Strategies

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

135 Strategies
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DARE to be You

Provide education and training sessions with parent-child activities and family meals for youth, parents, and care providers
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Education
  • Safety and social support

Early childhood home visiting programs

Provide at-risk expectant parents and families with young children with information, support, and training regarding child health, development, and care from prenatal stages through early childhood via trained home visitors
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Safety and social support

Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)

Provide confidential worksite-based counseling and referrals to employees to address personal and workplace challenges
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Income, employment and wealth
  • Safety and social support

Enhanced seat belt enforcement programs

Add publicity and other strategies (e.g., supplemental patrols, increased officers, etc.) to efforts to enforce existing seat belt laws
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Safety and social support

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

Faith community nursing

Position registered nurses within a parish or similar faith community, or in a health care system to serve as a liaison to congregations; also called parish nursing or congregational nursing
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Families and Schools Together

Convene small groups of families for facilitated weekly meetings that include a family meal, structured activities, parent support time, and parent-child play therapy
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Education
  • Safety and social support

Family treatment drug courts

Use specialized courts to work with parents involved in the child welfare system who may lose custody of their children due to substance use; also called family treatment courts, family dependency treatment courts, or family drug courts
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Safety and social support
  • Alcohol and drug use

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies

Father involvement programs

Support fathers’ active involvement in child rearing via various father-focused or family-focused interventions
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Safety and social support

Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs)

Increase support for non-profit health care organizations and deliver comprehensive care to uninsured, underinsured, and vulnerable patients regardless of ability to pay; often called community health centers (CHCs)
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies