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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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Tomando Control de su Salud (Spanish Chronic Disease Self-Management Program) (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: Tomando Control de su Salud is a group workshop that educates Latino individuals with chronic conditions on techniques to help them manage their health and maintain active and fulfilling lives.

Too Good for Drugs

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

Goal: This program is designed to reduce students' intentions to use alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs.

Impact: Studies show that the program significantly reduces the proportion of students with intentions to drink alcohol and smoke. Participants also showed significantly increased use of personal and social skills, increased engagement in prosocial behaviors, and decreased engagement in inappropriate social behaviors.

Transportation Solutions for Caregivers (TSC) (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Transportation, Older Adults

Goal: The purpose of Transportation Solutions for Caregivers: A Solutions Package for Volunteer Transportation Programs, is to provide some guidance and basic information to existing volunteer programs as well as those planning to start new ones. Through such programs, Easter Seals aspires to help communities meet the transportation needs and preference of older adults and their caregivers who reside therein and maintain a mobile older population.

Travel Blending® (Australia)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Transportation, Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of Travel Blending® Program is to reduce personal vehicle use.

Impact: The Travel Blending program reduced car trips, car kilometers, and hours spend in the car.

Tri-Agency Resource Gang Enforcement Team (Orange County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Public Safety, Children, Urban

Goal: The goal of the TARGET program is to reduce gang crime by selectively incarcerating the most violent and repeat (recidivist) gang offenders (based on their criminal records).

Triple P - Positive Parenting Program: Palm Beach County (Palm Beach County, FL)

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

Goal: Triple P aims to enhance the knowledge, skills, and confidence of parents to prevent behavioral, emotional, and developmental problems in children and prevent child maltreatment.

Impact: Triple P increased confidence in parenting ability and reduced the incidence of verified maltreatment among participants in the program.

Trying Alternative Cafeteria Options in Schools (TACOS) (Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota)

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

Goal: The goal of the TACOS program was to use an environmental intervention to increase the availability and consumption of lower-fat foods in a la carte areas of secondary school cafeterias.

Impact: The TACOS program successfully increased both the availability and sale of lower-fat foods in a la carte areas of secondary school cafeterias.

Unused Medications Program (Kansas)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural

Goal: The Unused Medications Repository, administered by Community Health Center of Southeast
Kansas, provides donated medications free of charge to eligible clinics in Kansas.

Impact: Over $20 million worth of prescription medications have been donated to low-income and uninsured Kansans.

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.