The Healthy Culture Research and Education Foundation

The Healthy Culture Research and Education Foundation seeks to fund research that demonstrates the impact of interventions designed to create healthy cultures at work, among friends, at home and in the community. The foundation will support research that addresses any or all of the following dimensions of cultural support:

  • Well-being Leadership: Enhancing the roles of executives, managers, and well-being champions in supporting healthy lifestyles.
  • Shared Well-being Values: Establishing healthy behavior as a top priority within the setting.
  • Well-being Norms: Making healthy behavior accepted and expected within the setting (“the way we do things around here”).
  • Cultural Touch Points: Aligning informal and formal policies and practices with well-being. These policies and practices include (but are not limited to) training, rewards, modeling, traditions, and communication.
  • Peer Support: Improving the quantity and quality of mutual assistance for achieving healthy behavior goals among coworkers, family, friends and other community members.
  • Social Climate: Using wellness programming as a mechanism for increasing the sense of community, shared vision and positive outlook within a setting.

We seek research that tests the belief that cultural environments play an important role in achieving and maintaining healthy lifestyles. It is proposed that cultural influences can:

  • Reach people who might not otherwise participate in well-being programs.
  • Help people to maintain healthy behavior and to not adopt new unhealthy behavior.
  • Increase success rates among people pursuing long-term lifestyle changes.

We will fund research that uses group settings (households, individual departments or workgroups, organizations, or communities) as the unit of analysis. Outcome research based on case studies is acceptable. The fund will make standardized measures available for inclusion in the research. However, researchers are welcome to use other culture measures that may be better suited to assess the impact of their intervention.

Research results must be made available for publication.

Award Size: $10,000 – $25,000. (Anticipated total annual awards: $50,000.)

To apply or to get further information, contact us at Info@healthyculture.com or by calling us in Vermont at (802) 862-8855.