Building Healthy Communities
We develop healthy communities by providing consultation and leading processes to:
- Build and evaluate sustainable, inclusive community coalitions where working partnerships are formed.
- Increase collaboration across agencies and disciplines.
- Mobilize multiple sectors of the community to support positive youth development and healthy communities.
- Coach coalitions to implement science-based strategies with fidelity.
- Facilitate strategic planning sessions with coalitions to develop long-range, sustainable, community and youth involved plans that will positively impact the well-being, safety, and health status of youth.
Healthy Communities Approach
The healthy community approach is based on The World Health Organization (WHO) concept that "health is more than the absence of disease. In this context, health is defined broadly to include the full range of quality of life issues." WHO defines the Social Determinants of Health in this article: http://www.who.dk/document/E81384.pdf
A healthy community demonstrates an element of interconnectedness. When a healthy community initiative is undertaken, a communal spirit develops, linking public, private, and nonprofit sectors to address the underlying causes of poor health. Healthy community participants represent the wide spectrum of interests and roles that make a community work. Focusing on systems change, the Healthy Communities Approach seeks to build broad participation, encourage new players, honor diversity, create a shared vision and values, and build true collaborations that utilize the assets and resources of the community. Integral to this approach are the measurement of results and the establishment of benchmarks for progress.
Healthy Communities Principles:
- Use a broad definition of “community” and “health”
- Create a shared vision from community values
- Address quality of life for everyone
- Diverse resident participation and widespread community ownership
- Focus on “system change”
- Build capacity using local assets and resources
- Benchmark and measure progress and outcomes
- Invests in youth leadership and development
How to build a Healthier Community:
People Work Together To
- Form a coalition or community group
- Decide what health means for their community
- Learn more about the healthy communities approach
- Study the needs and assets of the community
- Identify problems and strengths in the community
- Set goals to help the community build on its assets and become healthier
Take Action
- Using the goals, the coalition/group sets priorities and develops a plan of action
- The whole community works together with the coalition/group on the plan of action
- The coalition/group reports on successful outcomes to the community
- The process continues with the community building on its successes, setting new goals, initiating new activities and continuing the process of improvement
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© 2006 CMCHC. Designed and managed by Cassandra Andersen