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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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Healthy Futures (Northwestern Lower Michigan)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Women, Families, Rural

Goal: The overall goal of Healthy Futures is to improve community health by ensuring access to health care and community resources for pregnant women and young children in the region.

Impact: In 2012, over 3,500 contacts, 970 home visits, and 30,000 educational mailings were delivered. Of those who initiated breastfeeding at birth, 67% of enrolled infants are still breastfeeding at eight weeks post-partum. Eighty-three percent of enrolled two-year-old children are fully immunized.

Healthy Hawks (Kansas City, Kansas)

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

Goal: The program aims to reduce childhood obesity by using a three-stage approach to identifying root causes of the issue, developing and implementing behavioral strategies for weight management, and involving both the children and their families in adopting a healthy lifestyle.

Healthy IDEAS (Houston, TX)

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

Goal: The goal of Healthy IDEAS is to detect and address depression through effective, evidence-based screening and health promotion education.

Impact: Studies show that after 6 months in the Healthy IDEAS program, significantly more of the participants knew how to get help for depression (93% versus 68%), reported that increasing activity helped them feel better (89% versus 72%), and reported reduced pain (45% versus 16%) than at the beginning.

Healthy Kids Express Screening and Immunization Program (St. Louis, Missouri Metro Region)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens, Families, Urban

Goal: The mission of HKES&I is to increase access to needed healthcare for children. This is accomplished through the goal of identifying children who need further follow-up, particularly for hearing and vision problems, and to connect them to those services.

Impact: Healthy Kids Express Screening and Immunization program is successful in providing evidence based care to low-income populations and for connecting those identified with screening needs to needed follow-up care.

High-School Based Screening for Chlamydia and Gonorrhea (Philadelphia, PA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to educate high school students regarding the risks of STDs, prevention methods, and the need for testing if sexually active.

Increasing Age-Appropriate Immunization Rates for Children in Butler County and Surrounding Area (Butler County, KS)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Children, Rural

Goal: The goal of this program was to increase immunization rates in the Butler County area.

Impact: Immunization rates increased from 53.2% to 72.4% and parents reported a better understanding of the importance of timely vaccinations.

Integration of TANF and Child Welfare Systems in El Paso (El Paso County, CO)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Government Assistance, Children, Families

Goal: The goals of this program are to support healthy child development, to provide economic assistance and social services to families, and to protect abused and neglected children.

Interfaith Housing of Western Maryland (Maryland)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Families

Goal: Interfaith Housing Alliance strengthens families, builds communities and promotes human dignity and economic justice by providing decent, affordable housing for those with lower incomes. Through education, advocacy and the creation of new jobs, they foster economic growth and overcome the effects of shelter poverty.

Janice Mirikitani Family, Youth and Childcare Center (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: The Janice Mirikitani Family, Youth and Childcare Center provides award winning childcare, after-school programs, and parenting resources to low-income and homeless 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.