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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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School Lunch Initiative (Berkeley, CA)

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

Goal: The primary goal of the School Lunch Initiative is to transform the way Berkeley public school students eat lunch and to educate children about food, health, and the environment.

Impact: Three years after its conception, the program successfully eliminated nearly all processed foods from the school district dining halls and introduced fresh and organic foods to the daily menu. There was evidence that greater exposure to the School Lunch Initiative was significantly associated with higher nutrition knowledge scores among fourth graders and seventh graders. Furthermore, elementary school students from the schools with highly developed School Lunch Initiative components clearly expressed a higher preference for fruits and vegetables.

School Nutrition Policy Initiative (Philadelphia, PA)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Urban

Goal: The goal of the School Nutrition Policy Initiative is to prevent and reduce overweight and obesity among low-income children.

School-Based Intervention to Promote Tooth Brushing (Scotland)

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

Goal: The goal of this intervention was to reduce dental caries among children by promoting twice daily tooth brushing.

Impact: Supervised tooth brushing and positive reinforcement in a school setting decreased the rate of dental caries in participating children.

Sea Lion Club (Germany)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Physical Activity, Children, Teens, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program was to lower the Body Mass Index (BMI) of obese children, and thus decrease the prevalence of obesity, through a multi-faceted lifestyle intervention program.

Impact: Group based interventions are beneficial in reducing BMI and creating healthy lifestyles in young, obese individuals.

Second Step: A Violence Prevention Curriculum

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

Goal: The Second Step program is designed to increase students’ school success and decrease problem behaviors by promoting social-emotional competence and self-regulation.

Impact: A number of evaluations of the Second Step program have been conducted. Evaluations have found reductions in fighting and physical aggression, gains in pro-social skills and behavior, increased social competence, and increased knowledge of social skills.

Seeking Safety

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

Goal: The goal of this program is to help clients move beyond trauma and substance abuse.

Impact: Multiple evaluations of the Seeking Safety program in various settings have shown positive outcomes for substance abuse/addiction, substance abuse disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Seropositive Urban Men’s Intervention Trial (SUMIT) (USA)

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

Goal: The goal of SUMIT is to reduce unprotected sexual contact between HIV-positive men and their HIV-negative or unknown-serostatus partners.

SIDS Risk Reduction Training for Child Care Providers (Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Children's Health, Adults, Women, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The objectives are to increase knowledge of SIDS risk reduction strategies, including sleep position, use of cribs (instead of adult beds and couches), and elimination of bedding.

Impact: Childcare provider behavior related to safe sleep practices can be improved from short, in-person targeted educational sessions.

Sister to Sister (Newark)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Women's Health, Women, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goals of Sister-to-Sister are to eliminate or reduce sex risk behaviors, and to prevent new STD infections.

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.