The Agency that I am planning to work with currently has a strategic partnership with large corporations located in the city. The partnership involves an agreement about encouraging employees to walk or cycle to work. Employees will then be eligible to apply for an interest free loan from the corporation that they will be able to repay as their expenses for their transport will be reduced. The corporation will of course save money in terms of carbon credits because they will help improve the environment. Those employees who do not qualify for a loan will be able to receive other benefits from the corporation such as discount for their own services and products.
The agency could also develop new partnership with corporations and insurance companies. Insurance companies could offer lower health and life insurance premiums, through the corporation, for those employees who have regular health screenings offered free by the corporation. Those who set health lifestyle goals such as reducing units of alcohol, cholesterol, or those who increase their daily exercise and work on their weight can benefit from these lower premiums which will be translated into more comprehensive plans. While the corporations could benefit from having lower premiums, individuals receive better insurance plan on top of increasing their life expectancy and quality of life.
These partnerships can provide very positive effects in a short period for individual’s health, their finances, their future and including the environment. These positive results will mean that there will be an increase of conscience in the public about having a healthy lifestyle which will create opportunities for other corporations to want to apply similar internal policies. While the agency will work on helping maintain the new acquired behavior, there will be new opportunities based on the recent successes, to create new partnerships developing and expanding the scope of the desired behaviors. The positive results will also mean that there are chances for increasing the funds to create new campaigns.
The Agency could potentially expand the partnerships with existing corporations, to include their family members as part of the benefits. This could be done by developing ways in which the whole family can increase their quality of life and improve their health. For those families who do not have health insurance, they could apply for one. For those families who do have health insurance they could increase their plan for the same amount if they follow the requirements. Large corporations normally own their own fitness or sports club. The corporation could develop new sports/ fitness clubs/classes not only for employees but also for their family members. In this way, there would be a way of measuring through tangible goals whether members are indeed improving their health, and also as a way of supporting evidence for the insurance providers that the life expectancy increases and their health improves.
