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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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Becoming a Responsible Teen (BART) (Jackson, Mississippi)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Family Planning, Teens, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The goals of this intervention include: increasing information and skills to make sound choices, increasing abstinence, and eliminating or reducing sex risk behaviors.

Impact: Among teens who participated, there was a decrease in sexual activity compared to those who did not participate in the program. Also among participants, there was an increase in sexual intercourse occasions that were condom-protected.

Mailed Psychoeducational Intervention for Colorectal Cancer Screening (England)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Health / Cancer, Adults

Goal: The goal of this program is to improve colorectal cancer screening rates among older adults.

Impact: Participants in the intervention group had significantly higher colorectal cancer screening attendance, as well as having more positive attitudes about screening and placing a higher priority on screening.

Jacksonville Network for Strengthening Families (Jacksonville)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Jacksonville Network for Strengthening Families program is to provide training, services, and support to Jacksonville families in an effort to increase prepared marriages, reduce divorce rates, and increase financial and emotional support of children by non-custodial parents.

Assisting in Rehabilitating Kids (ARK) (Mississippi)

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

Goal: The goal of Assisting in Rehabilitating Kids (ARK) is to increase abstinence and safer sex behaviors among substance-dependent adolescents.

Impact: The ARK program successfully increased sexual abstinence among those who received all components: health information, behavior skills training, and risk-sensitization manipulation, with the inclusion of the latter being more resistant to decay over time.

Independence Youth Court (Independence, MO)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children, Teens, Rural

Goal: The primary goal of the Independence Youth Court is to reduce incidents of juvenile crime, divert offending youth from the Juvenile Justice System and to provide an alternative to the Jackson County Family court process and further contact with the police.

Kentucky Mountain Housing Development Corporation (KMHDC) (Clay and Jackson Counties, KY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Housing & Homes, Rural

Goal: The goal of this program is to provide safe and affordable low-income housing in Clay and Jackson Counties.

Project START (USA)

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

Goal: The goal of Project START is to reduce sexual risk behavior of young men re-entering the community after incarceration.

Sports Medicine Physicals (Montgomery, AL)

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

Goal: The free sports medicine physicals provided by Jackson Hospital & Clinic helps thousands of parents, 25 schools, and hundreds of coaches ensure that students are healthy enough to participate in athletic programs when school starts in the fall.

Achievers for Life (Jacksonville, FL)

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

Goal: The goal of Achievers for Life is to work with 6th grade students and their families in order to prevent students from dropping out of high school.

Be a Blue Buddy (Jacksonville, FL)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Cancer, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: The mission of the Be a Blue Buddy campaign is to educate the community about colorectal cancer, to raise awareness about the importance of screening and early detection, to give hope to newly diagnosed patients, and to save lives.

Impact: Be a Blue Buddy has helped raise awareness and create a dialogue for colorectal cancer. Grace De La Rosa began Be a Blue Buddy in 2014 and has reached several thousand people in her community and nationwide.

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.