We are delighted to publish a guest blog from Mr Gareth Presch, Founder & CEO, World Health Innovation Summit (WHIS). Mr Presch is one of the members of the Board of Advisers of IFWIP and has been a great supporter of the work IFWIP is doing. WHIS organised an event (along with The Happy Mums Foundation) at Carlisle in December 2016 to raise awareness on wellbeing during pregnancy and beyond.
We would like to thank Mr Gareth Presch for the blog:
World Health Innovation Summit (WHIS) was inspired by the Carlisle Ambassadors in 2015 and the inspiring Give A Day to the City project. What started out as a project to help support Carlisle City has grown to a worldwide movement that helps communities around the world.
To quote Prof Leif Edvinsson “You’ve created the health book” referring WHIS to Facebook.
We’ve held 3 summits now in Carlisle, Cumbria along with multiple events right across the UK (Blackpool, Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester) and collaborated abroad in Greece, Thailand and the Philippines. WHIS has future events planned in Nottingham, Newcastle and around the World.
Our model is based on Trust – a circular economy that allows everyone to benefit from our activities. We re-invest funds generated back into our programmes to help support local communities. It’s a win, win approach.
WHISKids, for example, has now had over 2,000 children through our programmes in Cumbria. We have created new jobs while helping support children’s mental wellbeing. The impact on these children and our society will be substantial. Our summary social return on investment report has found that for every £1 invested we’re returning at least £7.50.
The model can be adopted by any community around the world. We share our knowledge so everyone wins.
The summit is the catalyst for our work in a community – once initiated we can introduce our programmes – WHISKids, WHISatwork, WHISSeniors, WHISGreen, WHISTalks, WHISSchools etc. These are driven by local people and communities.
We work collaboratively to ensure we build relationships that deliver positive change to improve people’s health and wellbeing. Listening to a communities needs is important.
Trust is the Oil of the Future – the WHIS values are open and transparent and we encourage this throughout our work.
78% of 18-24 year-olds are interested in social value and there is no greater value than our health and wellbeing.
It’s a very exciting time for WHIS as we’ve just agreed to work with the Irish Health Services. This is a collaboration to bring WHIS model to Ireland and develop new ways of working to support people’s wellbeing. There are huge job creation opportunities through WHIS.
We have been invited to present the model in Hangzhou, China and right across the world WHIS is being adopted – India, Africa, Brazil, USA, Australia etc.
What started as a vision to support our local health services has developed into a catalyst to support communities around the world.
WHIS creates a space for us to work together and share openly so our society benefits from our collective action as a community team.
We appreciate everyone’s support on this journey and we’re grateful for people’s time and energy to develop this vision.
Inspire, Innovate and Share Knowledge as Together, We Inspire.
www.ifwip.org