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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 Pacific Hotel: Low-Income Housing (Seattle, WA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Urban

Goal: PHG works to eliminate homelessness and stabilize homeless and very low-income people in housing by preserving, developing and operating safe, decent, affordable housing, and by providing opportunities for homeless and very low-income people to improve their lives.

The Southern Maryland Tri-County Community Action Committee, Inc. (SMTCCAC) (Maryland)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes

Goal: The mission of this organization is to provide services for eligible citizens that alleviate the causes and conditions of poverty, promote upward mobility, and enrich the quality of life.

Transitional Respite Care for the Homeless Program (Spokane, WA)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Women, Men

Goal: The respite program's goal is to stop the revolving door of emergency department treatment by providing a supervised facility with a level of care from an on-site nurse similar to what a patient might receive from an attentive family member.

Impact: The program has been able to provide better care for a vulnerable population and reduce overall cost of care by lowering the number of ambulance calls, emergency department visits, and inpatient stays.

Working toward Wellness (Rhode Island)

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

Goal: The goal of the Working toward Wellness program was to encourage depressed parents who were receiving Medicaid to seek treatment from a mental health professional.

Impact: The Working toward Wellness program succeeded in increasing the likelihood that depressed Medicaid parents sought mental health services, particularly among the Hispanic population.

Youth Villages YVLifeSet

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Teens

Goal: Youth Villages helps children and families live successfully.

Youth with Disabilities Demonstration Project (Seattle, WA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment

Goal: The overall objective of the project was to identify and provide additional support and services to those youth, ages 14-21 enrolled in WIA-supported youth programs with mental health care needs.

Adventure Diversion Program (Carroll County, MD)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Teens

Goal: The goal of the Adventure Diversion Program is to reduce the number of out-of-home placements for juveniles who have violated probation.

Be Smart & Seal Them! (Washington)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Oral Health

Goal: The goal of the Be Smart & Seal Them! program is to provide dental sealants proven to prevent tooth decay to second grade students.

Bridges . . . from school to work (Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment, Children

Goal: The Foundation's mission is to foster the employment of young people with disabilities.

Career Pathways (Seattle-King County, WA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve retention of hospital employees to address critical shortages in health care staffing.

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.
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