TRANSFORMING OUR COMMUNITY'S HEALTH- TOGETHER

In communities across the nation, the Y is a leading voice on health and well-being. Over past 15 years, the Y movement has driven innovation in prevention and control of chronic disease to save lives and reduce healthcare spending. With support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Y delivers tangible results in evidence-based chronic disease prevention and management. Across the country, Ys are increasing opportunities and policies promoting physical activity, improving access to healthy affordable foods, and advancing environmental change that makes the healthier choice the easy choice. 

As a community-facing organization, the Y’s mission has long focused on helping people to live their healthiest lives and reach their full potential in spirit, mind, and body, acknowledging that individual “health” is influenced by a range of interconnected environmental, social, and biological factors.   

We want to leverage our position—as an organization capable of inciting change at the individual, community, and national levels—to increase access to disease prevention and management resources in settings where people already live, work, learn, grow, and play. 

At the Y, we know that community-based organizations focused on long-term relationship building and peer support are essential to successfully transition our healthcare system from a focus on volume to a focus on value. When 7 out of the 10 leading causes of death and 86% of healthcare spending in our country are related to chronic disease, we know that “the way we’ve always done things” has to change. We can extend the goals and values of clinical care into community settings—reaching more people with long-term, face-to-face support –when places like the Y and local healthcare systems work together.