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

Vaccination Programs: Community-Based Interventions Implemented in Combination

CDC

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

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends using a combination of community-based interventions to increase vaccination rates in targeted populations.
Interventions may aim to increase community demand, enhance access to vaccination services, or reduce missed opportunities by vaccination providers.

Vamos a Nadar (Let's Go Swimming) (Sonoma)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Prevention & Safety, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: To promote water safety in the Latino community.

Vietnamese REACH for Health Initiative (VRHI) (Santa Clara County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Cancer, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Vietnamese REACH for Health Initiative is to promote awareness and use of breast and cervical cancer screening.

Violence Intervention Program (VIP) (Los Angeles, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Domestic Violence & Abuse, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: The mission of the Violence Intervention Program is to protect and treat all victims of family violence and sexual assault.

Washington's WorkFirst Program (Washington)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Government Assistance

Goal: The goal of this program is to help individuals move toward self-sufficiency.

WISEWOMAN Michigan (Lansing, MI)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Cancer, Women

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce barriers to exercise and increase the likelihood that people will engage in physical activity.

With All Families: Parents (Hamilton County, OH)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Adults, Women, Men, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of With All Families: Parents is to support pediatric care visits and improve child welfare by using screening tools and individual parent coaching to identify and address social determinants of health. Specific program objectives are to improve family functioning generally while specifically focusing on improving protective factors and economic-self-sufficiency. As part of the program, staff also work with families to increase parent concrete support and connect parents to needed physical health, behavior health, and educational resources for their child.

Research supports the benefits of using the strategies employed by With All Families: Parents (i.e., screening, resource navigation, and parent coaching) to improve family welfare by addressing underlying risk factors related to poverty and access to resources. For example, programs designed to provide screening and resource navigation support are associated with reduced social needs, improved child health and decreased child hospitalization visits. In light of evidence suggesting that social factors may in fact play a larger role in determining one’s health than medical care, programs that target these social factors, such as With All Families: Parents, are becoming increasingly important.

References
Garg, A., Toy, S., Tripodis, Y., Silverstein, M., & Freeman, E. (2015). Addressing social determinants of health at well child care visits: a cluster RCT. Pediatrics, 135(2), e296-e304.

Gottlieb, L. M., Hessler, D., Long, D., Laves, E., Burns, A. R., Amaya, A., ... & Adler, N. E. (2016). Effects of social needs screening and in-person service navigation on child health: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA pediatrics, 170(11), e162521-e162521.

Pantell, M. S., Hessler, D., Long, D., Alqassari, M., Schudel, C., Laves, E., ... & Gottlieb, L. M. (2020). Effects of in-person navigation to address family social needs on child health care utilization: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA network open, 3(6), e206445-e206445.

Braveman, P., & Gottlieb, L. (2014). The social determinants of health: it's time to consider the causes of the causes. Public health reports, 129(1_suppl2), 19-31.

Workplace Implementation of Act in Time (Montana)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults

Goal: The goal of the Act in Time campaign is to increase awareness to the signs and symptoms of heart attack and the need to call 911 for emergency medical services.

Youth Opportunity Baltimore (Baltimore, MD)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Literacy, Urban

Goal: YO! Baltimore helps young people, previously disconnected from traditional learning environments, to increase their wage earnings and education credentials.

Zoning for a Healthy Baltimore

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of Zoning for a Healthy Baltimore is to influence the final version of Baltimore’s new zoning code by informing stakeholders and decision-makers about the new zoning code’s potential to create healthy communities and decrease health disparities, with an emphasis on preventing obesity and crime.

Impact: Zoning for a Healthy Baltimore is an HIA of the Baltimore zoning code rewrite in order to maximize the potential to create healthier communities. Since publication, Baltimore has revised its zoning code to incorporate dispersal standards and other strategies related to placement of alcohol outlets.

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.