Strategies

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

Adult vocational training

Support acquisition of job-specific skills through education, certification programs, or on-the-job training, often with personal development resources and other supports

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Baby bonds

Establish publicly funded investment accounts for every newborn, accessible at age 18

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Ban the Box

Prohibit criminal history questions on job applications and postpone background checks

Evidence Rating:

Mixed Evidence

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

Bridge programs for hard-to-employ adults

Provide basic skills (e.g., reading, math, writing, English language, or soft skills) and industry-specific training with other supports; also called occupationally contextualized basic education programs

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

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

Career pathways programs

Provide occupation-specific training for low-skilled individuals in high-growth industries, with education and supports, usually with stackable credentials and work experience opportunities

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Certificates of employability

Issue certificates of employability to individuals with criminal convictions who have met pre-specified standards of rehabilitation; also called certificates of relief, reentry, good conduct, rehabilitation, recovery, etc.

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Child care subsidies

Provide financial assistance to working parents, or parents attending school, to pay for child care

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Child development accounts

Build assets through child development accounts (CDAs) with contributions from a sponsoring organization, such as government agencies or nonprofits, and family, friends; also called children’s savings accounts (CSAs)

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Child tax credit expansion

Expand federal or state child tax credits by increasing credit amounts, making credits refundable, decreasing or eliminating the earnings threshold, or creating a fully refundable supplement

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

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 Development Financial Institutions

Support financial institutions providing services to underserved and disadvantaged communities

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Community-based interventions for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination

Support HPV vaccination through multi-component community interventions, including education, outreach, navigation support, and vaccine provision

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

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

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

Condom availability programs

Provide condoms free of charge or at a reduced cost in community and school-based settings

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

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

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

Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)

Expand refundable earned income tax credits for working individuals and families with low to moderate incomes

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)

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

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

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

Financial education for adults

Provide education on basic budgeting, bank use, credit management, bankruptcy, credit building and counseling, homeownership, retirement, divorce, etc.

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Flexible scheduling

Offer employees control over an aspect of their schedule through arrangements such as flex time, flex hours, compressed work weeks, or self-scheduled shift work

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Full child support pass-through and disregard

Adopt policies that allow custodial parents who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to collect all child support paid by the non-custodial parent; no portion is retained by the state

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

High school equivalency credentials

Offer programs to help individuals without a high school diploma or its equivalent achieve a high school equivalency credential

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

HIV and STI interventions coordinated with work, vocational training, or sports for youth

Coordinate efforts to reduce risky sexual behavior among adolescents with work, vocational training, or sports

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

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

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

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

Individual Development Accounts (IDAs)

Support subsidized asset accumulation programs in which deposits by participants with low and moderate incomes are matched by program sponsors; withdrawals must be used for qualified expenses to retain matching funds

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

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

Job-sharing programs

Offer flexible working arrangements, allowing the duties of a single full-time position to be covered by two part-time employees

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

Labor unions

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

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

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

Living wage laws

Establish locally mandated wages that are higher than state or federal minimum wage levels

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

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

Mass media and social marketing campaigns to prevent HIV and other STIs

Use traditional and digital media to disseminate information about safe sex

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Matched dollar incentives for saving tax refunds

Support programs that provide matched dollar incentives for low or moderate income individuals to place some or all of their tax refund in a savings account

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Microfinance & microenterprise

Support programs that provide small loans, usually to individuals with lower incomes, to start or expand a small business, often with business development training and other technical assistance

Evidence Rating:

Expert Opinion

Minimum wage increases

Increase the lowest hourly, daily, or monthly compensation that employers may legally pay to workers

Evidence Rating:

Mixed Evidence

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

New Hope Project

Provided work supports for low income individuals and families (e.g., job search assistance, transitional jobs, subsidized child care, health insurance, etc.); participants worked at least 30 hours/week

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

On-site child care

Provide employees with child care options at work; care may be provided free of charge, partially subsidized as part of an employee benefit package, or offered at market rates

Evidence Rating:

Insufficient Evidence

Paid family leave

Provide employees with paid time off for circumstances such as a recent birth or adoption, a parent or spouse with a serious medical condition, or a sick child

Evidence Rating:

Scientifically Supported

Paid sick leave laws

Require employers in an affected jurisdiction to provide paid time off for employees to use when ill or injured

Evidence Rating:

Some Evidence

Payday loan regulations

Regulate short-term loans that must be repaid by a borrower’s next pay day via bans, caps on maximum interest rates and loan amounts, or require minimum loan terms and credit cost

Evidence Rating:

Mixed Evidence

Refundable child and dependent care tax credit

Offer a refundable tax credit to working families with qualifying children or other dependents that receive care outside the home (e.g., a spouse with disabilities)

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

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