About Us
Welcome to Healthworks! We are an award-winning charity and support people of all ages across the North East to live longer, healthier and happier lives.
We began life in 1995 in the west end of Newcastle and have since grown to deliver services across the region.
Throughout 2025 we will be celebrating 30 years of reducing health inequalities and improving the health and wellbeing of people of all ages.
Healthworks Aims
Healthworks supports people of all ages to lead a longer, healthier and happier life.
We achieve this by:
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Sharing information about health, how to improve it, and your rights to health care.
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Giving communities resources to better understand health issues and make informed choices.
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Encouraging prevention by working together with different professionals and agencies.
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Promoting the benefits of exercise, healthy eating, and lifestyle changes.
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Offering health training for local groups and communities.
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Providing services to help reduce health inequalities.
Most of our work takes place in areas where people face more challenges and often have a lower quality of life due to poor health or disability. These health problems are often linked to things like low income, unemployment, fewer opportunities, poor housing, and child poverty. This leads to people needing more support from health and social care services, and it also has a big impact on the economy.
Read Healthworks Latest Impact Report
Professor Bola Olawabi’s Visit
Professor Bola Owolabi from NHS England visited Healthworks to learn more about the work we do to help people live healthier lives. She also saw how we team up with the NHS and Public Health to create new services that tackle health problems and reduce health inequalities in the North East.
Take a look at the video to find out more about Dr Bola’s Olowabi’s visit:
Our Patron is Professor Sir Michael Marmot
Our Patron, Professor Marmot, and others including GPs and community leaders have expressed significant concern about poverty and social inequality, and the negative effect this can have on physical health, mental health, and life expectancy and on a population often described as hard-to-reach and excluded.
Professor Marmot, in his influential report “Fair Society, Healthy Lives, The Marmot Review” into health inequalities in England, and his 10 year review “Health Equity in England, The Marmot Review 10 Years On”, expressed significant concern about poverty and social inequality, and the negative effect this can have on physical health, mental health, and life expectancy and on a population often described as hard-to-reach and excluded.
His “Build Back Fairer” report identified inequalities in social and economic conditions before the pandemic contributed to the high and unequal death toll from COVID-19, measures to control the virus also impacted on health and the widening of health inequalities.
It is against this background that we work to support and enable communities, through advocacy, challenge and delivery to improve life outcomes.
Healthworks aims to support innovation, improve health, and stimulate economic growth:
- We work on developing innovative approaches to tackling health inequalities across North East and North Cumbria- such as our digital delivery
- We develop interventions with patients and academics across the region and pilot them
- We work with the NHS and health businesses to create and develop initiatives, then test and pilot interventions or digital solutions with them
- We work collaboratively with partners to deliver services that make people fitter, and more active for longer, and reducing the impact on the NHS and social care.
- We recruit local staff and volunteers. Last year our salary bill was £1.5 million, contributing to the local economy, and creating jobs that may not otherwise be available.
- We help keep money in our communities and this strengthens the local economy.