Strategies

What Works for Health includes evidence-informed strategies to create communities where everyone can thrive.

67 Strategies
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Adult vocational training

Support acquisition of job-specific skills through education, certification programs, or on-the-job training, often with personal development resources and other supports

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Employment

Alcohol outlet density restrictions

Limit increases in the number and concentration of alcohol outlets by area or by population through licensing or zoning regulations

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Alcohol and Drug Use
  • Community Safety

Automated speed enforcement cameras

Use devices such as speed cameras, laser devices, radar, etc. to enforce speed limits; devices can be permanent fixtures or be used manually by law enforcement officers

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Housing and Transit
  • Community Safety

Ban the Box

Prohibit criminal history questions on job applications and postpone background checks

Evidence Rating:
Mixed Evidence
  • Employment

Bicycle helmet laws

Establish laws that require bicyclists to wear helmets; laws can apply to children or all bicyclists and can be established at the state or local level

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Bicycle infrastructure for enhanced cycling safety

Accommodate or provide dedicated infrastructure for cyclists via bicycle paths, lanes, cycle tracks or protected lanes, etc.

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Housing and Transit
  • Community Safety

Bridge programs for hard-to-employ adults

Provide basic skills (e.g., reading, math, writing, English language, or soft skills) and industry-specific training with other supports; also called occupationally contextualized basic education programs

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Education
  • Employment

Car seat distribution & education programs

Provide parents with car seats free of charge, via loan or low cost rental, often with education about proper installation and use

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Car seat education & enforcement campaigns

Share information about the importance of proper car seat use and enforce existing laws via checkpoints, dedicated law enforcement officials, etc.

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Car seat incentive & education programs

Educate parents and caregivers about proper use of car seats and reward parents and/or children for correct use

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Career pathways programs

Provide occupation-specific training for low-skilled individuals in high-growth industries, with education and supports, usually with stackable credentials and work experience opportunities

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Employment

Certificates of employability

Issue certificates of employability to individuals with criminal convictions who have met pre-specified standards of rehabilitation; also called certificates of relief, reentry, good conduct, rehabilitation, recovery, etc.

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Employment

Child firearm access prevention laws

Impose penalties on adults for a child’s unsupervised access to firearms

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for offenders

Use individual or group therapy to help offenders discover and change the thought processes that lead to maladaptive behavior

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Community policing

Implement a policing philosophy based on community partnership, organizational transformation, and problem solving techniques to proactively address public safety issues: also called community-oriented policing

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Comprehensive risk reduction sexual education

Provide information about contraception and protection against sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in classroom or community settings

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Sexual Activity

Court mandated programs for perpetrators of intimate partner violence

Expand court-referred intimate partner violence offenders’ understanding of abuse, teach alternative reactions, and work to change gender role attitudes; also called batterer intervention programs (BIPs)

Evidence Rating:
Mixed Evidence
  • Community Safety

Cure Violence Health model

Detect and intervene in potentially violent situations, educate and mobilize communities, and connect high-risk individuals to services; formerly called Chicago CeaseFire

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Community Safety

Drug courts

Use specialized courts to offer criminal offenders with drug dependency problems an alternative to adjudication or incarceration

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety
  • Alcohol and Drug Use

Early childhood home visiting programs

Provide at-risk expectant parents and families with young children with information, support, and training regarding child health, development, and care from prenatal stages through early childhood via trained home visitors

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety
  • Family and Social Support

Enhanced seat belt enforcement programs

Add publicity and other strategies (e.g., supplemental patrols, increased officers, etc.) to efforts to enforce existing seat belt laws

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Expedited partner therapy for treatable STIs

Provide prescriptions or medications to patients diagnosed with treatable STIs to give to their partners without provider visits; also called patient-delivered partner therapy (PDPT)

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Sexual Activity

Family treatment drug courts

Use specialized courts to work with parents involved in the child welfare system who may lose custody of their children due to substance abuse

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety
  • Alcohol and Drug Use

Firearm licensing laws

Require a potential purchaser to obtain a permit or license before purchasing a firearm

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Firearm restrictions for people convicted of domestic violence

Prohibit firearm purchase and possession by people convicted in any court of a domestic violence misdemeanor or by people subject to a domestic violence protective/restraining order

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Community Safety

Focused deterrence strategies

Target a particular crime through law enforcement and community agency cooperation and coordination of various deterrents and social services; also called pulling levers policing

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Functional Family Therapy (FFT)

Introduce a short-term family-based intervention therapy focused on strengths, protective factors, and risk factors for youth with delinquency, violence, or substance abuse problems, and their families

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

High school equivalency credentials

Offer programs to help individuals without a high school diploma or its equivalent achieve a high school equivalency credential

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Education
  • Employment

HIV/STI partner notification by providers

Notify partners exposed to an STI of their risk, encourage testing, and refer to services; also called contact tracing, or partner counseling and referral services

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Sexual Activity

Hot spot policing

Focus police resources and enforcement on high-activity crime locations within a community (e.g., street blocks and buildings) using policing tactics such as increasing enforcement time, problem-oriented policing, etc.

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Intensive case management for pregnant & parenting teens

Provide pregnant or parenting teens with services based upon their needs (e.g., counseling, connections to health care or social services, academic support, etc.) in school or community settings

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Sexual Activity

Juvenile curfews

Restrict youth under a certain age from being in public places during certain hours, usually at night

Evidence Rating:
Evidence of Ineffectiveness
  • Community Safety

Kinship foster care for children in the child welfare system

Arrange full-time foster care by relatives or adults who are not a child’s parent but have a family relationship with the child when a child is removed from home due to a safety concern

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Labor unions

Organize workers to bargain collectively for improved wages, benefits, and working conditions

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Employment
  • Employment

Long-acting reversible contraception access

Increase access to LARCs through cost reduction, comprehensive birth control counseling, provider training, efforts to ensure availability at local clinics, etc.

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Access to Care
  • Sexual Activity

Multi-component fall prevention interventions for older adults

Provide a fixed, multi-component set of fall prevention interventions to older adults, usually in community settings, without an individualized risk assessment

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety
  • Quality of Care

Multisystemic Therapy (MST) for juvenile offenders

Use an intensive, family- and community-based intervention that addresses individual, family and environmental risk factors that affect antisocial behaviors among serious juvenile offenders

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Neighborhood watch

Support the efforts of neighborhood residents to work together in preventing crime by reporting suspicious or potentially criminal behavior to local law enforcement

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

On-site child care

Provide employees with child care options at work; care may be provided free of charge, partially subsidized as part of an employee benefit package, or offered at market rates

Evidence Rating:
Insufficient Evidence
  • Employment

Out of town bypasses

Establish roads that avoid built-up areas such as towns, cities, or commercial/business districts

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Housing and Transit
  • Community Safety

Paid family leave

Provide employees with paid time off for circumstances such as a recent birth or adoption, a parent or spouse with a serious medical condition, or a sick child

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Employment

Paid sick leave laws

Require employers in an affected jurisdiction to provide paid time off for employees to use when ill or injured

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Employment

Primary seat belt enforcement laws

Allow law enforcement officials to stop drivers solely for failing to use a seat belt

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Recreational marijuana legalization

Allow adults to possess a limited amount of marijuana for personal, non-medical use

Evidence Rating:
Insufficient Evidence
  • Alcohol and Drug Use
  • Community Safety

Restorative justice in the criminal justice system

Use victim-offender dialogue to address the harm caused by a crime and victims’ needs; can take place pre-arrest or post sentence via sharing circles, victim-offender mediation, or face-to-face conferences

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Rollover protective structures (ROPS)

Attach metal bars, frames, or crush proof cabs to a tractor that provide a safety zone for an operator in the event of a rollover or overturn

Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported
  • Community Safety

Scared Straight

Organize tours of prison facilities for juvenile delinquents or youth at risk of delinquency and allow them to observe prison life and attend inmates’ presentations; also called juvenile awareness programs

Evidence Rating:
Evidence of Ineffectiveness
  • Community Safety