Strategies

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

114 Strategies
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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

Community Conditions

  • Income, employment and wealth
  • Clinical care
  • Housing and transportation
  • Civic and community resources

Societal Rules

  • Budgets
  • Worldviews, culture and norms

Safe Routes to Schools

Promote walking and biking to school through education, incentives, and environmental changes; often called SRTS
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation
  • Diet and exercise
  • Climate

Scared Straight

Organize tours of prison facilities for juvenile delinquents or youth at risk of delinquency and allow them to observe prison life and attend inmates’ presentations; also called juvenile awareness programs
Evidence Rating:
Evidence of Ineffectiveness

Community Conditions

  • Safety and social support

School-based intimate partner violence prevention programs

Provide youth with teen dating violence education that addresses healthy relationships, gender norms, relationship coercion, and violence in a school setting
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Safety and social support

Service-enriched housing

Provide permanent, basic rental housing with social services available on-site or by referral, usually for families with low incomes, older adults, veterans, or people with disabilities
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Social service integration

Coordinate access to services across delivery systems and disciplinary boundaries (e.g., housing, disability, physical health, mental health, child welfare, workforce services, etc.)
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Safety and social support

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

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

Community Conditions

  • Safety and social support

Strong graduated driver licensing laws

Strengthen laws that allow young drivers to gain driving experience in stages; often includes passenger and nighttime driving limitations and higher minimum ages for learner’s permits, intermediate, and full licenses
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Safety and social support

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies

Summer youth employment programs

Provide short-term employment opportunities for youth, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Safety and social support
  • Income, employment and wealth

Tax increment financing (TIF) for affordable housing

Create designated tax districts that generate revenue to invest in affordable housing initiatives, blight remediation, and economic development efforts
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation

Societal Rules

  • Budgets