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

Children's Futures (Trenton)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families

Goal: Children's Futures' mission is to improve child health and developmental outcomes through public-private collaboration.

Children's Village (Washington)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families

Goal: Children's Village seeks to connect children with special needs and their families with supportive services.

Chronic Disease Self-Managment Education in a Recreation Setting (Sedgwick County, KS)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Diabetes, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of this workshop is to build the participants’ self-confidence in their ability to manage their health and maintain active and fulfilling lives despite their chronic disease condition.

Impact: In 2016 Derby Health Collaborative hosted six free self-management education courses in partnership with the Derby School District, the Derby Senior Center, the Derby Public Library and the Kansas State Extension and Research Center. Workshops will continue in 2017.

Community Dental Clinic (Crawford-Sebastian County, AK)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Oral Health, Families

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve the health of all its community members, while providing the same quality of service paid for by privately insured patients.

Congenital Heart Disease Screening Program (Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Families

Goal: The Congenital Heart Disease Screening Program values early diagnosis of Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) with a goal of making screening for CHD a standard practice for all newborns.

Impact: The physicians at Children's National in the National Heart Institute created a toolkit that nurseries may use to start a screening program to improve detection of serious CHD.

Cornwall Housing and Health

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

Goal: The goal of this study was to reduce pediatric asthma-related symptoms by installing central heating in homes.

Impact: Central heating successfully improves home heating, dampness, and energy efficiency. Through home modifications, asthma-related symptoms (nocturnal cough and days lost from school) can be reduced among children.

Countywide Concussion Program (Miami Concussion Model) (Miami-Dade County, FL)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Prevention & Safety, Teens

Goal: The goals of the MCM are to provide a comprehensive and centralized concussion care program to 1) increase concussion awareness and identification through education and training; 2) facilitate the return to play decision with effective medical treatment, which includes baseline neurocognitive testing; and 3) implement a standardized concussion care protocol and concussion injury surveillance system to assist in the prevention of concussions, improve player safety, and limit school liability.

Impact: From the pilot evaluation of the model it was determined that the MCM model or a similarly designed one is effective in increasing the number of concussions identified, reported, and also treated at a clinic.

Cradle Kansas City

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families

Goal: Cradle Kansas City only has one goal, to close the health equity gap. By doing this, they will impact premature birth and infant and maternal mortality. They accomplish this through partnerships medical systems, resident-built strategies, and clear messaging that is aimed at systemic change.

Cycles of Change (Alameda County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Transportation, Children, Teens, Adults, Urban

Goal: The goal of Cycles of Change is to enable community members to use bicycles as a primary form of transportation through bicycle education and distribution programs.

Diabetes-Based Science Education for Tribal Schools (DETS) (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Diabetes, Children, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the Diabetes-Based Science Education for Tribal Schools (DETS) curriculum is to slow or reverse the rising rate of type 2 diabetes in American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) youth through a pedagogy based in a combination of a science-based diabetes/health education curriculum and culturally relevant contexts.

Impact: Overall, the DETS curriculum shows that collaboratively-developed curriculums and education courses can have an effective impact across grade levels with students having significant knowledge gains, and can also serve as a supplement for other science and social science curriculums in schools.

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.