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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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The Virginia Cardiovascular Health Program (Virginia)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve blood pressure monitoring and treatment.

Transcendental Meditation Stress Reduction Intervention for Congestive Heart Failure (Philadelphia, PA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the intervention is to use meditation to improve health and reduce the risk of heart failure among older African Americans with congestive heart failure.

Washington State Perinatal Partnership Against Domestic Violence (Washington)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Women's Health, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of this project is to improve systems of care for Asian and Pacific Islander pregnant women who are experiencing domestic violence in order to address disparities in pregnancy outcomes in the Asian Pacific Islander Community.

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Note: This practice has been Archived.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.

Disability Awareness Training (San Diego, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Educational Attainment

Goal: The goal of this program was to teach staff the skills necessary to encourage an optimum learning environment for disabled students.

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

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability

Goal: The goal of these projects is to improve energy efficiency in Redondo Beach.

Out-of-School Time Care (Colorado)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to promote the academic success of school-age children while also addressing the needs of working parents who need quality child care services.

Providing Educational Enrichment for Students Expelled from Traditional School Settings (Indianapolis, IN)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of the Opportunity School is to provide educational enrichment for middle school (6th - 8th grades) students who have been expelled from standard school settings.

Risk-Based Targeted Tuberculosis Screening In Virginia (Virginia)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The goal of the program is to optimize the efficient utilization of public health resources by targeting tuberculin screening activities to persons at increased risk for TB infection or disease.

Signs to Promote Stair Use (El Paso, TX )

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle, Adults, Women, Men, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: To increase physical activity among Hispanic populations by promoting the use of stairways.

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.