Strategies

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

58 Strategies
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Automated speed enforcement cameras

Use devices such as speed cameras, laser devices, radar, etc. to enforce speed limits; devices can be permanent fixtures or be used manually by law enforcement officers
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation

Behavioral interventions to prevent HIV and other STIs

Use individual-, group-, and community-level interventions to provide education, support, and training that can affect social norms about HIV and other STIs
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Sexual activity

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

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation
  • Diet and exercise
  • Climate

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices
  • Governance

Bicycle infrastructure for enhanced cycling safety

Accommodate or provide dedicated infrastructure for cyclists via bicycle paths, lanes, cycle tracks or protected lanes, etc.
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation

Carpool & rideshare programs

Help participants share transportation via informal arrangements between individuals, formally arranged ridesharing programs, or other ride-matching services
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Air, water and land
  • Housing and transportation
  • Climate

Clinic-based interventions for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination

Combine information about HPV and the benefits of vaccination with efforts to support vaccine series completion (e.g., patient and parent education or reminders, physician education, etc.) in clinic-based settings
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Sexual activity

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 Conditions

  • Housing and transportation
  • Civic and community resources

Societal Rules

  • Budgets

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 Conditions

  • Housing and transportation
  • Air, water and land
  • Civic and community resources

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

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

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation
  • Diet and exercise
  • Civic and community resources
  • Climate

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Comprehensive clinic-based programs for pregnant & parenting teens

Address the needs of teenage parents via clinic-based programs that provide health care and family planning services as well as case management, counseling, and other supports
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care
  • Sexual activity

Comprehensive risk reduction sexual education

Provide information about contraception and protection against sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in classroom or community settings
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Sexual activity

Condom availability programs

Provide condoms free of charge or at a reduced cost in community and school-based settings
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Sexual activity

Debt advice for tenants with unpaid rent

Offer debt advice from trained providers to tenants with unpaid, overdue rent to help repay debt and increase financial literacy
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Income, employment and wealth
  • Housing and transportation

Digital interventions to prevent HIV and other STIs

Provide tailored health information and assistance with decision making, behavior change, and emotional support via digital interactive programs
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Sexual activity

Expedited partner therapy for treatable STIs

Provide prescriptions or medications to patients diagnosed with treatable STIs to give to their partners without provider visits; also called patient-delivered partner therapy (PDPT)
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Sexual activity

Healthy home environment assessments

Train volunteers, professionals, or paraprofessionals to help residents assess and reduce environmental home health risks and recommend low cost changes (e.g., improved ventilation, integrated pest management, etc.)
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation

HIV/STI partner notification by providers

Notify partners exposed to an STI of their risk, encourage testing, and refer to services; also called contact tracing, or partner counseling and referral services
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Sexual activity

HOME Investment Partnership Program

Provide grants to states and localities to fund activities that build, buy, or rehabilitate affordable housing for rent or homeownership, or provide direct rental assistance to households with low incomes
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation

Societal Rules

  • Budgets

Household lead control education interventions

Inform parents and caregivers about lead exposure pathways from contaminated dust, soil, water, and air as well as the irreversible health consequences of lead exposure
Evidence Rating:
Evidence of Ineffectiveness

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation
  • Air, water and land

Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8)

Provide eligible families with low and very low incomes with vouchers to help cover the costs of rental housing; also called Section 8
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation

Societal Rules

  • Budgets

Housing First

Provide rapid access to permanent housing and support (e.g., crisis intervention, needs assessment, case management), usually for chronically homeless individuals with persistent mental illness or substance abuse issues
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Housing mediation services

Facilitate mediation between tenants and landlords to resolve conflict and prevent eviction
Evidence Rating:
Insufficient Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation

Housing rehabilitation loan & grant programs

Provide funding, primarily to families with low or middle incomes, to repair, improve, or modernize dwellings and remove health or safety hazards
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation

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

Community Conditions

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

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies
  • Worldviews, culture and norms

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

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation
  • Civic and community resources

Societal Rules

  • Budgets

Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine education

Inform adolescents, young adults, and parents about HPV and its consequences, as well as the benefits of vaccination, via videos, printed materials, online content, or in-person efforts
Evidence Rating:
Insufficient Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Sexual activity

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

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation
  • Air, water and land
  • Civic and community resources

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies

Individual incentives for public transportation

Offer incentives such as free or discounted bus, rail, or transit passes, reimbursements, partial payments, or pre-tax payroll deductions to encourage individuals’ use of existing public transit
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation
  • Climate

Integrated pest management for indoor use

Support a four-tiered approach to indoor pest control that minimizes potential hazards to people, property, and the environment
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation

Intensive case management for pregnant & parenting teens

Provide pregnant or parenting teens with services based upon their needs (e.g., counseling, connections to health care or social services, academic support, etc.) in school or community settings
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Sexual activity

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

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation
  • Air, water and land
  • Civic and community resources

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Lead paint abatement programs

Eliminate lead-based paint and contaminated dust by removing or encapsulating lead paint, or removing lead painted fixtures and surfaces
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation
  • Air, water and land

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies

Legal support for tenants in eviction proceedings

Provide legal representation for tenants with low incomes in eviction proceedings or offer limited legal assistance to prepare tenants to represent themselves in court
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Long-acting reversible contraception access

Increase access to LARCs through cost reduction, comprehensive birth control counseling, provider training, efforts to ensure availability at local clinics, etc.
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Clinical care
  • Sexual activity

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies

Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)

Provide funds to households with low incomes to meet home energy needs, especially for households with children, older adults, or individuals with disabilities
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation

Societal Rules

  • Budgets

Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTCs)

Provide funding via tax credits at the state and local level to support development and rehabilitation costs of low income rental housing
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation

Societal Rules

  • Budgets

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

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation
  • Diet and exercise
  • Air, water and land
  • Civic and community resources
  • Climate

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies

Multi-component interventions to prevent teen pregnancy

Support initiatives that combine multiple components such as education, skills building, and contraceptive promotion to reduce pregnancy among youth
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Sexual activity

Multi-component workplace supports for active commuting

Provide physical infrastructure (e.g., bike parking or showers), educational or social support (e.g., walking groups), and financial incentives that support active commuting
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation
  • Diet and exercise
  • Climate

Out of town bypasses

Establish roads that avoid built-up areas such as towns, cities, or commercial/business districts
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation

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

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation
  • Civic and community resources
  • Climate

Societal Rules

  • Budgets
  • Worldviews, culture and norms

Radon mitigation programs

Prevent radon from entering occupied buildings and reduce existing indoor air radon levels via soil depressurization, home or room pressurization, heat recovery ventilation, etc.
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation

Rapid re-housing programs

Transition families and individuals experiencing homelessness into permanent housing quickly, often with supports such as short-term financial assistance, case management, landlord negotiations, etc.
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Rent regulation policies

Establish tenant protections via regulations to the housing rental market such as limits on rent increases and eviction protections for tenants with low incomes; typically via rent stabilization
Evidence Rating:
Expert Opinion

Community Conditions

  • Housing and transportation

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies

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

School or community-based abstinence-only education

Promote abstinence from sexual activity, generally only with mention of condoms and birth control to highlight failure rates
Evidence Rating:
Mixed Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Sexual activity