Community Health Benefits Program

Meeting Community Needs, Improving Lives

As a nonprofit organization, Lahey Hospital & Medical Center is committed to improving the health and well-being of residents throughout our Community Benefits service area. Through our Community Benefits programming, we work in collaboration with the area’s key community health stakeholders and residents to address local needs and priorities.

Working with community partners, we complete a community health needs assessment every three years. We use it to guide our work as we look for ways to address unmet health needs of our community’s most vulnerable residents and increase access to care.

Communities We Serve

Our Community Benefits service area focuses on eight area cities and towns:

We collaborate with community partners to create programs and initiatives that help people in these communities lead healthier, happier lives. We then monitor the impact these programs are having, and through ongoing review, work to ensure that they are meeting the needs identified in our communities.

Making a Difference

We create and support innovative programs that help improve the well-being of many of our community members. Here's a sample of some our recent accomplishments:

Food Access and Nutrition Support for Seniors

Our community health needs assessments have consistently identified elder health as a key focus area, showing that about one-third of seniors in Arlington and Burlington were not getting the recommended servings of fruit and vegetables each day. Our assessment revealed that cost was one barrier to access.

Working with World PEAS Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), we developed a program to provide fresh produce free of charge to seniors in the area. Once a week for 20 weeks during the growing season, 120 seniors gather and take home six different types of fruits and vegetables.

Good nutrition is key to preventing disease, and this program helps promote general health. By getting seniors out of the house and socializing at the markets, it also reduces isolation. More than two-thirds of participants reported they made new connections or renewed old ones through the program.

LiveSTRONG at the YMCA and YMCA Pink Program

LiveSTRONG at the YMCA and our YMCA Pink Program were created for people and families affected by cancer. Please visit their websites to register for these classes.

LiveSTRONG at the YMCA is offered through the North Suburban YMCA of Woburn. It's a class individually tailored to the needs of cancer survivors and those going through treatment. It helps them stay physically active and build supportive relationships with others. Tests conducted before and after the program showed participants had improvements in cardiovascular endurance as well as flexibility, mobility and strength.

Lahey Hospital & Medical Center also partners with the Burbank YMCA in Reading to offer the Pink Program for breast cancer survivors. The program gives those taking part and their families memberships at the YMCA for 12 weeks. Besides providing social and emotional support, it works to boost participants' energy, strength and ease of movement when doing daily tasks. Our evaluations show it meets those goals — and improves quality of life.