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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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The 16th Avenue Tiled Steps Project (San Francisco)

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

Goal: The 16th Avenue Tiled Steps Project was a neighborhood effort to create a mosaic running up the risers of 163 steps.

World/BRIDGE Initiative (San Francisco)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Investment & Personal Finance, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program is to encourage capital investment in low-income areas.

Youth United Through Health Education (YUTHE) Program (San Francisco)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the program is to increase awareness of screening for sexually transmitted infections in African-American adolescents.

Flex Your Power Case Study: Vallejo Sanitation and Flood Control District (Vallejo, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants

Goal: Vallejo Sanitation's goals in 2001 were to seek the most cost effective treatment of wastewater and to find financial rebates/grants where possible to implement cost saving measures. In order to qualify for generator replacement rebates, the agency needed to design and complete the project in a short time.

Reach Out and Read: Palm Beach (Palm Beach)

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

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

The City as a Park - Climate change reduction and city beautification in Denver (City of Denver)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Air

Goal: To slow climate change by reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere while also establishing a network of public spaces where residents can walk to enjoy a vibrant urban landscape and healthy ecosystem.

Effect of a housing and case management program on emergency department visits and hospitalizations among chronically ill homeless adults: a randomized trial (Chicago, Illinois)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: To assess the effectiveness of a case management and housing program in reducing the use of urgent medical services among homeless adults with chronic medical illnesses.

Impact: For every 100 homeless adults offered the intervention, the expected benefits over the next year would be 49 fewer hospitalizations, 270 fewer hospital days, and 116 fewer ED visits.

Healthy Families: Palm Beach (Palm Beach County)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of Healthy Families Palm Beach is to prevent child abuse and neglect.

Impact: The Healthy Families program improves birth outcomes, nurtures child development, prevents child abuse and neglect, improves family functioning, and help parents develop more positive beliefs in their parental roles.

Medicaid Savings Resulted When Community Health Workers Matched Those With Needs To Home And Community Care (Arkansas)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Economy / Government Assistance, Older Adults

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce costs by using specially trained community health workers to help connect people with unmet long-term needs and/or those at risk of entering nursing homes to Medicaid home and community-based services.

Impact: Similar interventions may help other localities achieve cost-saving and equitable access to publicly funded long-term care options other than institutional care.

Prime Time Palm Beach County (Palm Beach, FL)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children, Urban

Goal: The goal of Prime Time Palm Beach County is to improve the quality of school-age afterschool programs through assessment, guidance, and support.

Impact: Based on the 2009 study findings, Prime Time's Quality Improvement System resulted in improvements made to afterschool programs which enhanced quality programming and important developmental learning experiences for youth.

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.