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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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Youth Uprising (Oakland, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Urban

Goal: Youth UpRising aims to build youth leadership and affect positive community change by ensuring that youth and young adults are supported in the following key areas:
- Consciousness Raising that exposes them to a broader set of realities to develop their capacity to think critically about personal and community experiences;
- Personal Transformation that builds their capacity to transform experiences of trauma and oppression into opportunities for positive personal and community change; and
- Hard Skill/Leadership Development that increases their creativity, strengths, and skills as effective leaders who are competitive in the marketplace.

Let's Beat Diabetes (LBD) (South Auckland, New Zealand)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Diabetes, Urban

Goal: The goal of Let's Beat Diabetes is to prevent new and manage existing cases of Type II Diabetes.

Farm to Hospital (USA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity

Goal: The goals of Farm to Hospital programs are to create partnerships between local farmers and hospitals in order to bring fresh, healthy food to medical facilities and to create new markets for local farmers.

Flex Your Power Case Study: Arden Realty and next>edge (Los Angeles, CA)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability, Urban

Goal: The goal of next>edge is to maximize energy efficiency for commercial facilities.

The Tri-State Stroke Network

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke

Goal: The goal of the Network is to increase public awareness about the signs and symptoms of stroke.

Community Coalition: Crime Reduction Through Closing Liquor Stores in South Los Angeles (South Los Angeles)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

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

Goal: To reduce alcohol and drug related crime and violence in South Los Angeles by closing liquor stores known to be involved in or at the center of crime, violence and illegal activity.

CYFAR New Communities Project (Idaho)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural

Goal: CYFAR New Communities Project's goal is to bridge the digital divide and offer under served youth in low-income communities experiential learning activities that develop workforce preparation skills.

New York's Facilitated Enrollers for Health Insurance (New York)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Families

Goal: The goal of this program is to help New York families apply for public health care programs.

Open Road of New York (New York, NY)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Urban

Goal: Open Road was created to develop programs and environments with and for young people that promote community, independence and self respect. They develop these programs in partnership with neighborhood groups in need of new natural, educational, and recreational environments. These new environments create new bonds between people of all ages, who unite to establish a living community resource.

Condom Availability in New York Public Schools (New York City)

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Urban

Goal: To increase condom use among sexually active high school students.

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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