Strategies

Help participants share transportation via informal arrangements between individuals, formally arranged ridesharing programs, or other ride-matching services

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)

Restrict child-focused advertising for unhealthy foods and beverages via bans on unhealthy food and drink ads during children’s TV programs, product placement in children’s movies, etc.

Support locally-based visual, media, and performing arts initiatives for children and adults; also called participatory arts programs

Establish and support land that is gardened or cultivated by community members via community land trusts, gardening education, zoning regulation changes, or service provision (e.g., water or waste disposal)

Combine academic, mental and physical health, and social service resources in schools for students and families via partnerships with community organizations; also called community learning centers

Establish partnerships between farmers and consumers in which consumers purchase a share of a farm’s products in advance

Build, strengthen, and maintain social networks that provide supportive relationships for behavior change through walking groups or other community-based interventions

Use aerobic, natural decomposition to divert food and yard waste from landfills and create a nutrient-rich soil amendment product on an individual or large scale

Support the federal-state partnership that pays participating landowners an annual rental rate for removing environmentally sensitive land from production and introducing conservation practices on the land.

Establish an ongoing relationship between an older youth or young adult and a younger child or adolescent, usually an elementary or middle school student

Provide child care, parent education, physical health and mental health services, and other family supports to pregnant women and parents with low incomes and children aged 0 to 3

Replace internal combustion engine vehicles with all-electric vehicles through financial incentives, regulations, and multi-component initiatives

Provide patients with prescriptions for exercise plans, often accompanied by progress checks at office visits, counseling, activity logs, and exercise testing

Increase family members’ support for physical activity, often via educational sessions on health, goal-setting, problem-solving, or family behavioral management

Support multiple vendor markets where producers sell goods such as fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, dairy items, and prepared foods directly to consumers

Provide education on basic budgeting, bank use, credit management, bankruptcy, credit building and counseling, homeownership, retirement, divorce, etc.

Offer opportunities for group purchase and distribution of selected grocery items, generally at a reduced price

Gather food left in fields after a primary harvest, food in fields where harvesting is not profitable, or excess produce from orchards, packing houses, urban agriculture sites, etc.

Offer samples of fresh fruits and vegetables in cafeterias, nutrition classes, school gardens, or workplace well-being meetings, often as part of a multi-faceted nutrition intervention

Provide home visiting services to families who are at risk for adverse childhood experiences, starting prenatally or right after birth and continuing for three to five years

Combine hunger relief efforts with nutrition information and healthy eating opportunities, often with on-site cooking demonstrations, recipe tastings, produce display stands, etc.

Provide more fresh fruits and vegetables, smaller portions, low fat, and reduced sodium or reduced sugar food options and other healthy foods at catered events

Provide pregnant and parenting teens with services such as education, vocational training, case management, health care, child care, and transportation assistance to support high school completion

Teach behavioral skills that can help individuals incorporate physical activity into their daily routines

Support a four-tiered approach to outdoor pest control that minimizes potential hazards to people, property, and the environment

Establish policies, plans, and programs that meet the needs of all residents of a community, especially children and older adults, and promote interaction and cooperation between individuals of different generations

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

Return the rights to land, property, and resources to Native people as part of policies and initiatives that promote tribal sovereignty

Delay school start times for middle and high schools to better align with adolescent sleep-wake cycles; often until after 8:30 or 9:00 a.m.

Clean, remove, replace, or cover lead contaminated soil with non-contaminated soil, mulch, sod, grass, or concrete

Replace lead plumbing material such as pipes, service lines, fittings, solder, flux, and fixtures with non-lead plumbing material

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

Establish voluntary formal groups of residents who work together to create a unified voice, enhance living conditions in their neighborhood, and address neighborhood concerns

Provide prescriptions with healthy eating goals for patients and families, often accompanied by progress checks at office visits; can include partnerships with local farmers markets via FVRx programs

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

Allow community members to gather, socialize, walk, run, bike, skate, etc. on streets temporarily to closed to motorized traffic; also called Ciclovía programs

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

Support home visits that teach parents about early childhood development and effective parenting strategies, with child development screenings, parental meetings, and links to community resources

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

Use pervious concrete, porous asphalt, permeable interlocking pavers, open-jointed blocks or cells, or other permeable pavement in individual or commercial development efforts; also called porous or pervious pavement

Support quality improvement efforts in early child care and preschool via financial incentives, standards, processes to monitor standards and ensure compliance, etc.

Provide center-based programs that support cognitive and social-emotional growth among children who are not old enough to enter formal schooling

Establish programs that accept expired, unwanted, or unused medicines from designated users and dispose of them responsibly

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.

Use ready-made or home constructed barrel systems to collect and store rainwater from rooftops that would otherwise flow to storm drains and streams

Establish bioretention systems (e.g., rain gardens, bioretention cells, green roofs, planter boxes, bioswales, etc.) to make city landscapes more permeable to help control stormwater

Encourage children to spend time away from TV and other stationary screen media, often as part of a multi-faceted effort to increase physical activity and improve nutrition

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

Support food-producing and income-earning activities in urban environments (e.g., edible landscapes, front yard or rooftop gardens, window farming, hydroponics, livestock, etc.)