We all want to be healthy, but sometimes we need a helping hand. Thanks to SHIP, our communities are working together to ensure opportunities for good health for parents, kids, and the whole community. The goal of SHIP is to reduce chronic diseases associated with tobacco use and obesity. Through the guidance of our multidisciplinary Community Leadership Team, we support community efforts to:
- Create safer walking and biking conditions in our communities to encourage walking and biking to school, work, and destinations or just for recreation.
- Improve access, affordability, and availability of healthy food options at school, work, and in the community at restaurants, corner and convenience stores, food shelves, community gardens and farmers’ markets.
- Establish workplace wellness programs to help employees improve their health and productivity, which decreases healthcare costs for employers.
- Partner with schools and childcare centers to improve access to healthy foods during the school day, increase opportunities for physical activity, which improves their health, ability to focus, and have demonstrated improvements on test scores.
- Partner with local property managers and owners of multi-unit housing to voluntarily adopt smoke-free policies within apartment buildings or adopt tobacco policies that prevent tobacco use among youth.
- Promote mental wellbeing across all ages, build resilience in our communities, and educate the public on available resources.
- Promote breastfeeding in the community through worksite wellness, baby café, partnering with healthcare systems, and other community spaces to ensure mother’s feel encouraged and supported in their choice to feed their baby breastmilk, which leads to unmatched health benefits for both mom and baby throughout their lives.