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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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Goodwill Industries Transitional Jobs Program (San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin)

Local

Filed under Local, Effective Practice, Economy / Employment

Goal: The goal of this program is to help individuals make a successful transition to employment.

Summer Bridge (Marin)

Local

Filed under Local, Effective Practice, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Families

Goal: The program's goal is to help four- and five-year old children become better prepared for kindergarten.

Marin Community Benefit Cooperative (Marin, CA)

Local

Filed under Local, Good Idea, Environmental Health / Energy & Sustainability, Adults, Urban

Goal: MCBC's mission and work is about educating, assisting, and empowering individuals to live and work more harmoniously with nature and their community to avoid further ruin of the planet's finite life-sustaining capacity. A principal objective of its mission is to end waste as we know it today.

Marin County Safe Routes to Schools (Marin)

Local

Filed under Local, Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Children, Teens, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Safe Routes to School program is to improve safety and encourage more children to safely walk and bicycle to school. In addition, the programs work toward reducing traffic congestion and improving health and the environment.

Homeward Bound of Marin (HBOM) (Marin, CA)

Local

Note: This practice has been Archived.

Filed under Local, Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Rural

Goal: Homeward Bound of Marin's mission is to address and solve the homelessness problem in Marin County.

Mailed Psychoeducational Intervention for Colorectal Cancer Screening (England)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve colorectal cancer screening rates among older adults.

Impact: Participants in the intervention group had significantly higher colorectal cancer screening attendance, as well as having more positive attitudes about screening and placing a higher priority on screening.

Adopt-A-Ship Program (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to introduce teachers and students in grades 5 - 8 to the people, vessels, and activities of the American Merchant Marine, and to foster an interest in geography, history, transportation, trade, science, math, and English.

Best Start for Families: A Health Equity Approach (Illinois)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Adults, Women, Men, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: To partner within communities and organizations to train professionals, community and parent leaders so the “Best Start” program can reach and support all families, but especially marginalized or struggling families and communities; to build the strong family/home, school and community environments that are necessary to support positive mental health, confidence, resilience and hope to achieve health equity, academic and economic opportunities for positive futures for all.

The Changing Children’s Worlds Foundation (CCWF) mission is for every child and adolescent to be supported in positive development by caregivers and professionals within loving, non-violent families and peaceful communities. Through parent groups and educational workshops we strive to promote a sense of community and foster empathy.

CDC COMMUNITY GUIDE: Prevention of Birth Defects: Community-Wide Campaigns to Promote the Use of Folic Acid Supplements (USA)

CDC

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

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force has found that community-level education campaigns that promote the use of folic acid among women of child-bearing age can increase the number of these women who take folic acid supplements.

Green Chemistry (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: The goal of Green Chemistry is to promote environmentally benign design of chemical products and processes.

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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