Aramark Invests in Study of Successful Community Health and Wellness Solutions in Partnership With Alliance for Strong Families and Communities

January, 2015 -- A new study of community health and wellness solutions identifies common threads of successful programs that help overcome environmental, social, and economic barriers people face, and accomplish real and lasting community health solutions.

“We learned that when community members help create a program, they become activated, and not simply passive participants,” said David McKinney, director of the Center for Engagement and Neighborhood Building at the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, which produced the study.

A white paper detailing the study, Using Authentic Engagement to Improve Health Outcomes, was released this week by the Alliance, in partnership with Aramark, a global provider of award-winning services in food, facilities management, and uniform services.

Four community centers are featured in the study and profiled in the white paper, which provides details about how each center’s holistic approach to serving individuals impacts the underlying factors that affect health, and ultimately create long-term solutions that benefit the whole community.

“Health and wellness is complex, and community members may not be able to control every factor that impacts their health,” McKinney added. “That’s why it is so critical that programs are designed with them, and not for them. Community centers can provide the community with the tools they need to create and implement programs, and the program becomes more credible, because it is reinforced by this neighborhood support.”

The study is part of Aramark Building Community (ABC), the company’s global volunteer and philanthropic program dedicated to enriching and nourishing lives by improving family health and wellness and helping people succeed in the workforce, in partnership with local community centers.  The study is available on the ABC Academy, which was created as part of a long-time partnership between Aramark and the Alliance. The ABC Academy helps community centers build capacity and expand programs, with an initial focus on improving the health and wellness of vulnerable families in underserved communities.

The four community centers and their programming profiled in Using Authentic Engagement to Improve Health Outcomes, include:

United Neighborhood Houses of New York, New York, NY

• Convening organization for the Healthy Communities Through Healthy Food initiative, where local organizations activate older adults as leaders in increasing access to healthy food in the community.

People’s Emergency Center, Philadelphia, PA

• Integrates exercise, civic engagement, and nutritional workshops to empower residents to adopt healthier, more active lifestyles.

Bronxworks, New York, NY

• Promotes health and wellness by increasing access to healthy food through local agriculture and education, encouraging fitness programs, and supporting health care services.

Gary Comer Youth Center, Chicago, IL

• Uses state-of-the-art fitness facility within the community center to offer physical education classes, activities, and fitness fairs for youth and the broader community.

Download Using Authentic Engagement to Improve Health Outcomes here.

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About the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities
The Alliance for Strong Families and Communities is a national organization dedicated to achieving a vision of a healthy society and strong communities for all children, adults, and families. The Alliance works for transformational change by representing and supporting its network of hundreds of nonprofit human serving organizations across North America as they translate knowledge into best practices that improve their communities. Working with and through its members network on leadership and advocacy, the Alliance strives to achieve high impact by reducing the number of people living in poverty; increasing the number of people with opportunities to live healthy lives; and increasing the number of people with access to educational and employment success. Go to alliance1.org for more information.

About Aramark
Aramark (NYSE: ARMK) is in the customer service business across food, facilities and uniforms, wherever people work, learn, recover, and play. United by a passion to serve, our more than 270,000 employees deliver experiences that enrich and nourish the lives of millions of people in 22 countries around the world every day. Aramark is recognized among the Most Admired Companies by FORTUNE and the World’s Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute. Learn more at www.aramark.com or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. Through Aramark Building Community, Aramark has invested nearly $8.5 million since 2008, in volunteer expertise, financial and in-kind resources to strengthen the capacity of more than 100 local community centers in over 50 cities, involving the skills and expertise of more than 25,000 employees and impacting over 4 million people.