It was a surprising late summer storm: News began to emerge, first from London, that the federal government was cutting fiscal 2006 funding for its national homelessness program (called the Supporting Community Partnerships Initiative). The program has been on death-watch for almost 18 months. It was due to die last year, but the federal government […]
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Putting the social determinants of health into practice
There has been increasing discussion within Canadian public health circles on how the social determinants of health can be put into practice. The Sudbury and District Health Unit prepared a discussion paper in March 2006. Quebec is the most advanced jurisdiction in integrating traditional public health with comprehensive and integrated interventions on the social determinants […]
Continue ReadingPutting the social determinants of health into practice
Volunteering & Health
Recent English research on volunteering highlights the analytical value of drilling down into small-scale neighbourhood-based analyses to better understand the dynamics of poor communities. More and more research, including projects in which the Wellesley Institute is involved, focuses on how variations in community structure and connections, access to services and other social determinants in local […]
Canadian Nurses Association on the SDOH
Nurses’ professional associations have long done useful policy work on the social determinants of health. A recent paper from the Canadian Nurses Association highlights social justice as a crucial pre-condition of a healthy society. It sets out a useful Social Justice Gauge as a tool to evaluate policy directions and impact. See it here.
That's hot!!!!!!
Toronto, and many other communities, are suffering extreme – and record-breaking – heat. This is not merely unpleasant, it is deadly. Extreme heat affects the most vulnerable (elderly, young, people with compromised health, people taking certain medications) leading to increased illness and early death, but everyone is affected. There is a “dose-response” relationship with the […]
2007 CCPH Conference Planning Has Begun
Planning for next year’s Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH) 10th anniversary conference, April 11-14, 2007 in Toronto is underway! We are delighted to be a partner in the CCPH conference, the first held in Canada. For those of you not familiar with CCPH, the organization is a leading champion in the U.S. for promoting health […]
Bringing it home (Day 4 of WUFIII)
Day four (Thursday) of the World Urban Forum in Vancouver was the day to bring it all home ” literally. I joined Jean Swanson, a long-time housing and anti-poverty activist in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, for a community tour. The Downtown Eastside is one of those many impoverished areas in Canada that Canadian Prime […]
World Urban Forum (Vancouver) – day three
The contradictions are becoming much more dramatic on day three of the World Urban Forum III in Vancouver. The forum, sponsored by UN Habitat – the United Nations’ Centre for Housing and Human Settlements – has drawn thousands of delegates from government and non-governmental organizations to Canada’s west coast for an intense week of housing […]
World Urban Forum (Vancouver) – day two
It’s day two at World Urban Forum III in Vancouver. As the Wellesley Institute’s representative, I’m meeting colleagues working on housing, health and other urban issues from around the world. Some of the stories are sobering, some are inspiring. WUFIII is hosted by UN Habitat, the housing and human settlements agency of the United Nations. […]
Powerful energy at WUFIII
There was a powerful energy on day one (June 19) of World Urban Forum III. Joining with literally thousands of people from around the world is exciting, but the energy gets kicked up several notches when lots of delegates are on the front lines in some critical housing struggles. Our world is rapidly urbanizing. In […]