Wellesley Institute works in research and policy to improve health and health equity in the GTA through action on the social determinants of health.
Most people, if you speak with them, get the basic concept of the social determinants of health. However, it is unclear if people recognize the essential role they play in improving health. Health equity in Canada requires broad public support and therefore a better understanding of the social determinants of health among the public. The […]
Continue ReadingPerceptions of the Social Determinants of Health Across Canada Download PublicationPerceptions of SDOH across Canada
MEDIA ADVISORY For Immediate Release NOVEMBER 10, 2015 Making the Connections: Can small interventions increase health in Toronto? TORONTO – Good health is about more than doctors, drugs and hospitals. It’s about where we live, work, play and age. Linking together initiatives in Toronto like Luke Anderson’s Stop Gap project, the work of the Mobile […]
Continue ReadingMaking the Connections: Can small interventions increase health in Toronto?
Wellesley Institute hosted two idea labs at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health’s (DLSPH) student led conference on Oct 23rd and 24th, 2015. The goals of these labs were to increase participants’ understandings of racism as a social determinant of health as well as empower participants to understand where they can make changes within […]
Continue Reading2015 Dalla Lana Student-Led Conference, Racial Justice Matters – October 2015
You may have read the evidence of the impact of being poor on health. But it really hits home when you see how poor access to health care affects someone you know. My uncle Daniel lives in Ontario and has long term health problems which have been made worse by a lifetime of poverty. He […]
Continue ReadingPharmacare: Decreasing disparity between rich and poor
Our health care system is an important symbol of Canadian identity and health care policy and funding is at the top of mind during elections and budget season. But, when we think about health, all too often we lean heavily on assumptions of personal responsibility and the solutions are medical care. What do we know […]
Continue ReadingThe Healthy Torontonian Download PublicationThe Healthy Torontonian
Last night the Wellesley Institute and United Way Toronto were thrilled to host Professor Eldar Shafir from Princeton University for an extensive talk on the ideas in his new book Scarcity: Why having too little means so much. What is interesting about the premise of Shafir’s scarcity idea is that it shows that people experiencing […]
Continue ReadingDo Our Assumptions About Poverty Start From The Wrong Premise?
This morning there was a lively debate on CBC`s The Current about working poverty and what would happen if we raised incomes for low wage workers in this in this country and in this province. Two key things popped out at me this morning: first, how hard it is to be healthy on minimum wage, […]
Continue ReadingPoverty Makes Us Sick, We Can All Do Better With Better Wages
By Steve Barnes and Jo Snyder It is well established that a variety of social and economic factors influence our health, things like our income, education, employment status, and even our neighbourhood. And it is also well established that some populations face greater barriers to good health, populations like recent immigrants, women, and racialized Canadians. […]
Remembering December 6 continues to be an important exercise for Canadians. Though there is no excuse for not considering how violence impacts the lives of Canadian women every single day, it’s crucial that we remain appropriately horrified when someone kills a woman just for being a woman. But there are other ways violence against women […]
Twenty-two years ago 14 women were killed at Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal, Quebec. Across the country today, people are remembering the women we lost that day and why. We remember that a man walked into a classroom and opened fire; his only motivation, his only target, was women. Violence against women isn’t gone, and until […]
We wish to acknowledge this land on which the Wellesley Institute operates. For thousands of years, it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.
Revised by the Ceremonial Committee at the University of Toronto Office of Indigenous Initiatives in April 2021.