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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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Protocol for the Isolation and Quarantine of Communicable Disease (Rockland County, NY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases

Goal: The main objective of the Protocol is to provide a medicolegal framework for the protection of public health and safety in the face of emerging threats of infectious diseases and bioterrorism agents with due regard to a citizen's right to due process.

Reach Out (Chicago, IL)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Cancer, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of this program is to encourage low-income African American and Hispanic women to seek early breast and cervical cancer screening.

Reconciliation Services Depression and Trauma Therapy Services (Kansas City/Jackson/Missouri)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Adults, Women, Men, Urban

Goal: The mission of Reconciliation Services is to cultivate a community seeking reconciliation to transform Troost from a dividing line into a gathering place, revealing the strength of all. Our mental health services are at the heart of how we strive to help clients see their own strength and work towards being reconciled to their own health and well-being.

Impact: Over the past three years, our therapy program participants reported a 71 percent decrease for depression and 79 percent decrease for PTSD.

Reconnecting Youth (USA)

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

Goal: The Reconnecting Youth program has three main goals: 1) increase school performance; 2) decrease drug involvement; and 3) decrease suicide-risk behaviors.

Impact: Significant increases in positive connections with teachers, friends, and family members; significant improvements in GPA; lasting reductions in hard drug use; decreases in anger-control problems; reductions in depression and hopelessness; and increases in enhancing personal control were observed.

Resident and Community Services (Omaha, NE)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes

Goal: The Omaha Housing Authority's goal is to provide quality housing for those who receive assistance through rental and homeownership programs.

Ripple Effects Whole Spectrum Intervention System (Ripple Effects) (USA and Canada)

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

Goal: The goal of Ripple Effects is to use technology to prevent social injury and promote school and life success for children and teenagers.

Rochester AIDS Prevention Project (RAPP) (Rochester, NY)

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

Goal: The goals of the program are: 1) to promote abstinence maintenance among sexually abstinent students and encourage safer sex practices to sexually active students, 2) compare the effect of RAPP when taught by different providers, and 3) to explore the factors that impact a student's decision to engage in sexual activity.

Impact: Regular teacher-taught male (p=.001) and female students (p=.05) and peer-taught male students (p=.02) had the highest rates of delaying the onset of sexual activity.

Rock and Wrap It Up! (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Civic Engagement

Goal: The goal of Rock and Wrap It Up! is to collect leftover food from large events and donate it to local agencies.

Safe and Sustainable Housing for American Indians

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Housing & Homes, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The Red Feather Development Groups (RFDG) goal is to bring sustainable and affordable housing to Tribal Lands.

Impact: The Red Feather Development Groups (RFDG) community development work has seen promising results. In seven years, the organization has reached over 1,000 individuals and distributed over 700 "home health kits" to tribal land homeowners.

Safety Street (St. Louis, MO)

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

Goal: The mission of Safety Street is to increase injury prevention knowledge for children through interactive teaching of pedestrian, home, and vehicle safety.

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.