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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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Strengthening Families Program (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goals of this program are to improve parenting skills and children’s behaviors and decrease conduct disorders; to improve children’s social competencies; and to improve family attachment, harmony, communication, and organization.

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.

Washington DC One-Stop (Washington, DC)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment

Goal: The goal of this program is to help move people from public assistance to employment.

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.

Baby, Be Safe (Washington D.C.)

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

Goal: The goal of Baby, Be Safe is to increase the use of child injury prevention measures.

Impact: Participants who received tailored educational materials reported greater adoption of home and car safety behaviors than those receiving generic information. This study offers promising findings to help prevent injuries to young children.

Children's Village (Washington)

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

Goal: Children's Village seeks to connect children with special needs and their families with supportive services.

EnhanceFitness (Seattle, WA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of EnhanceFitness is to encourage older adults to engage in regular physical activity to improve their health and well-being.

Impact: EnhanceFitness participants reported a 13% improvement in social function, a 52% improvement in depression, and a 35% improvement in physical functioning. Additionally, participants' healthcare costs were 21% less than those of non-participants after one year.

Mapping Our Voices for Equity (MOVE) (King County, WA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Community & Business Resources, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: MOVE goals are to visually demonstrate health inequities and positive changes in Washington State, to highlight local Communities Putting Prevention to Work efforts to improve health, and to foster local partnerships.

Impact: The MOVE initiative is empowering community members to identify and raise awareness of the health inequities impacting them.

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Adults

Goal: The mission of Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is to create a nationwide network of trails from former rail lines and connecting corridors to build healthier places for healthier people.

Impact: Rails-to-Trails Conservancy encourages people of all ages and abilities to get outside and be active on a rail-trail. The organization serves 150,000 members and supporters on over 20,000 miles of rail-trail.

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Pittsburgh, PA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Teens

Goal: The goals of the center are to alleviate serious symptoms and promote healthy coping responses in traumatized children and their families.

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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