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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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ReWired for Change (Baltimore, MD)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Social Environment, Children, Teens, Adults, Older Adults, Families, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: ReWired for Change works to empower at risk youth and families living in under-served communities through education, media and social advocacy, and intergenerational programming.

Richmond Comprehensive Homicide Initiative (Richmond, CA)

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

Goal: The goal of this strategy is to reduce homicide in Richmond, California.

Safe Child Program

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

Goal: The program has two main focuses. The first is prevention of sexual, emotional, or physical abuse by people known to the child. The other focus of the program is safety around strangers.

Safe Streets / Strong Communities (New Orleans, LA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Teens, Adults, Racial/Ethnic Minorities, Urban

Goal: Safe Streets/Strong Communities is a community-based organization that campaigns for a new criminal justice system in New Orleans, one that creates safe streets and strong communities for everyone, regardless of race or economic status.

Safe Walk to School (Oakland, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Public Safety, Children, Families

Goal: Safe Walk to School's goal is to keep children walking to school safe.

SAFE-T Program (Toronto, Ontario)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Mental Health & Mental Disorders, Teens

Goal: SAFE-T is committed to conducting research in the areas of child sexual abuse, sexualized behaviour in children and adolescents who have offended sexually. Our treatment is uniquely tailored to respond to the strengths and challenges of individuals and families with the overarching goal of healthy future relationships.

San Diego County Breaking Cycles (San Diego County, CA)

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

Goal: The goals of this program are to

- Prevent youth from becoming delinquent by focusing strengths-based, family-centered community resources and programs on "at-risk" youth and their families.
- Improve the juvenile justice and community intervention for juvenile offenders through a system of Graduated Sanctions (Intervention).

San Francisco SafeStart Initiative (San Francisco, CA)

Filed under Good Idea, Community / Crime & Crime Prevention, Children, Families, Urban

Goal: The goal of the SafeStart Initiative is to reduce the incidence and impact of violence on children ages 6 and under.

School Based Mentoring Program: Palm Beach (Palm Beach and Martin, FL)

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / Student Performance K-12, Children, Teens, Adults

Goal: The goal of the program is to make a positive difference in the lives of children, primarily through professionally guided one-to-one relationships with caring adults, and to assist them in achieving their highest potential, as they grow to become confident, competent and caring individuals.

School Violence Prevention Demonstration Program

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / School Environment, Children, Teens, Urban

Goal: The goal of this program is to reduce violent tendencies among youth through civic education.

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.

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