WHAT SHAPES OUR HEALTH?
OUR APPROACH
The Healthy Communities Foundation believes that communities are the best placed to identify and address the challenges that lead to poor health and life outcomes. We help communities using our Community Development for Health approach.
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The circumstances into which we are born, live, work & grow shapes our health. This is called the 'social determinants'.
Research tells us that the social determinants of health can influence up to 80 percent of our health and life outcomes.
Many of these social determinants can be influenced by effective public policies and locally coordinated community action.
Addressing the social determinants not only makes communities healthier, it can save billions of dollars every year for investment in communities.
For example, having a grocery stores that sells affordable fresh food may help people make healthier choices. Better quality housing can provide healthier places to live and may reduce the number of kids that get asthma.
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At the Foundation, we believe that communities are best placed to identify their own challenges, and to lead the design of programs to address the social determinants and improve community health.
And that by integrating primary health and social services, we are better able to address the social determinants of health and ensure services are financially sustainable.
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