Strategies

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

Advocacy for victims of intimate partner violence

Work to partner with victims/survivors of intimate partner violence, help them with safety plans, and link them to community services (e.g., legal, housing, financial advice, emergency shelter, etc.)

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

Ban the Box

Prohibit criminal history questions on job applications and postpone background checks

Evidence Rating:

Mixed Evidence

Campus alcohol bans

Restrict alcohol consumption anywhere on a college or university campus or only in specific areas (e.g., residence halls)

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

Charter schools

Establish publicly financed schools that are not subject to many of the regulations that govern traditional public schools, such as staffing, curriculum, and budgeting requirements.

Evidence Rating:

Mixed Evidence

Community kitchens for nutrition education

Use existing kitchen spaces for community members to share knowledge, resources, and labor to prepare, cook, and consume food, often with nutrition education provided for participants experiencing food insecurity

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

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

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

Cure Violence model

Use a public health approach to detect and intervene in potentially violent situations, educate and mobilize communities, and connect individuals at high risk of violence to services; formerly called Chicago CeaseFire

Evidence Rating:

Mixed Evidence

Designated driver promotion programs

Encourage use of designated drivers via population-based mass media campaigns, incentive programs based in drinking establishments, and other efforts

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

Georgia Fatherhood Program

Provide employment-based services for non-custodial fathers who pay child support and experience a job loss or a decrease in income

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

HIV and STI interventions coordinated with work, vocational training, or sports for youth

Coordinate efforts to reduce risky sexual behavior among adolescents with work, vocational training, or sports

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

Hospital wristband color standardization

Establish national standards for the colors of patient wristbands used to alert health care providers about specific conditions such as allergies or elevated fall risk

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

Housing mediation services

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

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine education

Inform adolescents, young adults, and parents about HPV and its consequences, as well as the benefits of vaccination, via videos, printed materials, online content, or in-person efforts

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

J-1 physician visa waivers

Expand use of J-1 physician visa waivers for foreign national physicians who have trained in the U.S. and will serve patients in designated Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs)

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

Job-sharing programs

Offer flexible working arrangements, allowing the duties of a single full-time position to be covered by two part-time employees

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

Keg registration laws

Require wholesalers or retailers to record an identification number for beer kegs and a purchaser’s information (e.g., name and address, date of birth, etc.) at the time of purchase

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

Mass media campaigns against underage drinking

Use television, radio, print, and social media efforts to increase awareness of underage drinking and its consequences

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

Mass media campaigns for physical activity

Provide messages that support physical activity to large and broad audiences using television, social media, radio, billboards, newspapers, and other print media

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

Medical marijuana legalization

Allow eligible patients to use marijuana for medical purposes; often called medical marijuana laws (MMLs)

Evidence Rating:

Mixed Evidence

Minimum wage increases

Increase the lowest hourly, daily, or monthly compensation that employers may legally pay to workers

Evidence Rating:

Mixed Evidence

National Fatherhood Initiative's 24/7 Dad

Help men improve their parenting skills and fathering knowledge via a voluntary, comprehensive fatherhood program

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

National Fatherhood Initiative's InsideOut Dad

Connect incarcerated fathers to their families and prepare them for release via small group education sessions that address fathering knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

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

Participatory budgeting

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

Evidence Rating:

Mixed Evidence

Payday loan regulations

Regulate short-term loans that must be repaid by a borrower’s next pay day via bans, caps on maximum interest rates and loan amounts, or require minimum loan terms and credit cost

Evidence Rating:

Mixed Evidence

Recreational marijuana legalization

Allow adults to possess a limited amount of marijuana for personal, non-medical use; often called recreational marijuana laws (RMLs)

Evidence Rating:

Mixed Evidence

Sales to intoxicated persons (SIP) law enforcement

Increase enforcement of laws that prohibit alcoholic beverage service to intoxicated customers, usually with fines, imprisonment, or revocation of a license

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

School or community-based abstinence-only education

Promote abstinence from sexual activity, generally only with mention of condoms and birth control to highlight failure rates

Evidence Rating:

Mixed Evidence

School-community liaisons

Provide students from public schools, from low income backgrounds, or who have a high risk of dropping out and their families with information about social services and health care supports; also called community resource or family and community liaisons

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

Secondhand smoke education interventions

Use counseling, informational materials, etc. to inform smokers and non-smokers of the harms of secondhand smoke and encourage them to implement home smoking bans

Evidence Rating:

Mixed Evidence

Seller & server minimum age

Require a minimum age for sellers in off-premise locations that sell alcohol and servers and bartenders in on-premise locations

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

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

Tobacco cessation contests

Encourage participants to quit using tobacco by a set date or during a specific time period and give successful participants a chance to win financial rewards or other prizes; often called Quit & Win contests

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

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