Strategies

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

30 Strategies
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Baby bonds

Establish publicly funded investment accounts for every newborn, accessible at age 18

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Income

Child development accounts

Build assets through child development accounts (CDAs) with contributions from a sponsoring organization, such as government agencies or nonprofits, and family, friends; also called children’s savings accounts (CSAs)

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Income
  • Education

Child tax credit expansion

Expand federal or state child tax credits by increasing credit amounts, making credits refundable, decreasing or eliminating the earnings threshold, or creating a fully refundable supplement

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Income

Consumer participation in health care governance

Involve consumers in health care governance via roles on governing boards, advisory committees, or shorter-term special projects

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Quality of Care

Consumer-directed health plans

Establish high deductible health plans paired with pre-tax medical expense accounts such as Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) or Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and information tools

Evidence Rating:
Mixed Evidence
  • Quality of Care

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

E-cigarette regulations

Regulate use of e-cigarettes via age, sales and marketing restrictions, expanded smoke-free air policies in public and private worksites and designated spaces, etc.

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Tobacco Use

Housing reparations

Apologize for discriminatory housing policies; increase subsidies, financing, and paths to homeownership for people of color; and invest in systematically disadvantaged neighborhoods

Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion
  • Income
  • Housing and Transit

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