HealthCorps is an American nonprofit organization that provides school-based and organizational health education and peer mentoring, in addition to community outreach to underserved populations.
Overview
HealthCorps is a national service program with tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The program claims to impact from 400 to 600 high school students per school per year.
The HealthCorps in-school program makes teens and pre-adolescents stronger by giving them practical life skills through interactive lessons, student-led events and demonstrations focused on the value and power of students' bodies and minds. HealthCorps expects students to become educated consumers and health activists, and they are encouraged to develop positive behavioral shifts that enhance self-esteem.
HealthCorps is based on a peer-mentor model, in which the HealthCorps "coordinator" is generally a recent college graduate. Each HealthCorps coordinator is assigned 1 to 4 schools in which they lead lessons and activities on fitness, nutrition and mental resilience. The seminars are taught through health or other academic classes or after-school clubs, as designated by the school principal. Lesson content is included in a 250-page curriculum and program guide developed in the field by the coordinators and approved by the HealthCorps Advisory Board.
History
HealthCorps was designed in 2003 as a 10-month pilot in partnership with Columbia Presbyterian Hospital as a response to "Healthy People 2010", an initiative of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to advance a nationwide disease prevention agenda that included fighting childhood obesity. As a result, cardiothoracic surgeon Mehmet Oz and his wife, Lisa, founded the educational program based upon the pilot under the auspices of the Foundation for Advanced Cardiac Therapies ("FACT"), a Palm Beach, Florida-based 501(c)(3) organization.
In 2004, HealthCorps launched a lunchtime workshop at George Washington Educational Campus in Washington Heights, New York, led by HealthCorps coordinators–recent college graduates with an interest in health careers who serve as peer-mentors. The coordinators were trained and supervised by staff from the Touro College Children's Health Education Foundation. A second school, Cathedral High School in Manhattan, was added to the pilot in 2005. By 2006, the HealthCorps network grew to six schools in New York City as well as the Academy of the New Church in Pennsylvania, and two schools in New Jersey Cliffside Park High School and North Bergen High School.
HealthCorps chose youth as its major focus in order to maximize the impact of its programming. Teenagers are often significant family purchase influencers, family caregivers and autonomous buyers with some expendable income. They also have great capacity to influence a large network of peers.
Original programming and first written curriculum
In 2007, HealthCorps embarked on a national rollout, extending its health education and mentoring program to 36 schools, including 29 in New York City, two in New Jersey, one in Florida, and one in Pennsylvania.
HealthCorps staff and board members developed the first written curriculum, combining lessons created by the original nine coordinators with content from the YOU book series by Oz and advisory board member Michael Roizen of the Cleveland Clinic.
Curriculum enhancements
Since 2008, as HealthCorps continued to expand into more schools across the US, the curriculum has been regularly enhanced and updated. HealthCorps staff, board members, and coordinators are vital to curriculum creation and have edited lessons based on their expertise or experience in the classroom. In order to further enhance the curriculum, HealthCorps has partnered with evidence-based programs such as Atkins Nutritionals, Alliance for a Healthier Generation, Sahaja Meditation, Share our Strength/Cooking Matters, Baptiste Foundation, Smarter Lunchrooms, the Chickasaw Nation, and Recover Circle.
The HealthCorps curriculum focuses on three pillars of health: mental resilience, nutrition and fitness. It also includes lessons on a wide range of other health issues, such as bullying, family mealtimes, and diabetes.
In classrooms, coordinators lead lessons from the curriculum that introduce students to health topics though interactive activities and discussions.