Seven Vital Conditions for Health and Well-Being
Our freedom to thrive depends on having a consistent set of vital conditions, such as clean air, fair pay, humane housing, early education, routine health care, and other basic necessities. Personal experiences may rise and fall from birth to death. However, vital conditions persist over generations. They shape the exposures, choices, opportunities, and adversities that we each encounter throughout our lives.
The Seven Vital Conditions for Well-Being is a useful framework for conceptualizing holistic well-being and the Conditions that give rise to it, as well as identifying levers for community change and improvement. It brings together major determinants of health, exposing how parts of a multi-faceted whole work as a system to produce population well-being. This framework helps users consider the properties of places and institutions that all people need all the time to be healthy and well. This framework advances a collaborative, cross-sector approach to improving community health and well-being and helps identify where and how to invest in communities to yield better results over time.
Each vital condition is distinct and indispensable. Together, they form an interdependent system that shapes opportunities for people and places to thrive. If any vital condition is denied or otherwise unfulfilled serious adversity can accumulate, revealing itself in excess rates of illness, unemployment, housing distress, food insecurity, loneliness, and more.
The Seven Vital Conditions
Explore the Seven Vital Conditions
Bringing the Vital Conditions to Life: Basic Needs for Health and Safety
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Published on 01/30/2020
Bringing the Vital Conditions to Life: Meaningful Work & Wealth
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Bringing the Vital Conditions to Life: Lifelong Learning
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Published on 11/01/2019
Bringing the Vital Conditions to Life: Belonging & Civic Muscle
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Bringing the Vital Conditions to Life: Reliable Transportation
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Bringing the Vital Conditions to Life: Humane Housing
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Bringing the Vital Conditions to Life through People, Place, and Possibility
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Learn More About the Seven Vital Conditions
WIN Community Pacesetter Stories: The Collection
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Cross-Cutting Themes: Working Across the Vital Conditions
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Vital Conditions Topic Pages
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