Strategies

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

Active recess

Establish a break from the school day, typically before lunch, that involves planned, inclusive, actively supervised games or activities; also called semi-structured, or structured recess

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

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

Adult drug courts

Use specialized courts to offer adults who are charged with an offense and have substance use disorders an alternative to adjudication or incarceration

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

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

Alcohol outlet density restrictions

Limit increases in the number and concentration of alcohol outlets by area or by population through licensing or zoning regulations

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Bicycle & pedestrian master plans

Establish a framework to increase walking and biking trails and improve connectivity of non-auto paths and trails in a particular area

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Bicycle helmet laws

Establish laws that require bicyclists to wear helmets; laws can apply to children or all bicyclists and can be established at the state or local level

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS)

Match disadvantaged or at-risk youth with volunteer mentors in school or community settings

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Breastfeeding promotion programs

Provide education, information, counseling, and support for breastfeeding to parents throughout pre- and post-natal care

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Car seat distribution & education programs

Provide parents with car seats free of charge, via loan or low cost rental, often with education about proper installation and use

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Car seat education & enforcement campaigns

Share information about the importance of proper car seat use and enforce existing laws via checkpoints, dedicated law enforcement officials, etc.

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Car seat incentive & education programs

Educate parents and caregivers about proper use of car seats and reward parents and/or children for correct use

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Child bicycle helmet promotion programs

Promote child bicycle helmet use via bicycle safety education, media campaigns, or provision of free or subsidized helmets

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Child firearm access prevention laws

Impose penalties on adults for a child’s unsupervised access to firearms

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Child-focused advertising restrictions for unhealthy foods & beverages

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.

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for individuals involved in the justice system

Use individual or group therapy to help individuals involved in the justice system discover and change the thought processes that lead to maladaptive behavior

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

College-based obesity prevention educational interventions

Support multi-component educational interventions for college students that address nutrition, physical activity, and healthy weight management; often with environmental modifications

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

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 policing

Implement a policing philosophy based on community partnership, organizational transformation, and problem-solving techniques to proactively address public safety issues: also called community-oriented policing

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

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

Community weight loss challenges

Support temporary programs that work to energize participants to lose weight via prizes, often combined with education, weight status and food intake tracking, regular check-ins, and group support

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

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-wide physical activity campaigns

Engage a variety of partners in a highly visible, multi-component effort to increase physical activity, often with efforts to address cardiovascular disease risk factors

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Competitive pricing for healthy foods

Assign higher costs to non-nutritious foods than nutritious foods via incentives, subsidies, or price discounts for healthy foods and beverages or disincentives or price increases for unhealthy choices

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

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

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

Crisis lines

Provide free and confidential counseling and service referrals via telephone-based conversation, web-based chat, or text message to individuals in crisis, particularly those with severe mental health concerns

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

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

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

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

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

Electronic Benefit Transfer payment at farmers markets

Enable farmers markets to accept EBT, the electronic payment system of debit cards used to issue and redeem Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)

Provide confidential worksite-based counseling and referrals to employees to address personal and workplace challenges

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

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

Exercise prescriptions

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

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Extracurricular activities for physical activity

Provide chances for kids and adolescents to be active and play sports at various skill levels via structured or unstructured after and before school athletic activities

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

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

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

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

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

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

Father involvement programs

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

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Financial rewards for employee healthy behavior

Offer payments, credits toward health insurance premiums, or other financial rewards to encourage employees to lose weight, eat more healthily, quit smoking, engage in physical activity, etc.

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Firearm licensing laws

Require a potential purchaser to obtain a permit or license before purchasing a firearm

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Firearm restrictions for people convicted of domestic violence

Prohibit firearm purchase and possession by people convicted in any court of a domestic violence misdemeanor or by people subject to a domestic violence protective/restraining order

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Focused deterrence strategies

Target a particular crime through law enforcement and community agency cooperation and coordination of various deterrents and social services; also called pulling levers policing

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

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