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

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 Health Project (cities in Wisconsin, Virginia, and Washington)

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

Goal: The goal of the Teen Health Project is to provide adolescents with the skills necessary to prevent HIV risk behaviors.

Impact: The Teen Health Project shows that community-level interventions that include skills training and engage adolescents in neighborhood-based HIV prevention activities can produce and maintain reductions in sexual risk behavior, including delaying sexual debut and increasing condom use.

TeenRehabCenter.org

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Adolescent Health, Teens, Adults, Families

Goal: The goal of TeenRehabCenter.org is to give parents the tools they need to be able to talk to their children and teens about drugs and alcohol. By providing these resources, it hopes to prevent more teens and young adults from substance abuse. It also aims to help those who are already struggling by furnishing recovery information that is tailored both for parents and for teens.

Impact: Time spent in treatment is forward progress, since the individual is removed from substance use and negative peer and environmental influences. At least half of teens who graduate from rehab will enjoy an extended period of sobriety. How they follow-up after rehab is over can play a massive role in how strong and stable these healthy habits become.

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.

Text4Health

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Immunizations & Infectious Diseases, Teens, Adults, Women, Urban

Goal: Text4Health aims to improve immunization rates in urban, underserved, low-income populations via text messaging.

The Aban Aya Youth Project (AAYP) (Chicago)

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

Goal: The goal of this intervention is to reduce high-risk behavior among African American youth as measured by student self-reports of violence, provocative behavior, school delinquency, substance use, and sexual behaviors (intercourse and condom use).

Impact: AAYP reduced rates of risky behaviors among male African American youth.

The Berkeley Charleston Dorchester Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Action Plan (Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester, SC)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Transportation

Goal: The Berkeley Charleston Dorchester Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Action Plan is based on three principles:

(1) Children should be able to safely walk and bike to school if they and their parents so choose.

(2) Roadways should equally accommodate pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists.

(3) Bicycling and walking should become a routine part of daily activity in the BCD region.

The Black Infant Health Program (Antelope Valley, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The Black Infant Health Program aims to reduce African-American infant mortality through the Social Support and Empowerment model - a faith-based program which seeks to:

- Educate
- Ensure access to care for at-risk pregnant and parenting women and their infants.

The CareFile Project (Liverpool, UK)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults

Goal: The goal of the CareFile project is to improve patients' knowledge and satisfaction level following stroke.

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.