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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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Cervical Cancer Screening and Follow-up (Brevard County, FL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Women's Health, Women

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide timely, effective, clinically appropriate intervention for abnormal Pap tests at no or very-low cost in order to reduce cervical cancer mortality.

Charlotte Maxwell Complementary Clinic (Oakland and San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alternative Medicine, Women, Urban

Goal: CMCC’s mission is to ensure more equitable access to the full range of evidence-based cancer treatments, programs and resources that could potentially benefit individuals diagnosed with cancer, allowing the women who come to our clinics to make informed choices about their health care and their lives.

Child Development-Community Policing Program (New Haven, CT)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Domestic Violence & Abuse, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Child Development-Community Policing Program (CDCP) is to reduce the negative consequences of exposure to violent and potentially traumatic events among children and their families.

Impact: The CDCP Program shows that through community policing efforts, it is possible to successfully intervene early in an attempt to ameliorate the effects of children's exposure to violence.

Child Passenger Safety Partnership of Maricopa County (Maricopa County, AZ)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce motor vehicle injuries and fatalities among children in Maricopa County.

Community Gardens Program (Trenton, NJ)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Urban

Goal: Isles, Inc., is a nationally recognized nonprofit community development and environmental organization with the mission to foster more self-reliant families in healthy, sustainable communities.

Community Nutrition and Urban Gardening (Riverdale, MD)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / School Environment, Children, Urban

Goal: The goal of the program is to build sustainable, local, urban gardens, in order to deliver more reliable and better nutrition to today’s youth and urban communities.

Community-Based Multiple Risk Factor Intervention for Cardiovascular Risk (Baltimore, MD)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease among African American families with a history of coronary disease.

Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP) (formerly the Coronary Health Improvement Project) (Rockford, IL)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults

Goal: The goal of the CHIP lifestyle intervention is to lower blood cholesterol, hypertension, and blood sugar levels and reduce excess weight.

Impact: CHIP has over 55,000 graduates worldwide and sustains adherence to the program guidelines through an active "ClubCHIP" member support organization.

Consistency Management & Cooperative Discipline (Houston, TX)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve classroom management in order to provide a better learning environment that fosters academic success.

Credit Builders Alliance (Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Investment & Personal Finance, Adults, Urban

Goal: The mission of Credit Builders Alliance is to help low and moderate income individuals build their credit and access conventional financing.

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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