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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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Worcester Goods for Guns Buyback (G4G) Program (Worcester, MA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Public Safety, Children, Teens, Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: The goals of this program are three-fold: first, to remove unwanted improperly stored guns from homes; second, to educate the community about the increased risk of gun-related injuries in the home and the importance of safe gun storage; and third, to identify individuals possessing improperly stored guns at home and provide them with safety information and alternatives.

Impact: This program shows a strong collaboration between health care providers and public safety offices and showcases a low-cost means of removing unwanted firearms from the community. Additionally, most participants felt their homes were safer after turning in their firearm(s).

Young Parents Program (Boston, MA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Adolescent Health, Children, Teens, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Young Parents Program is to help inner city teenage parents learn positive attitudes, behaviors, and parenting skills so that their children experience healthy growth and development a during their early and critical years.

Youth Fit for Life (Atlanta, GA)

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

Goal: Youth Fit for Life aims to increase physical activity among children enrolled in after-school care programs.

Youth Opportunity Baltimore (Baltimore, MD)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Literacy, Urban

Goal: YO! Baltimore helps young people, previously disconnected from traditional learning environments, to increase their wage earnings and education credentials.

YouthBuild McLean County (McLean County, IL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children

Goal: The McLean County program's mission is "to offer young people a once in a lifetime opportunity to build their futures and their communities through education, leadership development, job training, and the rehabilitation and production of affordable housing, while keeping a profound respect for and a commitment to real partnership with youth."

Zero Suicide Initiative (Michigan)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders

Goal: The Zero Suicide Initiative is a comprehensive model of suicide prevention that challenges health and behavioral health care systems to strive for zero suicides among those in their care.

Academic Tutoring and Social Skills Training (Durham, NC)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children

Goal: The goal of this program is to encourage social and academic development among grade school children who are socially rejected and have serious academic problems in reading or mathematics.

ACCESS (Appropriate Clinical Care Engaged in a School Setting)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Children, Teens, Families, Rural

Goal: The goal of the ACCESS program is to reduce barriers to mental/behavioral health and wellbeing for children in Belton by providing quality care through free school-based therapy services (provided by licensed therapists, using evidence based practices) for our BSD students and educate our community about mental health and wellbeing to reduce stigma.

Achievement Mentoring (Piscataway, NJ)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve academic performance, reduce substance abuse, and reduce school failure among middle and high school students.

Achievement through Community Services, Education and Skill-Building (ACES) (Philadelphia, PA)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to promote positive youth development and to help youth gain valuable work experience.

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.