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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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Inner-City Asthma Intervention (San Antonio, TX)

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

Goal: Effective asthma control can improve quality of life, reduce medical costs, and reduce the number of asthma-related emergency department visits, hospitalizations, school and work days missed, days of restricted activity, and deaths each year.

Program to Encourage Active, Rewarding Lives for Seniors (PEARLS) (Washington)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of the PEARLS program is to provide home-based counseling in order to manage and treat depression among older adults.

Avenues to Independence (ATI) (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: To provide shelter to homeless and at-risk young adults aged 18-24 as well as assistance to secure stable and independent living situations.

CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Interventions to Reduce Sexual Risk Behaviors or Increase Protective Behaviors to Prevent Acquisition of HIV in Men Who Have Sex with Men: Individual-, Group-, and Community-Level Behavioral Interventions (USA)

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Men's Health, Men

Goal: The goal of the HIV behavioral interventions program is to reduce unprotected anal intercourse among men who have sex with men.

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends individual-level HIV behavioral interventions for adult men who have sex with men to reduce unprotected anal intercourse. Related findings recommend HIV behavioral interventions at the group level and community level.

Texas: Improving Data Collection for a Comprehensive Cancer Control Program (Texas)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Cancer

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve the collection and utilization of cancer data in Texas.

The AIMS Model

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Older Adults, Adults, Older Adults

Goal: The Ambulatory Integration of the Medical and Social (AIMS) model aims to address social and environmental factors patients face that may prevent them from following their plan of care, thus impacting their health.

Impact: The AIMS model helps create better supported, less stressed, and better informed consumers and caregivers. There is also evidence to suggest that this model reduces ED usage and 30-day readmissions in participants.

Women Take PRIDE in Managing Heart Disease (Albany, NY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults

Goal: This project seeks to demonstrate the effectiveness of both providing the intervention and recruiting participants in a community setting.

Hope Street Family Center- Early Head Start Program (Los Angeles)

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

Goal: The program’s goal is to provide comprehensive child development and family support services to families with children 0–3 in order for parents to support and encourage their children’s early growth, development and school readiness.

Parent to Parent Program (Marin, Napa, Solano and Sonoma, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Disabilities, Children, Families

Goal: The program's mission is to empower families of children with special needs to understand and access the systems that serve them.

Project Homeless Connect (San Francisco)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Urban

Goal: The mission of Project Homeless Connect (PHC) is to connect homeless San Franciscans with the care they need to move forward. The goals of Project Homeless Connect are to:

- Improve access to services for homeless San Franciscans.
- Improve the system of care through collaboration and the sharing of best practices among San Francisco’s homeless service provider community.
- Engage and increase the involvement of the business, nonprofit community, and individual volunteers to work together to provide access to services for homeless San Franciscans.
- To leverage the private sector, corporations, and foundations to expand service capacity and funds.

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.