Prevention and health promotion

Good health and wellbeing are important for everyone, but we know that not everyone has the same opportunity to live a healthy life.

An image of the Glenroy food market with a purple food truck and tent

Why is health promotion important? 

A healthy body and mind are important for everyone.  

Health promotion supports people to improve their health.  

If we want to have a healthy community, we need to have: 

  • safe and clean places to live and work. 
  • enough healthy food for each day 
  • fair access to good education and healthcare 
  • meaningful relationships.

What does the health promotion team do? 

We work with community members to design, develop, and deliver projects. The community groups we work with experience more challenges than others. We want to create fair and long-term change in these communities that improves their health and highlights their strengths. 

We work with a range of community groups, including. 

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. 
  • people with refugee or asylum-seeking experience.  
  • people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer. 

cohealth receives funding from the Department of Health to do health promotion work. The work we are funded to do reflects the Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Plan 2019-23. We work across Melbourne’s north and west, focusing on areas like Maribyrnong, Melbourne, Yarra, and Moonee Valley.

We get our key priorities from the Department of Health. These are the main areas we focus on. Currently, our key priorities are:

  • making healthy eating easier 
  • enjoying being more active 
  • reducing harm from smoking and vaping 
  • improving mental health and wellbeing 
  • preventing violence against women and promoting gender equity 

Our health promotion strategy explains why and how we will work with others to achieve healthier communities. Read our 2015 -2025 strategy here.

For more information on our current projects read our Health Promotion Action Plan 2023-24. 

Click here for past Health Promotion Action Plans and Reports. 

We know we can’t do everything on our own, so we partner with a range of different groups. Currently, we are working with: 

  • Primary and Secondary Schools:  
    • Carlton Primary School
    • Collingwood College (Wurun Campus),  
    • Mount Alexander College
    • Maribyrnong and Ascot Vale Secure Welfare campus
    • Western English Language School (Braybrook)
  • Early Childhood setting
    •  Gowrie Early Learning Centre 

Read about how we’re helping to improvement management of childhood asthma for families in the west here: Improving Childhood Asthma Management (ICAM)

Find out about Arts Gen here and read all about its great work here and here.  

Read about cohealth’s bicultural workers here.

 

Are you a community group with a health promotion idea or want to get involved with a project? Do you want more information about health promotion? 

Email us at healthpromotion@cohealth.org.au 

About us

cohealth is a not-for-profit community health organisation. We provide essential health and support services in Melbourne’s CBD, inner-north and inner-west, and the east coast of Tasmania.

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