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Imagine a place…where everyone has a home, meaningful work, and access to affordable healthy food…safe and welcoming places to be active and feeling connected to others
What is a Community?
Community is not a place, a building, or an organization; nor is it an exchange of information over the Internet. Community is both a feeling and a set of relationships among people. Members of a community have a sense of trust, belonging, safety, and caring for each other1.
What is Health?
Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing. In order to achieve health, a person must have peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable eco-system, sustainable resources, social justice, and equity2.
What is Community Health?
Community health is a specialty that focuses on the physical and mental well-being of people in a specific geographic region. This important subsection of public health includes initiatives to help community members maintain and improve their health and individual wellness3.
How Kindred Foundation is Helping
The Kindred Cares Grant funds programs, projects and research in the area of hospice, palliative, and end-of-life care, for both adults and children with life-limiting conditions. Applications will reopen in the Fall of 2023.
Improving community health is a huge undertaking that involves cooperation between government, citizens, organizations, volunteers -- everyone. Kindred Foundation donates to programs and initiatives focused on helping and improving our communities.
Impact of Community Health
The health of a community can have far-reaching, and sometimes surprising, impacts on individual health and beyond. Community health impacts everything -- educational achievement, safety, people’s ability to work, life expectancy, happiness, and more. Health impacts every other facet of life, from a child’s ability to learn to an adult’s ability to work, so health is critical for education and financial well-being3.
Working at the community level promotes healthy living, helps prevent chronic diseases, and brings the greatest health benefits to the greatest number of people in need (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC))3.
Benefits of Living in a Healthy Community4
Better Health
Living in a community that allows you to have good access to medical care, wellness amenities, and healthy foods boosts your physical health
Better Mental Health
Nurturing your own mind can greatly impact your daily life. Feeling included within a community can also impact your sense of self and purpose.
Stronger Community Support
Within a community, the social interactions you have can highly impact your mental and physical health. To sustain good health, it is important to have a strong community that you are able to turn to and be supported by.
Cleaner Environment
Environmental health can impact human health, disease, and injury that are determined or influenced by factors in the environment.
More Educational Opportunities
Educational opportunities are highly dependent on the community you are involved in. Living in a community with strong educational institutions and resources enhances your well-being.
Consequences of Neglecting Community Health
A lack of focus on community health can lead to a range of complex problems that aren’t easy to correct. For example, crime and safety issues that result from neglected community health can quickly become a self-perpetuating cycle. Repeated exposure to crime and violence may be linked to an increase in negative health outcomes3.
Healthy Places5
Communities can be broken into smaller components that make it easier to tackle important local priorities. These smaller parts are environments and settings.
Settings5
The social spaces and physical places where we spend most of our time (work, school, parks)
Healthcare settings
This system supports individuals through the health-related decision making and care planning.
Workplaces
Many adults spend the majority of their day at work. It is no surprise that workplaces are powerful settings to support health
Schools
Optimal places to model a healthy environment as they are diverse communities on their own. Children spend the majority of the day at school. Healthy behaviours are learned; children who are exposed to positive messaging and behaviours are more likely to develop positive health attitudes and actions in adulthood.
Environment5
Are the circumstances that surround us and affect our choices in these everyday locales.
Physical environment
Has built and natural components. The built environment is the use of land, and the way buildings and transportation systems are made. The natural environment includes natural ecosystems, habitats, air, and water.
Social environment
Is experienced directly and indirectly through relationships. Feeling connected to others and having a sense of belonging are aspects of the social environment.
Economic environment
Relates to the cost and affordability of all the things needed for good health such as affordable food and housing.
Policy environment
Includes procedures, protocols, rules, regulations, and/or laws that support health and wellness in the physical, social, and economic environment.
References
David M. Chavis & Kien Lee, Chavis, D. M., & Lee, K. (2015, May 12). What Is Community Anyway? (SSIR). Retrieved from https://ssir.org/articles/entry/what_is_community_anyway
DeniAshby, D. T., & Pharr, J. T. (2012, January). What is a Healthy Community. Retrieved from https://www.unlv.edu/sites/default/files/24/Health-Community-January2012.pdf
Brooks, A. (2019, March 04). What Is Community Health and Why Is It Important? Retrieved from https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/health-sciences/blog/what-is-community-health/
Benefits of Living in a Healthy Community. (2021, April 05). Retrieved from https://owaves.com/benefits-of-living-in-a-healthy-community/
What is a Healthy Community? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://albertahealthycommunities.healthiertogether.ca/about/what-is-a-healthy-community/
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