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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 Incredible Years: Palm Beach County (Palm Beach County, FL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families

Goal: The program aims to promote social, emotional, and academic competence and to prevent children from developing conduct problems.

Impact: The Incredible Years series has been shown to increase positive parenting practices and family communication while reducing children's conduct problems.

The Strive Partnership (Cincinnati, OH)

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

Goal: The Strive Partnership is focused on the success of children: every child, every step, from cradle to career.

THINK Together (Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Teens, Urban

Goal: THINK together's mission is to provide high quality academically-oriented out-of-school programs for students regardless of race, creed, or socioeconomic status.

Touchpoints (USA)

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

Goal: To strengthen families of young children and the systems of care that surround them so that all children will be successful early learners and have the opportunity to thrive, regardless of their cultural, socioeconomic, physical, psychological, emotional health, or environmental challenges.

Touchpoints: Palm Beach (Palm Beach County, FL)

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

Goal: To strengthen families of young children and the systems of care that surround them so that all children will be successful early learners and have the opportunity to thrive, regardless of their cultural, socioeconomic, physical, psychological, emotional health, or environmental challenges.

DLM Early Childhood Express/Imagine It! (Palm Beach)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: To improve the school readiness of children in Palm Beach County.

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

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.

PAVEd for Success

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of the PAVEd for Success program is to improve the literacy outcomes of children.

The CrossPoints Project: Using Virtual Reality to Teach Pedestrian Safety to Children (Ontario, Canada)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: The goal of the CrossPoints Project is to use a Virtual Reality software program to teach pedestrian safety to children.

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.
Michigan Health Improvement Alliance