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.

Submit a Promising Practice

Promoting Water Consumption in Schools to Prevent Overweight (Germany)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Urban

Goal: To promote water consumption with an educational and environmental intervention in elementary schools of deprived urban areas to prevent overweight.

Impact: This program shows that environmental and educational, school-based interventions can have effective impact in the prevention of overweight among children in elementary school, even in a population from socially-deprived areas.

Providers And Teens Communicating for Health (PATCH) Program

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens

Goal: PATCH envisions a supportive environment in which all adolescents are able to reach optimal health, safety, and economic security.

MISSION: To improve adolescent health and well being by engaging, educating, and empowering youth and adults as trusted partners in care.

Impact: Health care providers and teens who participate in the PATCH program show significant improvements in knowledge, self-efficacy, and behavioral intentions to seek and provide quality sexual health care.

Quality Counts (Palm Beach)

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

Goal: 1. To produce positive outcomes for children.
2. To provide consumer education to help parents recognize, expect and seek out quality in a childcare setting and to articulate the standards for quality to childcare providers and parents.
3. To define, advocate for and obtain the resources necessary to encourage, support and promote quality early care and education.

Quality Improvement in the Area of Immunizations (Wichita, KS)

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

Goal: The goal of the project was to increase the number of students current with school-required immunizations through utilization of the state immunization registry and increasing the number of parental consent forms received for immunization in School-Located Vaccine Clinics.

Impact: Of 2,015 children not in compliance with school immunization policies, 1,094 (54%) were brought into compliance through state immunization registry records or immunization in School-Located Vaccine Clinics.

Queens Botanical Garden (Flushing, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Urban

Goal: The Queens Botanical Garden, a living museum serving the most ethnically diverse county in the United States, is committed to presenting collections, education and research initiatives and programs that demonstrate environmental stewardship, promote sustainability and celebrate the rich cultural connections between people and plants.

Raising Healthy Children (Seattle, WA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Teens, Families

Goal: The Raising Healthy Children program is a social development approach to positive youth development.

Reach for Health Community Youth Service (New York City, New York)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Reach for health Community Youth Service program is to reduce risky sexual behaviors among urban Latino and African American youth.

Impact: Long-term impact has been recorded among participants after two years: this includes delayed initiation of intercourse and reduced frequency of intercourse among sexually active adolescents.

Reach Out and Read (Nationwide)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Literacy, Children, Adults, Families

Goal: The mission of Reach Out and Read is to help prepare young children to succeed in school, by partnering with physicians to encouraging parents and children to read aloud together.

Impact: Reach Out and Read improves children's language development by 3-6 months and improves language ability with increased exposure to the program.

Reach Out and Read: Washington, D.C. (Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Education / Literacy, Children, Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: Reach Out and Read prepares America's youngest children to succeed in school by partnering with doctors to encourage families
to read together.

Real AIDS Prevention Project (RAPP)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Women, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Real AIDS Prevention Project is to help women and their partners reduce their risk for HIV infection.

Impact: Community-level interventions may be an effective way to reach large numbers of women and change their condom-use behaviors, particularly their behaviors with regard to communication with main sex partners.

An Effective Practice meets the following HCI criteria:

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.
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:

The program description includes: the sponsoring organization, program goals, program funding source, program implementation steps and outcomes.
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:

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.
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.
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.