Strategies

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

19 Strategies matching Parent education programs
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Breastfeeding promotion programs

Provide education, information, counseling, and support for breastfeeding to parents throughout pre- and post-natal care
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Diet and exercise

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

Community Conditions

  • Diet and exercise
  • Civic and community resources

Community-based social support for physical activity

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

Community Conditions

  • Diet and exercise

Cross-age youth peer mentoring

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

Community Conditions

  • Safety and social support
  • Civic and community resources

Extracurricular activities for social engagement

Support organized social, art, or physical activities for school-aged youth outside of the school time
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Safety and social support
  • Civic and community resources

Family-based physical activity interventions

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

Community Conditions

  • Diet and exercise

Farm to school programs

Incorporate locally grown foods into school meals and snacks, often with visits from food producers, cooking classes, nutrition and waste reduction efforts, and school gardens
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Diet and exercise
  • Climate

Fruit & vegetable taste testing

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
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Diet and exercise

Labor unions

Organize workers to bargain collectively for improved wages, benefits, and working conditions
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Income, employment and wealth
  • Civic and community resources

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices
  • Governance
  • Worldviews, culture and norms

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

Community Conditions

  • Diet and exercise