Designing health promotion initiatives to serve communities and targeted populations, and not just single individuals, is at the heart of a public health orientation. The collective well-being of communities can be fostered by creating structures and policies that support healthy lifestyles, and by reducing or eliminating hazards in social and physical environments. Community-level models are frameworks for understanding how social systems function and change, and how communities and organisations can be activated.

Community-level models are essential for comprehensive health promotion efforts. These models embody an ecological perspective and are the foundations for pursuing goals of better health for individuals, groups, institutions, and communities. They complement individually oriented behavior change goals with broad aims that include advocacy and policy development. Community-level models suggest strategies and initiatives that are planned and led by organisations and institutions whose missions are to protect and improve health: schools, worksites, health care settings, community groups, and government agencies.

Ideally, comprehensive health promotion efforts build on strategies that have been tried and found effective for reaching health and health behavior goals. However, while strategies have been shown to be effective in many behavioral arenas (e.g., marketing, political), there are currently few health issues for which a variety of demonstrably effective strategies are known.