Strategies

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

Activity programs for older adults

Offer group educational, social, creative, musical, or physical activities that promote social interactions, regular attendance, and community involvement among older adults

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Broadband initiatives for unserved and underserved areas

Expand broadband availability and adoption in unserved and underserved areas through initiatives that address infrastructure and cost barriers

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Community arts programs

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

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Community centers

Provide space to promote socializing among community members and offer programs and services such as recreational or educational activities, counseling or support services

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Community Development Block Grants (CDBGs)

Provide funding for local community development activities such as affordable housing, anti-poverty programs, and infrastructure development

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Community Development Financial Institutions

Support financial institutions providing services to underserved and disadvantaged communities

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Community fitness programs

Offer exercise classes (e.g., aerobic dance, yoga, Tai Chi, cycling, etc.) and fitness program support in community, senior, fitness, and community wellness centers

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

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)

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Community kitchens for food processing

Establish shared kitchen spaces that support licensed, commercial food processing and connect specialty food processors, farmers, and others who produce value-added goods

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

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 land trusts

Purchase the land a home is on to lease to homeowners with low and middle incomes and require homeowners to sell the home back to the trust or to another resident with low income upon moving

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Community organizing in public health

Advance public health by using community organizing methods, such as developing leadership, campaigning, and building power to influence decisions, agendas, and worldviews, by collaborating with community organizing groups to use these methods, or both

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Community supported agriculture (CSA)

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

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Complete Streets & streetscape design initiatives

Enhance streetscapes with greater sidewalk coverage and walkway connectivity, street crossing safety features, traffic calming measures, and other design elements

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

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

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

Farmers markets

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

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Food buying clubs & co-ops

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

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Food hubs

Support businesses or organizations that aggregate, distribute, and market local and regional food products (e.g., fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, dairy, grains, and prepared items)

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Green space & parks

Increase green space through new parks or open spaces, renovation or enhancement of under-used recreation areas, rehabilitation of vacant lots, brownfields, etc.

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

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

Housing trust funds

Support funds that help create or maintain affordable housing, subsidize rental housing, and assist homebuyers with low incomes and non-profit housing developers

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Inclusionary zoning & housing policies

Require developers to reserve a proportion of housing units for residents with low incomes via mandatory requirements or incentives, such as density bonuses

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Intergenerational communities

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

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Intergenerational mentoring and activities

Establish a relationship between an older adult and a child, adolescent, or college student through social interactions or a variety of educational and art activities

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Labor unions

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

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Land banking

Acquire, hold, manage, and develop properties such as vacant lots, abandoned buildings, or foreclosures, and transition them to productive uses, often affordable housing developments

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Land return for tribal restitution

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

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Mixed-use development

Support a combination of land uses (e.g., residential, commercial, recreational) in development initiatives, often through zoning regulations or Smart Growth initiatives

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Mobile produce markets

Support fresh food carts or vehicles that travel to neighborhoods on a set schedule to sell fresh fruits and vegetables

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Neighborhood associations

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

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

New grocery stores in underserved areas

Attract new grocery stores that sell a variety of fresh foods, baked goods, packaged, and frozen items to underserved areas via financing initiatives, tax incentives, or zoning regulation

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Open gym time

Offer time during the school day for children to play in the gym, often during lunch period; shared use agreements can expand open gym opportunities to community members outside school hours

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Open Streets

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

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

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

Participatory budgeting

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

Evidence Rating:

Mixed Evidence

Places for physical activity

Modify local environments to support physical activity, increase access to new or existing facilities for physical activity, or build new facilities

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

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

Public libraries for community building

Lend materials, offer gathering space, and provide educational, civic, and social programming; open to the community and publicly funded

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Public transportation systems

Introduce or expand transportation options that are available to the public and run on a scheduled timetable (e.g., buses, trains, ferries, rapid transit, etc.)

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Recreational sports leagues for adults

Offer opportunities for adults to play athletic games such as soccer, softball, kickball, basketball, etc. at beginner, intermediate, and competitive levels

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Reparations for Black descendants of people enslaved in the U.S.

Apologize for the history and legacy of slavery and provide direct payments or community investments to Black descendants of people enslaved in the U.S.

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Rural transportation services

Establish transportation services for areas with low population densities using publicly funded buses and vans on a set schedule, dial-a-ride transit, volunteer ridesharing, etc.

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Shared use agreements

Create contracts that support community access to existing public, private, or nonprofit facilities before or after business hours; also called joint use, open use, or community use agreements

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

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

Trauma-informed approaches to community building

Support and strengthen traumatized and distressed residents and communities and address effects of community trauma (e.g., poverty, violence, structural racism, etc.) via a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder, and multilevel approach

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Urban agriculture

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

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Voter registration initiatives

Increase the number of registered voters through initiatives that reduce barriers and expand accessibility, including automatic voter registration (AVR), voter registration drives, easing voter registration requirements, and expanding registration sites

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Voter turnout initiatives

Increase voter turnout through get-out-the-vote campaigns and initiatives to make voting more convenient such as allowing early in-person voting, vote-by-mail, or expanding polling locations and hours

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Youth civics education

Teach students attitudes, skills, knowledge, and behavior needed to participate in and contribute to a democracy

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

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