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Empowering Communities to Improve Their Health and Wellbeing

1 December 2025

Updated 2025 Edition This article updates and expands on Gareth Presch’s original 2018 HealthManagement piece, “Empowering Communities to Improve Their Health and Wellbeing.”n

World Health Innovation Summit (WHIS) connects people, communities, and systems to improve health and wellbeing through a salutogenic and preventative approach, while generating meaningful social, economic, and environmental value. Today’s technology allows instant global knowledge-sharing, enabling communities worldwide to collaborate, innovate, and co-create solutions that strengthen resilience and improve lives.

Why WHIS Exists

WHIS began as a social enterprise in Carlisle, Cumbria, to support the NHS and social care services with recruitment, retention, and community-led prevention. Since then, it has grown into a global platform, empowering communities to reduce health inequalities, strengthen population wellbeing, and develop innovative solutions that work for people, systems, and the planet.

WHIS is not just a conference or a meeting. It is a continuous, community-driven ecosystem that brings together patients, clinicians, educators, innovators, businesses, policymakers, and citizens. By energising collaboration and knowledge-sharing, WHIS shifts the focus from reactive care to proactive, preventative impact.

How WHIS Works

Health touches every sector: education, transport, agriculture, housing, energy, industry, and the built environment. WHIS aligns with the WHO’s determinants of health:

  • The social and economic environment
  • The physical environment
  • Individual characteristics and behaviours Through summits, programmes, digital platforms, and community networks, WHIS creates environments where communities learn, share, and co-develop solutions to reduce pressure on health systems and improve outcomes.

The Five WHIS Pillars

WHIS programmes address health across the life course:

  • WHISKids – Health and wellness for the next generation
  • WHISatwork – Workplace wellbeing, performance, and stress management
  • WHISSeniors – Healthy ageing and quality of life
  • WHISGreen – Climate, energy, waste, water, and environmental resilience
  • WHISTech – Digital health, innovation, and global knowledge exchange (WHISInspire) All pillars aim to strengthen prevention, community capability, and population resilience.

Our Five Goals

  1. Deliver the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  2. Restore balance to the environment
  3. Create equal opportunities
  4. Improve people’s health and wellbeing
  5. Support the most vulnerable These goals underpin every WHIS programme and partnership.

WHISKids

  • Reach: Over 2,000 children and families in Cumbria
  • Outcomes: Improved emotional wellbeing and resilience
  • Indicative SROI: £1 → £7.50

Summits and Community Networks

  • 67% improved professional networks
  • 63% better access to innovation
  • 53% improved professional positivity
  • 52% enhanced knowledge
  • 48% reduced professional isolation
  • Indicative SROI: £1 → £36 These outcomes demonstrate the high social and economic value of community-led innovation.

The Economic Case for WHIS

Global health systems face rising demand, workforce shortages, ageing populations, and escalating costs. WHIS supports health systems by shifting activity upstream, focusing on prevention and community resilience:

  • Reduces avoidable demand on primary care, emergency services, and social care

  • Improves workforce wellbeing and retention

  • Enhances long-term population outcomes

  • Delivers high social return on investment By mobilising communities and enabling preventative action, WHIS helps health systems redirect resources from reactive treatment to proactive, wellbeing-focused interventions.

Unlocking Private Capital for Public Good

Sustainable health systems require innovative financing. WHIS is leading this shift through outcomes-based contracting, as outlined in our white paper: 📘*** Outcomes-Based Contracting:****** Harnessing Private Capital for Public Goo***d

This model aligns government priorities, investors, and communities to deliver measurable, long-term impact. By rewarding results rather than activity, it stretches public budgets, attracts private capital responsibly, and supports preventative health, health equity, and community regeneration.

Benefits include:

  • Investment in preventative infrastructure (Healthy Ageing Clinics, wellbeing hubs)
  • Blended finance models alongside public funding
  • Regenerative economic growth aligned with SDGs
  • Innovation linked to measurable outcomes
  • Financial sustainability for governments and local authorities The UK Government’s Office for the Impact Economy amplifies this opportunity, making WHIS a strategic partner in shaping a fairer, healthier, and financially sustainable future.

Read the full white paper: whis.world

Global Leadership and Systems-Level Influence

WHIS has established the Global Social Prescribing Alliance (GSPA), launched by the UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to accelerate social prescribing globally and promote prevention, wellbeing, and personalised care.

Founder Gareth Presch brings unique global experience and credibility:

Scaling WHIS: From Prototype to Global Movement

With successful prototyping complete, WHIS is expanding globally. Facilitators are trained, local authorities engaged, and programmes deployed across Europe, Asia, and beyond. The World Health Service, WHIS’s not-for-profit arm, delivers programmes and community initiatives directly to local populations.

The federated model ensures communities maintain autonomy while benefiting from central support. Revenue from partnerships, sponsorships, advisory services, digital innovation, and commercial activities is reinvested in local projects, generating measurable social and economic impact.

Partnerships for a Healthier Future

WHIS collaborates with leading organisations, including:

  • UN Agencies, NHS, ICLEI, WAIPA, etc

  • National Governments

  • Social Impact Scotland

  • Smart Social

  • Academic, civic, and corporate partners worldwide

  • Local authorities and governments committed to prevention and innovation These partnerships strengthen WHIS’s global reach and commitment to ethical, sustainable, and inclusive health innovation.

A Shared Mission: “Together, We Inspire.”

Every individual has a role in shaping healthier, stronger, and more resilient communities. WHIS exists to empower that contribution.

By supporting communities, sharing knowledge, co-creating solutions, and unlocking new forms of investment, we can create healthier lives, stronger economies, and sustainable futures.

Together, We Inspire.