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

Alcohol and Other Drug Death Review (Humboldt County, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use

Goal: The goal of this program is to involve community partners in reviewing individual deaths, generating recommendations for improved community collaboration, and initiating new practices.

Alcohol Misuse Prevention Study (Southeast Michigan)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce alcohol misuse among adolescents.

Impact: Middle school students who receive the curriculum have increased knowledge about alcohol misuse when compared to a control group. Students who received programming in the 10th grade had significantly increased alcohol misuse prevention knowledge, decreased alcohol misuse, and increased refusal skills. During their first year of driving, students who received the curriculum were involved in fewer serious traffic or drug offenses than students in the control group.

Antismoking Media Campaign (Massachusetts)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens

Goal: To reduce the number of older adolescents who progress to established smoking.

Impact: The television component of the Massachusetts antismoking media campaign may have reduced the rate of progression to established smoking among young adolescents.

ASSIST: A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial (United Kingdon)

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

Goal: ASSIST aims to develop a diverse group consisting of young people that will then influence their peers to defy the idea of smoking thus reducing the number of adolescent smokers and reducing its health effects.

Impact: A peer-led intervention reduced smoking among adolescents at a modest cost: the ASSIST program cost of £32 ($42 USD) (95% CI = £29.70–£33.80) per student. The incremental cost per student not smoking at 2 years was £1,500 ($1984 USD) (95% CI = £669–£9,947).

Asthma Basics for Children (ABC) (New York, NY)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Respiratory Diseases, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the program was to provide a multi-layered asthma management program for parents, children, and staff of early childhood centers.

Impact: The ABC program demonstrates that a multi-layered approach can improve asthma outcomes among preschoolers with a combination of parent and provider education having the greatest impact.

Athletes Targeting Healthy Exercise & Nutrition Alternatives (ATHENA) (USA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens

Goal: The mission of the ATHENA (Athletes Targeting Healthy Exercise & Nutrition Alternatives) program is to promote healthy sports nutrition and discourage the use of body-enhancing substances among middle and high school female athletes.

Impact: Participation in the ATHENA program results in significant reductions in the use of performance-enhancing substances, recreational drugs, diet pills, tobacco, and alcohol among female teen athletes. Healthier eating and other health behaviors, and body image perceptions were also improved.

Athletes Training and Learning to Avoid Steroids (ATLAS) (Portland, OR)

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

Goal: The goal of ATLAS is to reduce anabolic steroid, alcohol, and other illicit drug use by adolescent male athletes.

Impact: Student participants of ATLAS had significantly lower intent to use anabolic steroids at both the end of the athletic season and at the 1-year follow-up. Students in the intervention also significantly reduced illicit drug use and were significantly less likely to report drinking and driving.

Baby Love (Rochester, NY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Children, Teens, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Baby Love program is to improve health outcomes for at-risk mothers and their infants in Rochester, New York, by assisting in identifying potential risks and coordinating pre and postnatal care.

Be a Blue Buddy (Jacksonville, FL)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Cancer, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The mission of the Be a Blue Buddy campaign is to educate the community about colorectal cancer, to raise awareness about the importance of screening and early detection, to give hope to newly diagnosed patients, and to save lives.

Impact: Be a Blue Buddy has helped raise awareness and create a dialogue for colorectal cancer. Grace De La Rosa began Be a Blue Buddy in 2014 and has reached several thousand people in her community and nationwide.

Behavior Management Through Adventure

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Men

Goal: The goal of Behavior Management through Adventure is to address the needs of at-risk youth in therapeutic settings.

Impact: Behavior Management Through Adventure was successful in lowering rearrest rates, decreasing the time period from release until rearrest, improving depression symptoms, increasing family self-concept, and lowering social introversion.

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.