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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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Junior Tracks (Cerro Gordo County, IA)

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce the prevalence of cardiovascular disease and stroke through changes in community health policies, environment, and individual lifestyle behaviors that will impact the health and wellness of area fourth grade school students.

Kalihi Valley Nature Park and Active Living Center (Honolulu, HI)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle

Goal: The goal of this program is to create a connection to nature, gardening and hiking for the Kalihi valley's urban residents.

Lighten Up (South Carolina)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goal of the Lighten Up program is to encourage lifestyle change and improve health through faith-based lessons.

Live Healthy Iowa (Iowa)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Adults

Goal: The goal of Live Healthy Iowa is to encourage physical activity and weight loss through team-based competition.

Living in the Face of Trauma (LIFT)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Women, Men

Goal: Eliminate or reduce sexual transmission risk behavior and to improve coping with the combined stressors of HIV infection and child sexual abuse.

Impact: LIFT intervention participants reported significantly fewer counts of unprotected vaginal and anal intercourse with all partners (p < .001) and with HIV-negative or unknown serostatus partners (p < .001), compared to support group participants.

Maryville and Alcoa Greenway Trail (Maryville and Alcoa)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Transportation, Children, Women, Men, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the trail is to provide a safe route for residents to travel to work, school, businesses and recreational areas.

Mass in Motion (Massachusetts)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Adults

Goal: Mass in Motion aims to reduce obesity and promote healthy eating and physical activity through school and workplace policy changes, grants for communities, and an educational website.

Mayor's Healthy Hometown Movement (Louisville, KY)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Wellness & Lifestyle

Goal: MHHM was rolled out with the following overall goal: to create a community wide culture that encourages and supports healthy lifestyles by promoting increased physical activity (10,000 steps/day goal), optimal nutrition, healthy public policy and access to resources and facilities that bolster the stated goal. Specific goals include:

- Increasing the number of people in Louisville Metro who engage in 30 minutes of moderate physical activity at least 5 days a week by 15%.
- Decreasing the percentage of overweight or obese people in Louisville Metro by 10%.
- Increasing from 22% to 38% the number of people in Louisville Metro who eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

Past and future Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) surveys will be used to measure baseline and follow-up indicators.

Million Hearts (USA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults

Goal: Million Hearts seeks to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes in the next five years (by 2017) by coordinating cardiovascular prevention implementations in its private-public partnerships.

Motivational Interviewing-based HIV Risk Reduction

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Women

Goal: To reduce sexual and drug use behaviors among recently incarcerated, HIV-negative women at risk for HIV.

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.