Strategies

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

62 Strategies
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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

Community Conditions

  • Income, employment and wealth

Societal Rules

  • Budgets

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

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

Community Conditions

  • Income, employment and wealth

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices

Labor unions

Organize workers to bargain collectively for improved wages, benefits, and working conditions
Evidence Rating:
Scientifically Supported

Community Conditions

  • Income, employment and wealth
  • Civic and community resources

Societal Rules

  • Institutional practices
  • Governance
  • Worldviews, culture and norms

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

Community Conditions

  • Income, employment and wealth
  • Civic and community resources

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies

Living wage laws

Establish locally mandated wages that are higher than state or federal minimum wage levels
Evidence Rating:
Some Evidence

Community Conditions

  • Income, employment and wealth

Societal Rules

  • Laws and policies

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

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

Community Conditions

  • Income, employment and wealth

Societal Rules

  • Budgets

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

Community Conditions

  • Income, employment and wealth