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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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Team Accelerated Instruction: Math

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to help students achieve in mathematics.

Teddy Bear Clinic

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

Goal: The mission of the Teddy Bear Clinic is to decrease fear of medical professionals and the hospital environment, and to teach healthy habits at a young age.

Impact: The program has been highly regarded throughout the community, and we have had requests from parents outside the community to offer it to their schools as well. We are considering hosting two clinics for other schools to join.

Teen Advocates for a Healthy KCK (Kansas City, KS)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of Young Women on the Move is to help girls gain the knowledge, skills and personal power to become change agents in their lives and their communities. The mission of Teen Advocates for a Healthy KCK is to empower underserved, at-risk adolescent girls to live healthy lives filled with positive options with the vision that girls, when healthy in mind, body and spirit, will be strong leaders and advocates for thriving, healthy families and communities.

Impact: Teen Advocates for a Healthy KCK helped girls discover their personal power and develop skills and behaviors that led to healthier lifestyle choices.

Teen Choices (Collier County, FL)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Family Planning, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the repeat birth rate for teen women in Collier County and to encourage positive choices for teen mothers to ensure a brighter future for them and their children.

Teen Talk (California and Texas)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Family Planning, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to educate adolescents about teen pregnancy, abstinence, and contraceptive.

Teens on Target (TNT) (Oakland, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children, Teens, Urban

Goal: Program goals include educating and training young people from some of the most life-threatening neighborhoods of Oakland to enable them to participate in making their lives, their neighborhoods, and their communities safer and healthier, and educating policy makers, community members, and the media on the impact of violence on youth and violence prevention strategies.

Text Reminders for Immunization Compliance in Kids (TRICKs): A Demonstration Project (Wichita, KS)

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

Goal: The goal of TRICKs was to reach out to parents using a novel reminder system and increase immunization rates at the KU pediatric clinic.

Impact: There was a significant increase in immunization rate following the implementation of parent text reminders when compared to the initial immunization rate.

The 16th Avenue Tiled Steps Project (San Francisco)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Adults, Older Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: The 16th Avenue Tiled Steps Project was a neighborhood effort to create a mosaic running up the risers of 163 steps.

The Achieve Program (Cleveland, OH)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment

Goal: The goal of this program is to increase entry-level employee retention, promote skill building for employee success, and reduce employee absenteeism and turnover.

The Acid Rain Kids Web Site (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Toxins & Contaminants, Children

Goal: The goal of this website is to provide younger children with basic information about acid rain and help them form a foundation of knowledge about, and an interest for, a variety of environmental issues.

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.