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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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Edible Schoolyard (Berkeley, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / School Environment, Children, Teens

Goal: The goal of the Edible Schoolyard program is to teach students about gardening, cooking, and healthy eating through the creation and maintenance of an organic garden.

Edible Trees

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Adults

Goal: The Edible Trees Program seeks to increase local access to fruiting trees and provide equitable access to healthy foods.

Impact: The Edible Trees Program provides communities access to fruit and nut trees. The program has funded 19 projects resulting in 1,320 trees & shrubs planted.

Educating and Delivering Financial Services to Low-Income, Underserved Residents and Businesses (Cuyahoga County, OH)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Investment & Personal Finance, Families

Goal: The goal is to offer members of poor and underserved communities ownership in an established financial cooperative. By purchasing shares in the Faith Community United Credit Union (FCUCU), individuals gain access to services and learn the difference between using what belongs to someone else and owning their own institution.

Ellis Street Apartments (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Urban

Goal: To provide an independent living situation with support services for at-risk youths aged 18 to 24.

EMERGE (Minneapolis, MN)

Filed under Good Idea, Economy / Employment, Teens, Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: Invest in people through social enterprise.

Employment Training Center (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Education / Educational Attainment, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Employment Training Center is to provide at-risk, low-income youth and young adults with training in the green construction field in order to help them gain vital life and employment skills and achieve self-sufficiency.

Engage DuPage (DuPage County, IL)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children, Adults, Families, Urban

Goal: The goals of Engage DuPage include improving the health status of self-pay Emergency Department patients, increasing the revenue appropriately owed to hospitals for services rendered, improving the financial assistance processes involving self-pay Emergency Department patients, and reducing the number of avoidable Emergency Department visits among self-pay patients.

Impact: By the end of 2014, 57% of all benefit applications that were submitted were approved. In addition, 29% of all interested patients were connected to a primary care provider through a Community Access Specialist.

Engaging Men and Boys of Color to Improve Mental Wellbeing (Washington)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Built Environment, Children, Teens, Men, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: Making Connections for Mental Health and Wellbeing Among Men and Boys is a national initiative to transform community conditions that influence mental wellbeing. The Prevention Institute works with 13 communities across the U.S. to shift policies, practices, and norms to create greater opportunities for health and resilience, with particular focus on veterans and men and boys of color.

EnLace (Leadership and Civic Engagement)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Public Safety, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Rural

Goal: In an effort to prepare and engage community residents to take a more participatory role in their communities, Monterey County Health Department (MCHD) developed and has offered since 2014 a leadership and civic engagement program (enLACE) that addresses the social determinants of health, community engagement and their relationship to the health of the community.

Enviro Board: The Colusa Project (Colusa, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Environmental Health / Air

Goal: The mission of Enviro Board Corporation is to become the world's leading manufacturer of low-cost, environmentally friendly building panels. These durable and architecturally versatile panels will contribute significantly to a healthier environment by recycling agricultural waste, greatly reducing pollution and preserving our natural resources, while creating the ability to construct high-quality, affordable housing worldwide utilizing unskilled labor.

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.