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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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The Bright Beginnings Infant Mortality Reduction Program (Prince George's County, MD)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Maternal, Fetal & Infant Health, Teens, Adults, Women, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: Bright Beginnings seeks to prevent poor pregnancy outcomes among Prince George's low-income, medically underserved women and children.

Impact: Bright Beginnings has provided services to thousands of women to help reduce infant mortality and prevent adverse pregnancy outcomes. The program has been noted as a promising practice by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene since 2010.

Violence Intervention Program (VIP) - Baltimore (Baltimore, MD)

Filed under Evidence-Based Practice, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Teens, Adults, Men, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The goal of the Violence Intervention Program (VIP) is to reduce the number of repeat victims of intentional violent injury by providing assessment, counseling, and social support from a multi-disciplinary team.

Impact: Patients who participated in the Violence Intervention Program were less likely to be re-hospitalized due to violent injury.

Adventure Diversion Program (Carroll County, MD)

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

Goal: The goal of the Adventure Diversion Program is to reduce the number of out-of-home placements for juveniles who have violated probation.

Bridges . . . from school to work (Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Effective Practice, Economy / Employment, Children

Goal: The Foundation's mission is to foster the employment of young people with disabilities.

Children's National Parish Nursing Program (Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Children's Health, Children, Teens, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal is to increase awareness in faith-based communities regarding preventative care for children and services available at Children's National Medical Center for patients and families.

Impact: The Parish Nursing Program will train eight nurses to become Faith Community Nurses in Summer 2013.

Complex Care Program (Washington, D.C.)

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

Goal: CCP aims to provide ongoing comprehensive care coordination to children with medically complex, chronic conditions within Children's National health care system.

Family Matters (USA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Alcohol & Drug Use, Teens

Goal: The goal of this program is to prevent tobacco and alcohol abuse among adolescents.

Hair, Heart & Health (Baltimore, MD and Washington, D.C.)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Heart Disease & Stroke, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: The Hair, Heart & Health program embraces the notion that health education at the community level is an effective intervention strategy for preventable diseases like CHD, stroke and kidney disease.

Healthy Howard (Howard County, MD)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Health Care Access & Quality, Children, Teens, Adults, Women, Men, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Goal: Healthy Howard opens doors for individuals, groups and communities to improve their health and wellness.

Impact: Healthy Howard provides resources to schools, restaurants, workplaces, and childcare centers to help them improve the health and choices of their students, employees, or clients.

Healthy Workplaces Program (Montgomery)

Filed under Good Idea, Health / Prevention & Safety, Adults

Goal: To make businesses healthier, happier and more productive through company-sponsored health and wellness programs.

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.