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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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Experience Corps (USA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Experience Corps is to improve the cognitive, physical, and psychological function of retired senior citizens while simultaneously employing their free time to help narrow the achievement gap in urban, low-income elementary schools

First-grade Gardeners More Likely to Taste Vegetables (California)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of this pilot study was to assess the feasibility of garden-based education programs for elementary-school students in order to develop and evaluate a comprehensive, garden-enhanced nutrition education program for elementary students.

Good Behavior Game (Baltimore, MD)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is designed to improve aggressive/disruptive classroom behavior and prevent later criminality.

Growing Healthy (USA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The main objective of Growing Healthy is to give students the tools to resist the social pressures to smoke, use alcohol or other drugs, and engage in other risky behavior.

Health Works for Women (North Carolina)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: Health Works for Women aims to help low-income and minority women improve their health by eating healthier, being physically active, quitting smoking, and managing their stress.

Impact: This health promotion project was a successful model for blue collared women to obtain certain health behavior changes.

Know Your Body

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of KYB is to teach students the necessary knowledge, attitudes, skills, and experience to practice positive health behaviors and reduce their risk of future illness.

Impact: Studies suggest that the program had a favorable impact on many risk factors, such as systolic and diastolic pressures, HDL cholesterol, ratio of total to HDL cholesterol, fitness (postexercise pulse recovery rate), and smoking.

Low Literacy Intervention to Promote Discussion of Prostate Cancer (Atlanta, GA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Men

Goal: To educate men over the age of 45 about prostate cancer and to increase prostate cancer screening in order to reduce the incidence of prostate cancer.

Modelo de Intervencion Psicomedica (Puerto Rico)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of Modelo de Intervencion Psicomedica is to reduce high-risk behaviors that can lead to infection and transmission of HIV among intravenous drug users.

Oral Health Care Education for Nursing Home Caregivers (UK)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of this educational program was to improve the quality of oral health care nursing home residents received from their caregivers.

Impact: This study shows that oral health care education can improve caregivers' knowledge, attitudes and oral health care delivery for elderly clients.

Parents As Teachers

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Families

Goal: The mission of this program is to provide the information, support and encouragement parents need to help their children develop optimally during the crucial early years of life.

Impact: The Parents as Teachers (PAT) program had no effect on improving child or parent outcomes.

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.