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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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Centering Pregnancy Plus Program (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Teens, Women, Urban

Goal: The Centering Pregnancy Plus Project aims to reduce risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and improve health outcomes for young pregnant women, aged 14-21.

Impact: Facilitated group discussions promoting condom use among young women can increase condom use among participants.

Checkpoints Program (Connecticut)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Teens

Goal: The goal of the Checkpoints Program is to encourage parental limits on teen driving, and decrease risky teen driving.

Impact: The Checkpoints Program increased the rate at which parents placed greater limits on high-risk teen driving conditions and decreased traffic violations among teens.

Choosing Life: Empowerment, Actions, Results (CLEAR) (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of the CLEAR intervention is to empower HIV-positive youth to reduce risk behaviors and improve mental and physical health.

CHOPPS: Preventing childhood obesity by reducing consumption of carbonated drinks (United Kingdon)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of CHOPPS is to prevent childhood obesity by reducing the consumption of carbonated drinks among adolescents aged 7-11 through the implementation of an educational program.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adolescent Depression (Pittsburg, PA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Teens

Goal: The goal of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adolescent Depression is to treat depressive symptoms in adolescents.

Impact: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adolescent Depression showed more rapid treatment response than both systematic behavior family therapy and non-directive support therapy. CBT also showed a greater rate of decline in self-reported depression over time.

Communities That Care (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Children, Teens, Families

Goal: The goal of Communities That Care is to mobilize communities to prevent future substance abuse by reducing risk factors for children between the ages of 10 and 14.

Impact: Communities That Care reduces initiation of substance abuse behaviors in youth aged 10-14.

Consistency Management & Cooperative Discipline (Houston, TX)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / School Environment, Children, Teens, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve classroom management in order to provide a better learning environment that fosters academic success.

Coping and Support Training (CAST) (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens

Goal: The goal of CAST training is to deliver life-skills training to high-risk high school students in order to increase mood management skills, improve school performance, and decrease drug involvement.

Impact: CAST participants in several NIH-funded studies saw significant and sustained reduction of suicide risk behaviors, reduction of drug use, reduction in depression, increase in personal control, increase in problem-solving, and increase in family support.

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.