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

Families And Schools Together (FAST) (USA)

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

Goal: The overall goal of the FAST program is to intervene early to help at-risk youth succeed in the community, at home, and in school and thus avoid problems such as adolescent delinquency, violence, addiction, and dropping out of school.

Impact: FAST has generally improved aggressive behaviors and increased positive behaviors amongst participants as reported by teachers and parents.

Georgia's Teenage and Adult Driver Responsibility Act (Georgia)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Teens

Goal: The goal of TADRA is to reduce fatal crashes among teenage drivers.

Impact: After the implementation of TADRA, speed-related fatal crashes were cut by 42%, and alcohol-related fatal crashes decreased nearly 60%.

MoodGym and Blue Pages: An Internet Depression Intervention (Australia)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Adults, Urban

Goal: The MoodGYM and Blue Pages websites aim to alleviate depression symptoms and increase understanding of depression using the Internet.

Motivational Interviewing and Feedback for College Drinkers (Dallas, TX)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens, Adults, Women, Men

Goal: The goal of the promising practice is to reduce binge-drinking behavior in college students using motivational interviewing and personalized feedback techniques.

Impact: At an eight-week follow-up, all four groups reduced their consumption, peak BAC, consequences, and dependence symptoms.

National Capital Asthma Coalition (Washington, DC)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Respiratory Diseases, Children, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the National Capital Asthma Coalition is to form partnerships between organizations to improving the care and outcomes for children and adults with asthma.

National Night Out (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of National Night Out is to strengthen community and law enforcement relationships and educate communities about crime and drug prevention.

Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child-Care (NAP SACC) (USA)

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

Goal: NAP SACC aims to improve policies, practices, and environments in childcare through better nutrition, increased exercise, and staff-child interactions.

Impact: Intervention centers are more likely to make significant changes in nutrition policies, environments, and practices. The intervention has been replicated in other states to help improve nutrition and physical activity policies and practices.

Obesity: Meal or Fruit and Vegetable Snack Interventions to Increase Healthier Foods and Beverages Provided by Schools

CDC

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Weight Status

Impact: The Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF) recommends meal interventions and fruit and vegetable snack interventions to increase the availability of healthier foods and beverages provided by schools. This finding is based on evidence that they increase fruit and vegetable consumption and reduce or maintain the rate of obesity or overweight. Economic evidence shows that meal interventions and fruit and vegetable snack interventions are cost-effective.

PACE+: Counseling Adolescents for Exercise and Nutrition (California)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Teens, Families

Goal: The goal of PACE+ for adolescents is to: decrease total dietary fat consumption; increase fruits & vegetable consumption; increase participation in moderate and vigorous physical activity; decrease sedentary habits among adolescents aged 11-15.

Parenting With Love and Limits (Savannah, GA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Social Environment, Families

Goal: The goal of the Parenting with Love and Limits® (PLL) program is to improve behavioral problems in children by providing therapy and training to parents in order to restore a level of competent, effective parenting and create greater family connectedness.

Impact: Youth in the PLL group had significantly greater reductions in conduct disorder problem behaviors compared with youth in the control group. Specifically, they had greater improvements in anxiety/depression, withdrawn/depression, social problems, attention problems, rule-breaking problems, aggressive behaviors, internalizing problems, and externalizing problems.

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.