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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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Baltimore Healthy Carryout Project (Baltimore, MD)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Teens, Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Baltimore Healthy Carryout project was to increase healthy food options at carryout facilities and restaurants in Baltimore's low-income neighborhoods.

Impact: The BHC project reached 36.8% more customers during the intervention period than at baseline when comparing intervention carryouts to comparison carryouts. Customers reported purchasing specific foods due to the presence of a photo on the menu board (65.3%) or menu labeling (42.6%).

Banking on the Future (Orange County, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Investment & Personal Finance, Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of Banking on the Future is to help low-income residents achieve financial stability.

Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII) (San Francisco Bay Area)

Filed under Good Idea, Health

Goal: The mission of BARHII is to transform public health practice for the purpose of eliminating health inequities using a broad spectrum of approaches that improve community health. Consistent with that mission, BARHII has set the following objectives:

- Train staff on broad spectrum of strategies to improve nutrition and physical activity, and reduce health inequities.
- Develop regional collaborations of public health departments, organizations, coalitions and communities to participate in a comprehensive approach to improve nutrition and physical activity.
- Develop a media advocacy campaign to raise awareness among policy makers and the general public about key issues of nutrition and physical activity, and their link to chronic disease and health inequities.
- Use the regional platform to achieve changes in institutional practices and public policies, and increase support for public health.

Bay Area SCORES (Bay Area, CA)

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

Goal: The goal of the Bay Area SCORES program is to reduce obesity, increase physical fitness, and manage cardiovascular health-related risks while improving academic performance in children between the ages of 6 and 12 through soccer, creative expression, service learning, “hip hop for health,” and creative writing.

Bay Area Transportation Justice Working Group (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Transportation Justice Working Group is to increase awareness of the relationship between transportation and health.

Baystate-Springfield Educational Partnership (BSEP) (Springfield, MA)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Educational Attainment, Children, Teens, Urban

Goal: The goal is to guide students from underserved communities towards careers in healthcare, simultaneously fulfilling workforce needs.

Bayview HEAL Zone (Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Diabetes, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the program is to reduce chronic disease health disparities by making the healthy choice the easy choice.

Impact: The Bayview HEAL Zone has brought together a variety of organizations and supported healthy eating and active living projects in the community.

Bayview Safe Haven (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: To provide academic, vocational, recreational and life skills for at risk youth ages 12-21 in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco.

Beats and Rhymes (Minneapolis, MN)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Childcare & Early Childhood Education, Children, Teens, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The mission of Beats & Rhymes is to provide schools and community centers with the knowledge and resources they need to implement their own successful program, and subsequent music group.

Impact: Beats & Rhymes teaches youth music-making skills through implementation in various Minneapolis after-school programs.

Best Practices Report: Community Harmony & Spirit

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Civic Engagement

Goal: Community associations can increase resident involvement by treating all residents as stakeholders, developing and conducting community harmony and spirit-enhancing programs, and including residents in the initial stages of program development.

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.