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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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Building Essential Skills through Training/ BayStateWorks (Massachusetts)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment

Goal: The goal of this program was to improve the skills and productivity of the Massachusetts workforce.

Burlington Legacy Project (Burlington, VT)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Economic Climate

Goal: The goal of this program is to create a strategy for a sustainable Burlington.

Business Case for Breastfeeding (Kansas)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Adults, Women, Families

Goal: To improve the health and well-being of Kansans by working collaboratively to promote, protect and support breastfeeding.

Impact: Investing in nursing employee support services has proven to produce a 3 to 1 ROI through greater employee retention, increased productivity, lower health care costs and decreased sick days.

Buying Nutritional Food on a Limited Budget (Wisconsin)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Teens, Older Adults, Families

Goal: This program seeks to encourage low-income elderly, families, and youth to learn about nutrition through research-based education programs. It offers advice on how to eat healthy foods on a limited budget.

California Childcare Healthline (San Francisco Bay Area)

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

Goal: The goals of this program are to promote and maintain the broadest understanding of health and wellness in early childhood settings and to create linkages and promote collaboration between health and safety professionals and child care professionals.

Cancer Screening Office Systems (Cancer SOS) (Hillsborough County, FL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the Cancer SOS provider education program is to increase cancer screening in primary care settings serving disadvantaged populations.

Cancer Screenings for Incarcerated Women (Indianapolis, IN)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Cancer, Women

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide routine cancer screenings to the underserved population of incarcerated women in Indiana.

Car Heaven (Canada)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Air, Adults

Goal: The Car Heaven program aims to help Canadians reduce their personal impact on the environment by providing car retirement services for their old, higher-polluting vehicles.

Career Academy

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to foster academic success among at-risk 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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