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.

Submit a Promising Practice

NutriActive (Iowa)

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

Goal: The goal of this intervention is to improve motor skills and fitness in young children. Fitness and motor skills development early in life can lay the foundation for successful lifelong physical activity participation.

Impact: A short-duration lifestyle intervention can have a lasting effect on children's fitness and motor skills development.

Nutrition Detectives

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children

Goal: The goal of the program is to provide elementary schools with a low-cost, non-invasive curriculum to educate elementary school children on how to read nutrition labels, differentiate between marketing versus reality, and select healthier food options.

Impact: Nutrition Detectives shows that a low-cost, non-invasive educational program based around downloadable videos, presentations, and materials can improve young students' and their parents' ability to make healthier food and nutrition choices.

Options/Opciones Project (New Haven and Hartford, CT)

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

Goal: The goal of the Options/Opciones Project is to reduce or eliminate risky sexual and drug use behaviors of HIV-infected patients.

Impact: The Options/Opciones Project shows that a clinician-delivered HIV prevention intervention targeting HIV-infected patients can result in reductions in unprotected sex and that interventions of this kind should be integrated into routine HIV clinical care.

Outdoor Air Quality Flag Program (San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Air, Children

Goal: The program aims to accomplish two things in Central California: (1) permanently change local policy with respect to existing operating procedures in school districts and schools to help reduce exposure of students, teachers, staff and nearly communities to outdoor environmental asthma triggers ;and (2) provide education on air quality and potential health effects from exposure to air pollutants.

PeaceBuilders (Pima County, AZ)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce youth violence and aggressive behavior by initiating prevention early in childhood, increasing children's resilience, and reinforcing positive behaviors.

Impact: One evaluation found that there was an 89% decrease in physical aggression and an 82% decrease in verbal aggression for participating students.

Peers Making Peace

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve the school environment by reducing violence, assaults, discipline referrals, and increasing academic performance.

Impact: An evaluation found that discipline referrals decreased by 57.7%, assaults decreased by 90.2%, and expulsions decreased by 73.0% in participating schools.

Phoenix Healthy Homes (Phoenix, AZ)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Respiratory Diseases, Children, Teens, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Phoenix Healthy Homes project was to use a multi-factorial approach to reduce hazard prevalence and improve self-reports of home safety and respiratory health.

Impact: The Phoenix Healthy Homes project showed that a tailored healthy homes improvement package significantly improves self-reported respiratory health and safety, reduces respiratory health and injury hazards, and can be implemented in concert with a mobile clinical setting.

Poder Latino: Community AIDS Prevention Program for Inner-City Latino Youth (Boston, MA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Community AIDS Prevention Program is to educate inner city Latino adolescents about how to reduce risk related to HIV/AIDS, and to encourage sexually active teens to use condoms.

Impact: This program shows that prevention programs targeting HIV/AIDS risk-reduction strategies and condom use encouragement can delay male initiation of sexual intercourse, reduce females' number of sexual partners, and increase likelihood of possessing a condom among sexually active youth.

Portland Fruit Tree Project (Portland)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Families, Urban

Goal: To increase equitable access to healthy food and strengthen communities by empowering neighbors to share in the harvest and care of city-grown produce.

Portland JOBS Training Program (Portland, OR)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy, Adults, Urban

Goal: The program’s main focus was on moving welfare recipients quickly into the workforce.

Impact: There was a sizable increase in employment rates and job earnings, reduction in welfare dependency, and savings to the government.

An Effective Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

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.
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:

The program description includes: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program funding source, program implementation steps and outcomes.
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:

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.
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.
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.