HealthCorps
| Founded | 2003 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Mehmet Oz |
| Type | Public charity |
| Focus | Wellness education |
| Location | |
|
Key people
|
Michelle Bouchard, President Michelle Marquez, Chief Operating Officer Juliahann Washington, Controller Karen Johnson, Chief Communications Officer |
|
Employees
|
50+ |
| Slogan | Teaching Teens How to be Happy, Healthy & Resilient |
| Website | www |
HealthCorps is an American non-profit organization that provides school-based and organizational health education and peer mentoring in addition to community outreach to under-served populations – mostly Hispanic and African American. Its mission is to make students happier and more productive by giving them life-saving skills in nutrition, fitness and mental resilience as well as CPR training, organ donation and more.
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 shows teens practical life skills through interactive seminars focused on the value and power of students' bodies and minds. HealthCorps expects teens to become educated consumers and health activists, and teens are encouraged to develop positive behavioral shifts that enhance self-esteem.
HealthCorps is based on a peer-mentor model. Each HealthCorps "coordinator" is assigned one school in which he or she leads seminars five days a week on fitness, nutrition and mental resilience. The seminars are taught through health or other academic classes or through after-school clubs, as designated by the school principal. Seminar content is included in a 250-page curriculum and program guide developed by the HealthCorps Advisory Board.
HealthCorps believes that through service learning, the students share some of the messaging with their friends and parents—thus increasing the reach of HealthCorps' message.
Outside of schools, HealthCorps engages in several community events such as health fairs. Their largest health fairs are branded "Highway to Health" festivals.
In June 2009, Mehmet Oz presented results of a two-year efficacy study overseen by a methodologist from Cornell University and funded by Affinity Health Plan. The study has not been published. All information on the study thus far released has come from Oz. Results of the study found benefits of HealthCorps on three dimensions. Soft drink consumption decreases by 0.61 times per week. Participants are 36% more likely to report they are more physically active. Participants score 10.7% higher on the test of health knowledge. These estimates assume zero benefit for dropouts; excluding dropouts results in larger effect size.
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Wikipedia