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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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Childhood Matters/Nuestro Niños (Northern California)

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

Goal: The programs’ mission is to inform and inspire parents and all who care about children so that every child may be happy, healthy, and thrive.

Children's National Parish Nursing Program (Washington, D.C.)

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

Goal: The goal is to increase awareness in faith-based communities regarding preventative care for children and services available at Children's National Medical Center for patients and families.

Impact: The Parish Nursing Program will train eight nurses to become Faith Community Nurses in Summer 2013.

Children's National Universal HIV Screening Program (Washington, D.C.)

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

Goal: The goal of this project is to achieve high rates of identification of new HIV infection and to decrease the spread of HIV among youth in metropolitan DC, which is severely affected by the epidemic.

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.

Choosing Healthy And Rewarding Meals (CHARM) School Program (Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Choosing Healthy and Rewarding Meals (CHARM) School Program is to promote healthy eating habits and teach life skills.

Chronic Disease Care Management Program (Somerset County, NJ)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Older Adults

Goal: A key goal of this program is to help clients continue to reside at home, despite serious chronic conditions.

Chronic Disease Self-Managment Education in a Recreation Setting (Sedgwick County, KS)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Diabetes, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of this workshop is to build the participants’ self-confidence in their ability to manage their health and maintain active and fulfilling lives despite their chronic disease condition.

Impact: In 2016 Derby Health Collaborative hosted six free self-management education courses in partnership with the Derby School District, the Derby Senior Center, the Derby Public Library and the Kansas State Extension and Research Center. Workshops will continue in 2017.

Chronic Pain Self-Management Program (Canada)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Other Conditions, Adults

Goal: CPSMP seeks to help build self-management skills in individuals who have a primary or secondary diagnosis of chronic pain.

Chronic Truancy Initiative

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the initiative was to address poor attendance and other problems within families of identified chronic elementary school truants who missed 20 percent or more of school days within a 6-week period.

Clean School Bus USA (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Transportation, Children

Goal: The goal of Clean School Bus USA is to reduce both children's exposure to diesel exhaust and the amount of air pollution created by diesel school buses.

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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