Strategies

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

22 Strategies
Clear all

Housing mediation services

Facilitate mediation between tenants and landlords to resolve conflict and prevent eviction

Evidence Rating:
Insufficient Evidence
  • Housing and Transit

In-vehicle monitoring & feedback for teen drivers and families

Support use of in-vehicle devices that alert novice teen drivers when they have high g-force events (e.g., rapid acceleration, braking, or turning) and allow families to review driving performance

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Community Safety

Mental Health First Aid

Provide an 8 or 12 hour training to educate laypeople about how to assist individuals with mental health problems or at risk for problems such as depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Family and Social Support

Online grocery stores

Use internet-based shopping sites to supply refrigerated, frozen, and non-perishable groceries for residential ordering and delivery

Evidence Rating:
Insufficient Evidence
  • Diet and Exercise

Outdoor experiential education

Support outdoor pursuits and adventure-based activities that emphasize inter- and intra-personal growth through overcoming obstacles (e.g., challenge courses, wilderness excursions, etc.)

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Family and Social Support

Participatory budgeting

Engage community members to determine how public budgets are spent, ideally to improve neighborhood conditions and reduce inequality.

Evidence Rating:
Mixed Evidence
  • Family and Social Support

Public deliberations

Bring people with diverse values and perspectives together to engage in facilitated, inclusive, and informed dialogues about a topic of public concern. Examples include Citizens’ Initiative Reviews, deliberative polling, citizen juries, and citizen’s assemblies.

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Family and Social Support

Service-enriched housing

Provide permanent, basic rental housing with social services available on-site or by referral, usually for families with low incomes, older adults, veterans, or people with disabilities

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Housing and Transit

Social media for civic participation

Support individual and group use of internet-based tools to receive news, communicate or share information, collaborate on ideas, mobilize networks, and make collective decisions

Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence
  • Family and Social Support

Sports-related concussion education

Educate youth and college athletes, coaches, and parents about the severity of concussions in sports, proper prevention, detection, reporting, and treatment

Evidence Rating:
Insufficient Evidence
  • Community Safety