The Suffolk Partnership for a Healthy Community is inviting all citizens to participate in its Positive Lifestyle Commitment Program.

Partnership executive director Jaya Tiwari calls Positive Lifestyle Commitment one of the organization’s most ambitious programs yet.

The program’s goal is to improve the health of all participants while also gathering health information that can serve as a model of the effectiveness of health programs and interventions.

Caroline Martin, president of the Partnership, helped to develop the program. Tiwari said Martin has a wealth of knowledge about these programs, having run a similar one for Riverside Health System.

Tiwari said the program’s infrastructure currently is being developed, and the Partnership will start recruiting participants at the end of the year.

Tiwari said the program will run for 10 years, with participants committed on a yearly basis.

“We hope most will continue this program for more than one year,” she said.

She said it will start up at the end of the year with two small pilot groups, but the Partnership will invite others to join through the program’s run.

“As we implement this program, we will be signing more and more people,” Tiwari said.

She said some people think it is an insurance program, but she assured that it is not insurance or free health care.

“It’s not an insurance program,” Tiwari said. “It’s a health enhancement program.”

However, she said people with and without insurance can participate in the Positive Lifestyle program.

The organization hopes to gather participants in several different health categories, from generally healthy people who want to be healthier to people with chronic illnesses who want to learn to better manage their illnesses.

Tiwari said the members hope to capture people who have average health and want to learn about illness and disease prevention.

“This will encompass a range of people in different health,” Tiwari said. “The goal is to improve the health in all the categories.”

She said the organization also wants to have a large group in order to have a big pool from which to collect health data.

“Our hope is to have 1 percent of the total Suffolk population,” she said.

After someone signs up to be a part of the program, a baseline health assessment will be provided by the Partnership.

Tiwari said the assessment will give participants an idea of where they stand in several health areas.

“This is your health profile — you are at risk for this or you can do better in this category,” she said.

From there, an individualized health plan and program will be developed for each participant that will include online access to health advice and the expertise of the health advocate.

Tiwari said the advocate will work as a liaison in conjunction with your doctor to identify resources to improve your health.

One of the goals of the advocates will be to uncover free health resources for the program’s participants to avoid any extra cost for those that don’t have health insurance.

Along the way, the Partnership will collect data on the citizens’ health, marking triumphs and areas that need improvement.

The data could be shared with community organizations and the Health Department, but Tiwari said it will also be used to give an idea to other programs as to what works.

“We hope that this will serve as a model as to what health interventions are most effective,” she said. “Hopefully, this will inform other health programs.”

For more information on the program, contact Jaya Tiwari at the Suffolk Partnership for a Healthy Community at 238-3261 or email jtiwari@suffolkpartnership.org.