What Makes a Healthy Family?

Being a healthy person has many different meanings. Eat your vegetables, get 8 hours of sleep, exercise, and drink water. All these things are what most associate with living a healthy lifestyle. What many often forget and is included in the bottom tier of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs pyramid, is shelter. A safe, affordable home is a major factor in living a healthy life.

One of Wisconsin’s top healthcare providers, ThedaCare, identifies that maintaining a healthy life goes far beyond eating wholesome foods, exercising, and routine doctor checkups. In their article “ThedaCare Team ‘Fights’ for healthy housing” they state “Estimates show that 80% to 90% of health outcomes stem from what happens outside the walls of hospitals and clinics. That’s why it’s crucial to address non-medical health factors, often called social determinants of health.”

Social determinants include:

Economic Stability: Critical for one’s health because it ensures access to essential resources like healthcare, safe housing and nutritious food. All factors which reduce the risk of illness and promote overall well-being.

Education Access and Quality: Influences employment opportunities, income, health literacy, and social conditions, all which impact overall health outcomes.

Health Care Access and Quality: Crucial for improving well-being and life-expectancy because it enables timely diagnosis, treatments and provides prevention practices.

Neighborhood and built environment: This influences access to safe housing, clean air and water, healthy food options, recreational spaces and social connections all which significantly impact physical and mental well-being.

Social and community context: Strong supportive social support networks, positive relationships and a sense of belonging reduces stress, promotes mental well-being and encourages healthier behaviors.

All these aspects listed above connect to our health. A safe, affordable home is the baseline factor to a strong community, financial freedom, and provides access to the tools necessary for a healthy lifestyle. Many of our Fox Cities neighbors live in homes with lead paint, cold drafty windows/doors, mold, or high rent prices in unsafe neighborhoods. Any of these factors can deteriorate a person’s well-being both physically and mentally.

ThedaCare is Stepping Up

ThedaCare’s lifeinspired movement is actively supporting safe, affordable housing through its “Inspired to Fight for Healthy Housing” initiative. They understand the importance of this mission and have partnered with Fox Cities Habitat to sponsor a home for Yer and her two sons Somboon and Joe.

Yer was born in Laos and fled during the Vietnam War, eventually coming to America as a single mother with four young children. After spending 14 years in a refugee camp, her journey to homeownership has been a long and difficult one. She kept her children safe and fed, even if they didn’t have much money and lived solely in low-income housing. Currently, Yer, Somboon and Joe live with her other son, his wife, and their six kids, resulting in 11 people sharing a four-bedroom house. With some of her grandchildren having to sleep on the floor because of the lack of bedrooms, Yer knew she needed to apply.

A Healthy Home for Yer and Her Family

When they were accepted into the Homebuyer Program, Yer and her sons were overjoyed. Now, Yer is eagerly awaiting the day she can finally have a home for her family, where she can live in peace and enjoy life with her children and grandchildren. Yer is excited to provide her remaining children with a stable home, free from the worry of temporary housing, eviction, or overcrowding. She looks forward to building a garden and making their new house a loving home.

“Where we live is at the core of our daily lives and we know that having a safe place to call home has a significant impact on one’s health. As a Habitat home sponsor, it’s so much more than building and raising walls, hanging siding and painting walls at our Habitat house build. Our team members along with Habitat are beginning the process to build a foundation of health for this family for years to come.

Throughout the next several months, team members are truly living our mission as part of ThedaCare’s Inspired to Fight for Healthy Housing system-wide volunteer initiative.”

– Jean Blaney McGinnis
ThedaCare
Community Health – Employee Volunteerism

Putting Thoughts into Action!

ThedaCare’s commitment to addressing the need for affordable housing goes beyond recognizing the problem, they are actively taking steps to solve it. By volunteering as builders, site hosts, and meal providers for the Lee and Thao family, ThedaCare team members have demonstrated that through teamwork and partnership, we can make our community a healthier place, one home at a time. They understand that living a healthy life is more than just maintaining good habits, it’s about having a safe and affordable home that fosters stability and reduces stress, which supports both physical and mental well-being.

Thank you, ThedaCare, for not only sponsoring this home but for also volunteering and showing your dedication to improving lives. Your commitment to affordable housing reflects your understanding of what it truly means to build a healthy community.

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