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

New Beginnings (Intervention for Children of Divorce) (Arizona)

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

Goal: New Beginnings promotes resilience in children after parental divorce by providing mothers and their children with group and individual-based sessions.

Impact: The New Beginnings program improves post-divorce adjustment outcomes such as interparental conflict, mother-child relationships, and coping strategies by targeting predictive behaviors.

New Jersey "Save our Smiles" Fluoride Mouthrinse Program (New Jersey)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Oral Health, Children

Goal: The goal of the New Jersey Department of Health's voluntary fluoride mouth rinse program, "Save Our Smiles" is to improve the oral health status of high need/risk children residing in areas where the water is not optimally fluoridated.

New Moms Network (Brattleboro, Vermont)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Children, Adults, Women, Rural

Goal: The goal of the New Moms Network is to provide a helpful and supportive environment for new parents.

NutriActive (Iowa)

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

Goal: The goal of this intervention is to improve motor skills and fitness in young children. Fitness and motor skills development early in life can lay the foundation for successful lifelong physical activity participation.

Impact: A short-duration lifestyle intervention can have a lasting effect on children's fitness and motor skills development.

Parenting Management Training - The Oregon Model (PMTO) (Eugene, OR)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to teach effective parenting practices in order to promote healthy child adjustment.

Impact: Immediate changes for parents include improved positive parenting practices and reduced family coercion. Benefits to these parenting practices, in turn, have been found to result in reductions in child behavior problems and parental depression.

Peers Reaching Out and Modeling Intervention Strategies (PROMISE) (Texas, Colorado, California, New York, Washington)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Urban

Goal: The goal of Community PROMISE is to encourage HIV prevention practices.

Impact: PROMISE leads to significant community-wide progress toward consistent HIV risk reduction.

Santa Monica Urban Runoff Recycling Facility (Los Angeles)

Filed under Effective Practice, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Urban

Goal: SMURRF aims to mitigate the pollution affecting Santa Monica Bay from urban runoff and raise public awareness of Santa Monica Bay pollution. We have reviewed the SMURRF system and began an investigation of installing a RO system to produce potable water in the coming years. This goal is to contribute to the city’s new sustainable master water plan to become self-reliant on local water by 2020

SIDS Risk Reduction Training for Parents and Family Members (Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Children, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The objectives are to increase knowledge of SIDS risk reduction strategies, including sleep position and roomsharing without bedsharing.

Impact: A 15-minute educational session with small groups of parents is effective in informing parents about the importance of safe sleep position and in changing parent behavior for at least the first 6 months of the infant's life.

Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide parents with the necessary skills to improve their parent/child communication and overall family functioning.

Impact: STEP has been implemented in more than 1,000 schools, agencies, churches, and mental health treatment facilities since 1976, reaching more than 4 million parents. Outside the US, STEP has been implemented in Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Romania, and South Korea.

Tai Chi -- Moving for Better Balance

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Older Adults, Older Adults

Goal: To use tai chi exercise to improve balance and decrease incidence of falls among older adults.

Impact: The program shows that ta chi can significantly improve health-related outcome measures in older adults and such a program can be practically and effectively implemented and maintained in community settings.

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.