Community Program

Healthy living happens in community.

The CHANGE Health Community Program is a no-cost initiative that helps people of all ages build healthy lives. Hosted in partnership with communities across Alberta, the program teaches families and individuals practical skills based on four key areas of health:

Nutrition and meal preparation

Physical activity and lifelong wellness

Mental health and well-being

Family relationships and community connections

The Community Program has served nearly 500 families in over 30 communities, including Edmonton, Calgary, Medicine Hat, Stony Plain and Lacombe. Looking for a program in your area? Reach out to us at [email protected].

The CHANGE Health Community Program is run in partnership with the University of Alberta and supported by our founding sponsor, Alberta Blue Cross.

What is the Community Program?

When we think about health, our minds often jump to exercise and nutritious food. But that’s just part of the picture. To stay healthy for life, we need the support of our families, neighbours, and communities. That’s why our program connects you with those in your area. Together, you’ll try new activities, learn practical skills, build healthy habits, and, ultimately, find a sense of belonging.

Ready to join? E-mail [email protected] to find out if the Community Program is active in your area. If so, the local facilitator will connect with you directly and invite you to join program sessions. These sessions might run weekly, every two weeks or at another regular interval—it’s different for each community.

Sessions usually start with a shared meal or cooking class, followed by an engaging activity based on one of the four key areas of health. Sessions may feature:

A Zumba or yoga class
Lessons from a local artist
Expert advice for getting good sleep
Tips for managing stress from a mental health professional
Education on local social and recreation programming
…and so much more!

Bring the Community Program to you

We work collaboratively with partners across Alberta to bring the Community Program to people of all ages and life stages. Here’s how it works:

Team up: We partner with interested organizations and communities, including libraries, non-profits, seniors’ homes, municipal departments and more. We may hire a person from that local organization for a part-time role as facilitator of the Community Program. Our local facilitator is often a health professional such as a dietitian, exercise specialist or mental health clinician.
Identify resources: We work with the local facilitator to find out what resources already exist in the community, whether that’s infrastructure such as recreation facilities, kitchen space or a creative lab, or expertise like fitness coaches, mental health professionals or artists.
Support and adapt: We collaborate with the local facilitator to adapt CHANGE’s curriculum to their resources. Our curriculum has 28 sessions, seven sessions per key area. We help local facilitators select sessions and build a program suited to their community and audience, whether that’s young families, university students or seniors. We don’t reinvent the wheel—just find new ways to use it.
Launch: The local facilitator launches a program centred around the four key areas. They decide when, where and how often the program sessions take place, ensuring it’s accessible to their community members.
Build: With continual support from the CHANGE team, the local facilitator continues to adapt and run the program for their community.

Interested in launching the Community Program in your area? Reach out to us at [email protected].