The process of health promotion is characterized by a set of core values or principles that guide all efforts to enhance health and support individual and societal well-being. Underlying all health promotion initiatives is the concept of empowerment. Empowerment refers to the capacity of individuals and communities to improve their health by increasing their control over the determinants that are important to their health. Secondly, health promotion emphasizes active public participation in processes that encourage and enable individuals and communities to define, analyze and act upon events affecting their lives and living conditions (Labonte, 1993, 5). Recognizing that health is influenced by more than genetics, individual lifestyles, and the provision of a health care delivery system, the field is committed to addressing the impact of broader determinants of health. This requires that health promotion interventions recognize and act upon the socio environmental conditions that shape the world in which
we live. Fourth, health promotion is committed to reducing social inequities and injustice, such that every individual, family and community may benefit from living, learning and working in a health-supporting environment.
Finally, health promotion seeks to facilitate intersectoral collaboration and initiate coordinated efforts to promote individual and community health.