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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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Youth Speaks (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Literacy, Teens

Goal: Youth Speaks aims to empower youth and effect change through written and oral literacy.

Youth Villages YVLifeSet

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Teens

Goal: Youth Villages helps children and families live successfully.

Youth Work Together to Improve Community Conditions

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment

Goal: The goal of this initiative was to pinpoint community conditions that were detrimental to health in the Planada, California community.

Impact: The Student Education Empowerment Development Squad (SEEDS), with the help of the Central California Regional Obesity Prevention Program (CCROPP), addressed community issues through a youth-led process using Prevention Institute’s Tool for Health and Resilience in Vulnerable Environments (THRIVE).

Zoning for a Healthy Baltimore

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of Zoning for a Healthy Baltimore is to influence the final version of Baltimore’s new zoning code by informing stakeholders and decision-makers about the new zoning code’s potential to create healthy communities and decrease health disparities, with an emphasis on preventing obesity and crime.

Impact: Zoning for a Healthy Baltimore is an HIA of the Baltimore zoning code rewrite in order to maximize the potential to create healthier communities. Since publication, Baltimore has revised its zoning code to incorporate dispersal standards and other strategies related to placement of alcohol outlets.

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Note: This practice has been Archived.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.

Discovering Previously Unidentified Foodborne Illness Risks through Discussion (Olmstead County, MN)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Food Safety

Goal: The goal of this program was to promote the active management of food borne illness risk factors by food service operators. Its objectives were to: shift the food safety program's focus from counting violations to evaluating food safety risks and systems, use an assessment process based on discussion of foodborne illness risks with the manger/operator, and develop the ability to track assessment results toward the Healthy People 2010 goals.

Shoulder to Shoulder (Twin Cities, MN)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Families

Goal: The goal of Shoulder to Shoulder is to reach parents of teens with good advice about parenting their adolescents and help parents adopt strategies that are proven to reduce risky behaviors.

Coalition to Reduce HIV in Broward County (Broward County, FL)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Coalition to Reduce HIV in Broward County is to eliminate disparities in HIV disease in Broward County.

Impact: Disparities in new diagnoses of HIV among Hispanic residents of Broward County were eliminated and cut in half among non-Hispanic residents.

Flex Your Power Case Study: San Bernardino County (San Bernardino County)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: San Bernardino County’s goal in 2001 was to reduce its energy use by 10 percent.

King County (KC) Kids Oral Health Program (King County, WA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Oral Health, Children, Urban

Goal: The goal of the KC Kids Oral Health Program was to provide no-cost dental services to children who lived between 250% and 300% of the Federal Poverty Level.

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.