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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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Challenging College Alcohol Abuse (Tucson, AZ)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the negative impact of alcohol abuse on campus life by correcting students' perceptions about alcohol use and by making the campus less conducive to drinking.

Children's National Parish Nursing Program (Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal is to increase awareness in faith-based communities regarding preventative care for children and services available at Children's National Medical Center for patients and families.

Impact: The Parish Nursing Program will train eight nurses to become Faith Community Nurses in Summer 2013.

Chronic Disease Care Management Program (Somerset County, NJ)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Older Adults

Goal: A key goal of this program is to help clients continue to reside at home, despite serious chronic conditions.

Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens

Goal: The goal of CMCA is to change policies and practices of major community institutions to reduce underage access to alcohol.

Impact: CMCA intervention significantly and favorably affected drinking behavior of 18- to 20-year olds and also significantly and favorably affected the practices of establishments serving alcohol. Alcohol merchants increased age-identification checking and reduced their sales to minors. Older teenagers (18 to 20 years old) reduced their provision of alcohol to other teens and were less likely to try to buy alcohol or drink in a bar. Arrests for driving under the influence of alcohol declined significantly among 18- to 20-year-olds.

Corporation for Supportive Housing (USA)

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

Goal: Corporation for Supportive Housing's mission is to help communities create permanent housing with services to prevent and end homelessness.

Corrections Demonstration Project (California)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the CDP was to improve health care access for incarcerated individuals and at-risk minority populations disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS.

Drinking Water Nitrification Surveillance Program (Lee County, FL)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health

Goal: The goal of this program is to detect nitrification in drinking water in order to protect infants under six months old from methemoglobinemia and prevent other consequential bacteriological problems.

DuPage Narcan Program (DuPage County, IL)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Urban

Goal: The goal of the program is to provide police departments, schools and others with Naloxone and proper training to save lives from heroin overdose and to provide individuals with a chance to recover.

Impact: In the first six months of the second year, 26 saves were recorded.

Elev8 (Chicago, Oakland, Baltimore, and New Mexico)

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

Goal: Elev8 brings together schools, families and the community in low-income areas to ensure that students succeed in school and in life.

Engage DuPage (DuPage County, IL)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children, Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: The goals of Engage DuPage include improving the health status of self-pay Emergency Department patients, increasing the revenue appropriately owed to hospitals for services rendered, improving the financial assistance processes involving self-pay Emergency Department patients, and reducing the number of avoidable Emergency Department visits among self-pay patients.

Impact: By the end of 2014, 57% of all benefit applications that were submitted were approved. In addition, 29% of all interested patients were connected to a primary care provider through a Community Access Specialist.

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.