The Wellesley Institute’s Rick Blickstead, Sheila Block and Michael Shapcott will join community and business leaders and politicians from across the Greater Toronto Area for the Greater Toronto CivicAction Alliance Summit on Thursday and Friday. The Wellesley Institute is committed to working towards a healthy and equitable GTA, and we have a special interest and […]
Archives for 2011
Celebrating 100 years since the founding of the Wellesley Hospital
In 1911, when Dr Herbert Bruce founded the Wellesley Hospital, Toronto was a city teeming with immigrants. Many of the new arrivals lived in substandard housing, lived on low incomes and suffered poor health. Fast forward to Toronto of 2011, a city that celebrates its cultural diversity, yet many recent immigrants still suffer higher rates […]
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What Is Health Equity?
Health equity is deep in the DNA of the Wellesley Institute. Many health statistics report averages over a large population – the entire City of Toronto or even the whole country of Canada. But averages can obscure the reality that certain groups (such as poor people, or recent immigrants, or Aboriginal people) bear the heaviest […]
C-304: National housing plan bill continues to hover at Commons committee
Draft legislation to create a much-needed national housing plan for Canada is hovering on the agenda of a Commons committee, waiting for final approval. Bill C-304 – which would require the federal government to consult widely then craft a comprehensive national housing plan within six months to bring Canada into compliance with our international housing rights […]
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Canada’s vital non-profit sector: Too important to be ignored!
Canada’s non-profit sector is big (more than 160,000 organizations) and non-profits make a major contribution to Canada’s economy, they employ more than a million people and non-profits help to create healthy communities. The Wellesley Institute’s Michael Shapcott delivered a presentation to the leadership conference of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada today that examined the challenges […]
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Welcome to Ontario – Don’t Get Sick
Eliminating health disparities is a complex challenge. But not all of it: some solutions are quick and immediate. Ontario denies access to OHIP for new immigrants for three months. This is discriminatory and dangerous to a vulnerable population – and easily fixable. I am supporting the Right to Health Care Coalition’s demand to remove the […]
Policy Solutions for "Wicked" and Complex Social Problems
Social policy can’t just be about addressing the easy issues – there are very few – but has to tackle really deep-seated and complex problems such as poverty, health disparities or homelessness. I just published an article on promising community-driven directions for addressing such fundamental inequalities and the policy frameworks needed to address such “wicked” […]
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What can Toronto learn from Calgary when it comes to ending homelessness? Lots, actually!
What can Toronto learn from Calgary when it comes to ending homelessness? Quite a lot, actually, and Tim Richter, the dynamic CEO of the Calgary Homeless Foundation, will be in town early next week to meet with a variety of groups and share their success in housing more than 2,300 previously homeless people over the […]
Taking action on peer research: Forum on models of practice, management and ethics
Peer research is a powerful method to gain deep insights into important issues, but there is an inherent tension between two overarching goals of engaging people with lived experience, noted the Wellesley Institute’s Brenda Roche at today’s Peer Research Into Action forum.
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Sleepwalking To Segregation: How Housing, Income, Health Are Linked Presentation Notes
The growing body of evidence that shows Toronto is becoming a more divided city as people and populations, also suggests that the city is increasingly segregated by housing, income and health. The Wellesley Institute’s Michael Shapcott made a presentation to Ryerson University students today on the links between housing, income and health.