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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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Public Health Expertise Network of Mentors (PHENOM)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Educational Attainment

Goal: To provide a freely-available source of public health expertise in which seasoned professionals can share their wealth of professional expertise with those interested in learning about Public Health and potential career options.

Public Health Surveillance and Communications Using Regional Emergency Medicine Internet (REMI) (Milwaukee, WI)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide real-time information about fast-breaking environmental hazards, communicable outbreaks, or terrorist events.

Purple Songs Can Fly (Houston)

Filed under Good Idea, Art & Recreation / Music, Children

Goal: The program aims to provide an outlet for inpatient pediatric cancer patients to express their emotions through composing and performing music.

Put Illinois To Work (Illinois)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Economic Climate, Adults

Goal: The program’s goal is to support disadvantaged workers and struggling businesses through the economic recovery process.

Put It Out Rockland (Rockland County, NY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Children, Adults

Goal: The goal of "Put It Out Rockland" and the entire tobacco control program has been to promote quitting among youth and adults and to reduce the adult smoking rate to 12 percent by 2010.

Quantum Opportunity Program

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

Goal: The program's main goal is to improve academic deficiencies. A secondary emphasis is to establish meaningful, long-term relationships between the participants and program Coordinators. Finally, the program encourages involvement and commitment to school and community.

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.

Rainforest Action Network

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Wildlife

Goal: RAN's mission is to protect and sustain healthy forests by campaigning against corporate policies that come at the expense of the environment.

Raising Readers (Maine)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Literacy, Children, Families

Goal: To foster a love of reading, improve literacy among babies and young children, and ultimately, improve the health and educational outcomes of Maine children.

Ramp Metering Strategies in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul region of Minnesota)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Urban

Goal: The goal was to evaluate the regionwide impacts of turning off the ramp meters for a six-week period.

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.