The High River 4C Coalition has been in existence since 2002 and has been working hard to make our community a healthy place to live.    4C stands for Caring Citizens Committed to Healthy Communities.    We are a group of dedicated citizens who work to promote wellness in High River and area and our work focuses on initiatives that help create a healthy community.   Our vision and mission statements are: Vision: Healthy High River Mission: To facilitate and promote wellness through community partnerships, initiatives and action In September, 2007, Town Council endorsed the Healthy Community Status for High River by passing a resolution which states, “High River supports the Healthy Community approach and adopts and promotes within its area of competency, public policies and strategies that enhance the overall health status of its population.”  September 24, 2007

What is a healthy community? It is simply a community that is mindful of health and is constantly striving to improve it.  It makes concrete efforts to improve the determinants that affect health (early childhood development, social support networks, physical and social environments etc.) and to work to expand the resources that exist for health and wellness.  Most importantly, a healthy community is people caring about people and working to ensure that all of its members can live life to its fullest potential in a community that is safe, vibrant and healthy.

Building a Healthy Community is an initiative first conceived by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) European office in 1986.  The Healthy Communities Movement is a process that towns and cities across Canada are using to promote the well-being and health of their communities through collaborative action at the grassroots level.   It is an approach that is based on community capacity and encourages the formation of multi-sectored partnerships between local governments, businesses, community groups, agencies and individuals.