Strategies

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

11 Strategies
Clear all

Ban the Box

Prohibit criminal history questions on job applications and postpone background checks

Evidence Rating:
Mixed Evidence
  • Employment

Charter schools

Establish publicly financed schools that are not subject to many of the regulations that govern traditional public schools, such as staffing, curriculum, and budgeting requirements.

Evidence Rating:
Mixed Evidence
  • Education

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
  • Diet and Exercise

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
  • Employment

Mass media campaigns for physical activity

Provide messages that support physical activity to large and broad audiences using television, social media, radio, billboards, newspapers, and other print media

Evidence Rating:
Insufficient Evidence
  • Diet and Exercise

Minimum wage increases

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

Evidence Rating:
Mixed Evidence
  • Income

Online grocery stores

Use internet-based shopping sites to supply refrigerated, frozen, and non-perishable groceries for residential ordering and delivery

Evidence Rating:
Insufficient Evidence
  • Diet and Exercise

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
  • Employment

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
  • Income

School and district level zero tolerance policies

Require school officials to apply predetermined consequences for certain infractions, regardless of situational context or circumstances; consequences are usually severe (e.g., suspension or expulsion)

Evidence Rating:
Evidence of Ineffectiveness
  • Education