Wellesley Institute works in research and policy to improve health and health equity in the GTA through action on the social determinants of health.
Wellesley Institute’s Thriving in the City research works towards a reality where all residents in the Greater Toronto Area have the resources to achieve a healthy life. Thriving means having resources to meet their physical, social, and psychological health needs now and in the future. It includes having resources to meet health needs related to […]
To access this project, please visit https://making-space.city/
Continue ReadingEquity-Centered Community Engagement Strategy
Canada has significant health inequities. Wellesley Institute research has shown that social factors such as housing, income, education, discrimination, and access to social supports, are vital for individual and community health as well as Canada’s economic growth. To build back better, to establish a new normal, inequities in the social determinants of health must be […]
Continue ReadingBudget submission 2022: Prioritizing health equity
Developed in partnership with Ontario Health, this report examines race-based data collected between June 26, 2020 and April 21, 2021, by Ontario public health units. The data show that COVID-19’s impact has been highly racialized. The analysis found that racialized populations had 1.2- to 7.1-fold higher rates of COVID-19 infection compared with white Ontarians. The […]
Continue ReadingTracking COVID-19 through race-based data Download PublicationTracking COVID 19 Through Race Based Data
The old normal The evidence is accumulating. Our seniors’ care system is not keeping up with the growing diversity of Canada. It has failed to provide equitable access to care that is culturally and linguistically appropriate. Many long-term care (LTC) homes that cater to specific cultural or religious groups have extremely long waitlists across the […]
Continue ReadingA new normal for seniors’ care: A focus on diversity and health equity
A range of strategies have been suggested to increase vaccination rates – from free donuts and lotteries to employment requirements and vaccine certificates. Wellesley Institute has conducted a rapid review of effectiveness evidence and an analysis of unintended impacts on equity-seeking groups of eleven strategies to determine which strategies could meaningfully increase vaccination rates and […]
Continue ReadingEncouraging vaccinations through equitable strategies Download PublicationEncouraging vaccinations though equitable strategies
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a disproportionate toll on Canada’s most vulnerable populations. With growing evidence on the inequitable impacts of COVID-19 across Canada, it is reasonable to assume that similar impacts have occurred, and will continue to occur, amongst the diverse population groups of Canadians living and working in long-term care settings. Unfortunately, due […]
Continue ReadingLeaving No One Behind in Long-Term Care: Enhancing Socio-Demographic Data Collection in Long-Term Care Settings Download PublicationLeaving No One Behind
Throughout the pandemic, researchers working in various regions have shown that COVID-19 infection rates are disproportionately higher for racialized and low-income persons. In July, and November of 2020, data from Toronto Public Health showed that approximately 80 per cent of new COVID-19 cases in Toronto were among racialized persons, even though they make up only […]
Continue ReadingInequities in COVID-19 infection and related hospitalizations and deaths Download PublicationInequities over time in COVID19 infection and related hospitalizations and deaths
In mid-April, Wellesley Institute reported that areas in Ontario with higher rates of COVID-19 had lower rates of vaccination. The original report also documented inequities by racial composition of an area: neighbourhoods that had a higher per cent of Black, South Asian, Southeast Asian, or Latino populations had lower rates of vaccination, even after taking […]
Continue ReadingPersisting inequities in second doses of COVID-19 vaccines Download PublicationPersisting inequities in second doses of COVID19 vaccines
In mid-April, Wellesley Institute reported that areas in Ontario with higher rates of COVID-19 had lower rates of vaccination, and that this pattern was greatest in the City of Toronto. Since the publication of that report, a follow-up bulletin described a movement towards greater equity, where the mismatch between vaccination rates and COVID-19 infection rates […]
Continue ReadingMonitoring progress: Race and vaccine equity Download PublicationMonitoring progress Race and vaccine equity
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.