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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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Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP) (New York, NY)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Civic Engagement, Children, Urban

Goal: The primary goal of RCCP is to increase children's levels of knowledge regarding ways in which to approach conflict situations, to develop children's conflict resolution skills, and to promote children's positive interpersonal and intergroup relations. In addition, RCCP attempts to combat prejudice and stereotypes, and the various types of conflict and violence that may arise as a result of these issues, by teaching children how to recognize and oppose prejudice and by increasing their respect for and understanding of diversity. Finally, RCCP aims to transform the overall school culture into one that exemplifies nonviolent conflict resolution and a respect for and openness to diversity.

Responsive Classroom

Filed under Effective Practice, Education / School Environment, Children

Goal: The approach was developed with the goals of increasing student investment, responsibility, and learning and decreasing problem behaviors.

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.

Riverside County Greater Avenues for Independence Program (GAIN) Program (Riverside County, CA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment

Goal: The mission of the program is to work vigorously to free participants from the burden of welfare dependency, and achieve a better, happier lifestyle through self-sufficiency. It will serve the taxpayers of Riverside County by reducing welfare dependency, thus making tax dollars available for other expenditures and needs.

Impact: The program produced a large net savings to the government through increased tax revenues and reduced welfare and food stamps payments (as an estimate, $2.84 saved for every $1.00 invested over five years).

Roots of Empathy (Canada)

Filed under Effective Practice, Community / Social Environment, Children

Goal: The program has five main goals: foster the development of empathy; develop emotional literacy; reduce levels of bullying, aggression and violence, and promote children's pro-social behaviors; increase knowledge of human development, learning, and infant safety; and prepare students for responsible citizenship and responsive parenting.

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-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.

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.

Seattle Social Development Project (Seattle, WA)

Filed under Effective Practice, Health / Children's Health, Children, Urban

Goal: The mission of SSDP is to understand and promote healthy behaviors and positive social development among children, adolescents, and young adults.

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.