote water consumption with an educational and environmental intervention in elementary schools of deprived urban areas to prevent overweight.

Impact: This program shows that environmental and educational, school-based interventions can have effective impact in the prevention of overweight among children in elementary school, even in a population from socially-deprived areas.

Renewal House (Western Connecticut region)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of renewal house is to reduce homelessness of older individuals in Greater Danbury Area, CT, by providing safe, secure housing, renewing a sense of hope, reinforcing self-worth and restoring dignity and confidence.

Rock On Cafe (Broome and Tioga, NY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children

Goal: To create a sustainable school lunch program that incorporated healthier food items by leveraging the combined efforts of several school districts.

Safe Routes for Seniors (New York City)

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

Goal: To improve cardiovascular health among seniors by improving the pedestrian environment in New York.

Safer Sex (Boston, MA)

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

Goal: The goal of the Safer Sex project is to increase condom use, prevent recurrent STDs, and eliminate or reduce risky sexual behaviors among adolescent females that have been diagnosed with an STD.

Impact: The Safer Sex project shows that individualized safer sex interventions may improve condom use and decrease the number of partners among adolescent girls who have had an STD.

School Lunch Initiative (Berkeley, CA)

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

Goal: The primary goal of the School Lunch Initiative is to transform the way Berkeley public school students eat lunch and to educate children about food, health, and the environment.

Impact: Three years after its conception, the program successfully eliminated nearly all processed foods from the school district dining halls and introduced fresh and organic foods to the daily menu. There was evidence that greater exposure to the School Lunch Initiative was significantly associated with higher nutrition knowledge scores among fourth graders and seventh graders. Furthermore, elementary school students from the schools with highly developed School Lunch Initiative components clearly expressed a higher preference for fruits and vegetables.

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.