We may already be two months into 2011, but there’s still time to get started on that New Year’s resolution that you may have made – to get healthier! And Oasis is here to help.

So why a focus on health? Recently we learned that Healthy People 2020, the government initiative sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services unveiled its new goals and objectives for health promotion and disease prevention.

The Healthy People initiative is dedicated to improving our nation’s health, and that’s a pretty tall order. It will take the cooperation and collaboration of communities and organizations across the country for this initiative to succeed during the next decade. The Oasis Institute is proud to be one of hundreds of partners that participate in Healthy People’s consortium.
 
All of the goals of Healthy People 2020 harmonize with the Oasis mission and the programs we offer to help our participants achieve their own goals, and perhaps, those healthy resolutions for 2011. If you haven’t figured out yet what you want to do to get healthier this year, here’s a quick five options from Oasis:

 
 
  • Increase your daily physical activity through programs like Active Start, ExerStart, Yoga, Tai Chi and Strength Training.
     
  • Help kids (and yourself!) learn healthy eating habits and increase their physical activity by serving as a mentor with the CATCH Healthy Habits program.   
  • Get more connected in your community through volunteering with Oasis, whether it’s as a tutor in our Intergenerational Tutoring program, or as a mentor with CATCH Healthy Habits. Research shows that those who volunteer have lower mortality rates, greater functional ability and lower rates of depression later in life than those who do not volunteer.
     
  • Prevent or manage chronic conditions through our Living a Healthy Life program.
     
  • Be a lifelong learner – choose from hundreds of Oasis classes in history and literature, arts and culture, computers, sciences and more.
Healthy People 2020 occasionally offers webinars and events (or replays of them) about the implementation of Healthy People 2020 – find out more and sign up for email updates here.
 
Need more information on health, medication or insurance in general? Visit our health links page, which provides shortcuts to some great resources.