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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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Free Nicotine Patch Program (New York, NY)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The program was designed to direct-mail a free, six-week course of nicotine treatment to eligible callers, thereby increasing access and reducing cost to people who wanted to stop smoking and improve their health.

Low Literacy Intervention to Promote Discussion of Prostate Cancer (Atlanta, GA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Men

Goal: To educate men over the age of 45 about prostate cancer and to increase prostate cancer screening in order to reduce the incidence of prostate cancer.

Project Students Helping Others Understand Tobacco (SHOUT) (San Diego County, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens, Urban

Goal: The goal of Project Students Helping Others Understand Tobacco (SHOUT) is to use a school-based curriculum to prevent tobacco use among adolescents.

Sembrando Salud (San Diego County, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: This program is designed to improve parent-child communication skills as a way of improving and maintaining healthy decision-making.

Teen Pregnancy Project/ Sexual Violence Action Team (Ramsey County, MN)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Family Planning

Goal: The TPP/SVAT was formed to:

- Decrease isolation of persons working on teen pregnancy and sexual violence issues in Ramsey County communities.
- Increase their access to best practice information and culture-specific resources.
- Increase public understanding of teen pregnancy and sexual violence issues and effective prevention.
- Improve public policy related to teen pregnancy and sexual violence issues.

The program's objectives include:

- Developing and continuing to expand a community coalition for members' capacity building and leadership development.
- Increasing use of culture-specific practices.
- Increasing community awareness and understanding of teen pregnancy and sexual violence issues.
- Promoting teen health services.
- Encouraging schools to implement effective comprehensive sexuality education.

Teen Videofest (Tarrant County, TX)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens

Goal: The goal of this project is to give teenagers a meaningful and valuable way to help other teens improve their health and well-being through the positive messages they incorporate in their videos.

Wisconsin Adolescent Health Care Communication Program

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens

Goal: The Wisconsin Adolescent Health Care Communication Program (WAHCCP) seeks to improve communication between providers and adolescent patients, and therefore improve the delivery of sexual and reproductive health care to young people in Wisconsin.

Impact: The Wisconsin Adolescent Health Care Communication Program bridges the communication gap between adolescents and their health care providers through two workshops resulting in increasing knowledge, self-efficacy, and behavioral intentions among participants.

Building Community Supports for Diabetes (Galveston County, TX)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Diabetes, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural

Goal: The goal of the program was to improve the health outcomes of people with type 2 diabetes by training community coaches to teach effective self-care.

Community Coalition: Crime Reduction Through Closing Liquor Stores in South Los Angeles (South Los Angeles)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Prevention & Safety, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: To reduce alcohol and drug related crime and violence in South Los Angeles by closing liquor stores known to be involved in or at the center of crime, violence and illegal activity.

Flex Your Power Case Study: City of Poway (Poway, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: The goal of the City of Poway's projects was to improve energy efficiency and to reduce energy costs.

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.