Funded projects: The Intersectoral Action Fund
Watch this site for future updates.
On this page:
2021 to 2022
The "Health Doesn't Start with Health Care" knowledge mobilization project
Lead or recipient: Association for Generational Equity and Generation Squeeze
Location: Pitt Meadows, British Columbia
Start date: March 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project aims to increase awareness of the importance of social spending for positive health outcomes, and champion the development, use, and monitoring of data on the relationship between social and medical care spending to inform policy decisions. This project works within and across four key sectors – public health, childcare, housing, and poverty reduction – to promote well-being in Canada from the early years onwards. Coalition building efforts of this project includes outreach and engagement with sector leaders, translating existing evidence into accessible and appropriate knowledge translation tools, and developing concrete policy recommendations informed by evidence about the balance between social and medical care spending. Results include:
- shared messaging on why social investments advance health
- a foundation for collective action on a single metric that can be used and tracked by diverse sectors to inform their policy proposals
- progress towards building intersectoral constituency needed to advance action on social determinants of health and health equity
Mobilizing intersectoral policy for upstream investment in infant, child and youth mental health in Atlantic Canada
Lead or recipient: Atlantic Summer Institute on Healthy and Safe Communities, Inc.
Location: Atlantic Canada
Start date: March 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project aims to build on previous work conducted by the Atlantic Summer Institute to develop a children and youth mental health policy brief through knowledge translation and mobilization. The goal is to advance upstream investment in policies that promote infant, child and youth mental health across sectors in the region. The expected outcome of this project is the development of mental health-in-all policies across Atlantic Canada, with the long-term aim of improving the mental health of infants, children, and youth. This will enhance societal well-being in Atlantic Canada by reshaping how health policy is developed and increasing capacity for intersectoral action amongst governments, the private sector, and civil society through evidence-based knowledge mobilization.
Measuring what matters: Developing capacity to collect, analyze, interpret and translate data on the health of children in Canada
Lead or recipient: Children First Canada
Location: National
Start date: March 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project aims to enhance the organizational capacity of Children First Canada to mobilize a diverse group of intersectoral stakeholders to develop a national strategy to collect, analyze, report, and translate data to improve the health and well-being of children in Canada. Key activities involve:
- establishing formalized structures for engaging experts and stakeholders
- policy mapping to identify the 10 leading threats to child health
- harnessing disaggregated provincial and federal level data to report on children's health (for example, the Raising Canada report on health data and the Children's Budget report will explore expenditures on children's health and well-being in Canada)
- raise public awareness on the need for action to measurably improve children's health
Transportation ACES (Access, Climate and Economic Security)
Lead or recipient: Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria
Location: Victoria, British Columbia
Start date: March 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: The Community Social Planning Council (CSPC) leads the Transportation Access, Climate, and Economic Security (TACES) program, an innovative and inclusive initiative dedicated to promoting climate equity. TACES unites local governments, non-profit organizations, and climate action groups, addressing the intricate connections between climate change, poverty, and social inequality. By emphasizing comprehensive equity measures, TACES guides transportation decision-making toward sustainable, accessible, and affordable solutions that improve health and well-being. Characterized by its collaborative partnerships, the TACES program fosters synergistic relationships among stakeholders from various sectors to effectively tackle climate and social challenges. With a strong focus on climate equity, the program prioritizes marginalized and underrepresented communities, incorporating their unique needs and challenges into policy and program development. TACES actively engages diverse communities, particularly individuals experiencing low-income and underrepresented groups, in identifying and overcoming barriers to climate action participation, demonstrating a commitment to inclusive community engagement. The program highlights impactful pilot projects, such as the Low-income Household E-bike Subsidies and Closing the Gender Gap on Regional Trails. These projects foster inclusivity, safety, and equity while addressing the specific needs of those experiencing marginalization in sustainable transportation. By centering on collaborative partnerships, climate equity, and targeted pilot projects, the TACES program effectively confronts the unique challenges faced by communities in vulnerable situations, generating lasting, positive impacts on both climate and social well-being.
Action through connection: Promoting LBQ health in Canada
Lead or recipient: Egale Canada
Location: National
Start date: March 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: What priorities for health and healthcare access do women, trans, and nonbinary people who are lesbian, bi+, or queer (LBQ) in Canada have? What actions can be taken across various sectors to address these priorities? This project aims to address some of the ways that women, trans, and nonbinary people who are LBQ experience health, taking into consideration the long-standing barriers these communities have faced. Research and community building are needed to better understand the health, wellness, and healthcare access challenges that women, trans, and nonbinary people who are LBQ face so that meaningful action can be undertaken to improve health equity and outcomes. Egale will facilitate a process of community visioning through an intersectoral community of practice, an advisory committee of people with lived experience, and focus groups with women, trans, and nonbinary people who are LBQ from across Canada. The project aims to create:
- a broad community action plan to promote LBQ health and healthcare access in Canada based on identified priority areas
- preliminary research and a piloted national survey created by, with, and for women, trans, and nonbinary people who are LBQ in Canada.
This work will build foundational intersectoral strategies for community, social service, healthcare, government and other groups across the country to take meaningful action on LBQ health and healthcare access and will have impacts far beyond the funding period.
Intersectoral action evaluation: The EffICAS project (Impact of Establishing a Food and Health Co-op)
Lead or récipient : Institut national de santé publique du Québec
Location: Québec
Start date: March 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: The project studies the implementation of intersectoral action on food cooperatives in rural communities. In addition, the project assesses the effect food cooperatives are having on food quality, the health of individuals, food security, and community vitality and well-being. The assessment has been done by selecting three communities that are running co-op projects and that are geographically isolated in the Côte-Nord region, in Quebec. Data on the socioeconomic circumstances of the communities, their residents and key informants have been collected. To run this project, the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) team surrounded itself with partners from a number of organizations in public health, partners from co-ops and sustainable communities, and people with real-world experience. The Intersectoral Action Fund (ISAF) is being used to create a guide and tools on the theme of food co-ops. The guide describes the intersectoral engagement process and the steps required to establish a food co-op. It also includes concepts for scoping the situation and developing an approach and tools for assessing the engagement process and the impact that the co-op is having. A web forum for partners in the field, those who are involved in public health, co-ops or the social economy, and anyone else interested in this subject is being planned to take ownership of the guide and tools.
How we get there: A transportation needs assessment for individuals living with chronic illnesses
Lead or recipient: Manitoba Métis Federation Inc.
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba
Start date: March 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: One of the key determinants of health and well-being in the Red River Métis community is access to health services, particularly transportation. Understanding the transportation barriers of Red River Métis citizens living with chronic illnesses and the gaps between sectors provides crucial information to influence policy and practice change. The project team conducts a needs assessment to identify and measure transportation barriers faced by Red River Métis living with chronic illnesses. Given the impact of COVID-19 on health systems, gaps may have changed and need to be reassessed to understand their new context. The needs assessment occurs through intersectoral consultation with the Metis Community Liaison Department (MCLD), Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) regions, the transportation sector, and Red River Métis citizens with chronic illness using a needs assessment survey instrument, interviews, and focus groups. Based on the needs assessment, the project develops a Transportation Policy for the MMF, which will be communicated to Red River Métis, and to the MMF President and Cabinet.
Decent work as a matter of health equity: Building capacity and connections across health and labour to address precarious work in Ontario
Lead or recipient: Ontario Employment Education and Research Centre
Location: Greater Toronto Area
Start date: March 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project aims to build capacity for intersectoral action between the labour and health sectors to address precarious work as a social determinant of health in Ontario. This goal will be achieved through strengthening partnerships between workers in low-wage precarious jobs and health providers while building the capacity of health providers to contribute to community-led efforts to address precarious work. Working conditions such as wages, access to paid sick days, and job stability unequally and unfairly impact the health of immigrants, migrants, women, and racialized communities. With that in mind, a roundtable will be convened to bring together workers, public health professionals, and health providers to meet, reflect, and advance shared priorities throughout the project. A resource will be developed for health providers to use in direct patient care to assess the impact of precarious work on their patients' health and connect patients with available supports, information, and resources on employment rights. The project hosts a series of workshops for health providers to build knowledge and skills among health providers and build the foundation for their ongoing engagement in intersectoral action to address precarious work.
Building capacity in Red Deer's Indigenous communities to improve their health outcomes and overall well-being
Lead or recipient: Red Deer Urban Aboriginal Voices Society
Location: Red Deer, Alberta
Start date: March 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: The Red Deer Urban Aboriginal Voices Society (UAVS) will partner with the Circle of Abundance Program from the Coady International Institute at St. Francis Xavier University to create an Indigenous program and policy assessment tool based on Indigenous social determinants of health. The tool aims to inform future community development projects led by the UAVS and partner agencies seeking to develop more effective programs and services for Indigenous Peoples. The Indigenous assessment tool will be developed by community members and will apply an asset-based and community-driven development approach that is resiliency oriented. Training is provided to UAVS members to facilitate future assessments of projects, programs, and policies for longer-term sustainability. The project integrates Indigenous worldviews and cultural practices to build capacity within community members and among those with lived experience to lead change within the partnering agencies. This social justice work generates strong community ties and builds community capacity in relation to accessing cultural resources, healing practices, and addressing Indigenous protective factors.
Achieving Black health equity in Alberta: A constellation model approach
Lead or recipient: Ribbon Rouge Foundation
Location: Alberta
Start date: March 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project seeks to improve health equity upstream for African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) people in Alberta by establishing a coalition of partners from community, industry, government, university, and health on the social determinants of health for the ACB population in Alberta. The project aims to bring together key cross-sector actors, organizations, decision makers, and ACBs with lived experience of health inequity to develop groups recommending ACB health equity action plans (that is, "constellations"). The constellation topics will emerge through grassroots engagement within ACB communities and space to increase data capacity to support health equity for ACB communities in Alberta.
Fostering transformative partnerships: A capacity building approach to addressing the intersection between racism and poverty in Saskatchewan
Lead or recipient: Saskatoon Poverty Reduction Partnership (via the Saskatoon Food Bank and Learning Centre)
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Start date: March 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project aims to address how poverty and racism are interconnected and ultimately affect the health of various communities in Saskatchewan. However, policy practices to tackle poverty – a critical social determinant of health – lack the fundamental anti-racist and anti-oppressive methodologies required to ensure that efforts do not further discriminate, alienate, and oppress. To overcome this, the Saskatoon Poverty Reduction Partnership will engage with community partners and representatives, including individuals with lived and living experience about how racism can be the root cause of poverty. By strengthening relationships and building capacity with other partners, such as the Saskatoon Anti-Racism Network, this project will aim to improve the core competencies regarding equity for government and system policy makers, sector practitioners, and community members both in Saskatoon and across Saskatchewan. Creating deep and meaningful understandings about how systems are inherently biased, drive cycles of inequity and discrimination, and purposefully exclude community members based on race, gender, culture, experience, age, language will increase community capacity to address poverty, and ultimately improve the community's health and well-being.
Shaping space: Planning for culturally responsive public spaces
Lead or recipient: Sustainable Thinking and Expression on Public Space (STEPS) Public Art
Location: National
Start date: March 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: STEPS Public Art formalizes strategic, intersectoral partnerships that enable collective action to cultivate safe and culturally responsive public spaces across Canada, particularly for equity-seeking communities. Project activities include stakeholder roundtables and public conversations to understand how Canadian municipalities are programming urban public spaces related to the social determinants of health, and identify the barriers that may exist for equity-seeking communities in accessing them. The project enables STEPS and its intersectoral stakeholders to form a supportive network through which they can develop nuanced strategies to improve the design and programming to increase access to public spaces for equity-seeking Canadians. To do this, the project creates learning opportunities by bringing together community members and partners from different parts of society. The end result will be to promote safe and culturally responsive public spaces across Canada.
Growing Healthy Towers: Transformative partnerships for a healthy built environment
Lead or recipient: Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA)
Location: Greater Toronto Area
Start date: March 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: The Growing Healthy Towers project seeks to improve the social determinants of health and well-being in two low-income tower communities in the Greater Toronto Area. The goal of the Growing Healthy Towers project is to collectively address built environments in low-income tower communities, where community health and built environment issues intersect. This goal will be achieved through brokering cross-sectoral partnerships, resident engagement, and co-designing projects to pursue outdoor greening, urban agriculture, and healthy living initiatives within the towers and with the rest of the neighbourhood. Specifically, the project increases equitable access to built and natural environments, food security, healthy behaviours, social inclusion, and employment. Interventions – which will be determined with residents and multi-sectoral stakeholders – will include new infrastructure (built and natural), community programming, and upstream solutions that address the root causes of health and well-being. The project will carry out activities in alignment with local community planning initiatives (that is, TRCA's Sustainable Neighbourhood Action Program (SNAP) framework and action plans) to ensure resident involvement and ownership. At the end of the project, the applicants will have solidified partnerships to set the stage for the ongoing work needed to continue impactful action on complex intersectoral issues.
Gender transformative intersectoral partnerships supporting economic empowerment for women living with intimate partner violence in the city of Hamilton
Lead or recipient: Unity Health Toronto
Location: Ontario
Start date: March 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project seeks to create new approaches for women and gender diverse peoples to increase their economic security and independence, with a particular focus on women who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV). Gender transformative approaches, which address gender gaps by challenging and restructuring the systems and power that shape them (such as parental leave), require deep partnerships and commitment from diverse sectors to reorient their services and restructure how they work. This project expands membership in the Safe at Home Hamilton Working Group to increase the number of sectors taking on gender transformative approaches and also increase the number of economic stabilizing services provided to IPV survivors. This project includes partners from the violence against women sector and builds capacity with other sectors that support women fleeing violence, such as housing, children's services, settlement, justice, and labour sectors. Relationships from the working group are leveraged to create space for peer-to-peer coaching and collaborative problem solving across multiple sectors as they design, implement, and monitor gender transformative approaches to programming within their respective sectors.
2022 to 2023
Network alliance for community adaptation
Lead or recipient: African Canadian Development and Prevention Network
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Start date: December 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: The Network Alliance for Community Adaptation (NACA) will bring together actors across various sectors, such as social services, education, and social justice to report on how anti-Black racism contributes to the overrepresentation of Black children in the youth protection system. This project will explore how anti-Black racism is embedded in this pathway starting from why and how police and schools make referrals to youth protection, to how decisions are made, to how discrimination can create inequities in the system. This project aims to develop a social marketing campaign to promote cultural adaptation and community-institutional partnerships as a tool to leverage cultural expertise, combat anti-Black racism, share the findings of the Network and expand our adaptation and support services to new partners across various sectors. The NACA project will raise awareness about the problem through a social marketing campaign and through various knowledge sharing activities to influence policy.
Scarborough food network
Lead or recipient: Agincourt Community Services Association Inc.
Location: Scarborough, Ontario
Start date: March 2023
Duration: 12 months
In brief: Agincourt Community Services Association (ACSA) will engage a diverse group of partners, including non-profits, local businesses, resident leaders, government, and educational institutions to form an intersectoral team to make up the Scarborough Food Network. The network aims to establish an integrated and sustainable food network in Scarborough that addresses food security, food literacy, reduces inequities in food access, and acts to promote healthy lifestyles. Scarborough Food Network will increase collaboration among various sectors, agencies and communities by fostering transformative partnerships, forming work groups that plan and facilitate community capacity and actions related to food insecurity, and enhancing the capacity of partners by improving knowledge and skills to address food insecurity effectively.
Partnerships for better housing
Lead or recipient: Altered Minds Inc.
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba
Start date: January 2023
Duration: 12 months
In brief: The project's main goal is to identify priority areas for collective action in order to improve newcomer housing. This improvement is crucial as newcomer housing is a significant factor influencing both health and overall well-being. The project will work together with partners from various sectors, such as housing, health, employment, government, social services, legal, settlement, and social justice. The project will involve community members in creating a newcomer housing action plan. To do this, it will assess the needs of the community and work with partners to prioritize steps to address those needs. Different partner organizations will form groups to come up with solutions that involve multiple sectors working together. These groups will contribute to drafting sections of the community action plan. Additionally, the project aims to form new partnerships and strengthen existing ones in different sectors to advocate for and improve newcomer housing in Winnipeg. The main focus will be on making housing more affordable, improving its quality, promoting residential stability, and creating better opportunities within neighborhoods.
Fostering intersectoral action for healthy communication around weight-related issues
Lead or recipient: Association pour la santé publique du Québec (ASPQ)
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Start date: March 2023
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project's purpose is to continue the work begun by the Association pour la santé publique du Québec (ASPQ) in spring 2021, with 50 stakeholders from diverse backgrounds. This mobilization has led to the development of guidelines and communication tools to address weight-related issues in Quebec in a healthy and inclusive way. The ASPQ will continue its intersectoral mobilization efforts by creating new discussion forums, such as a working group that includes partners in the health and education sectors. To better understand and consider the realities of people of different sizes who experience vulnerability regarding their weight and related health messages, a citizens' committee will be established and mobilized at each stage of the project. These two committees will make it possible to develop a shared, global vision of the experiences and interests of stakeholders, based on scientific and experiential knowledge. Once the project is completed, ASPQ will share the information gathered from its intersectoral public health communication approach. In collaboration with working groups and persons directly affected by weight-related issues, ASPQ will oversee, develop and carry out a social marketing plan targeting the clinical setting. The goal of the plan is to define a strategy and fatphobia-free messaging that will have a positive impact on public health and well-being.
Delta Collaborates: Building an inclusive, healthy and just community
Lead or recipient: City of Delta
Location: Delta, British Columbia
Start date: December 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: The Collaborate Delta project aims to build and enhance community capacity to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on immigrant and racialized residents in Delta. It aims to reduce systemic social and health inequities faced by these population groups, such as high poverty, food insecurity, discrimination, low job security and income rates, among others. Although Delta has a robust, collaborative infrastructure of community planning tables focusing on various community issues and populations, immigrant and racialized communities have not received enough attention. This project will use an intersectoral approach to collaborate with four community planning tables that specifically address the needs of racialized and immigrant populations. These tables will focus on children, youth and families, new immigrants, and seniors, covering topics like economic recovery, mental health and isolation, and combating racism. The project activities will build on the existing collaborative infrastructure in Delta to ensure that community recovery and strategic plans reflect the needs and perspectives of immigrant and racialized residents. Overall, the project aims to enhance community capacity to respond to these needs, generate new actions and partnerships, and explore a new model for community planning that improves population health and reduces health inequities.
Greater Sudbury middle childhood partnership: Building intersectoral partnerships and community strategies to support the health and well-being of children aged 6 to 12 and their families
Lead or recipient: City of Greater Sudbury
Location: Sudbury, Ontario
Start date: January 2023
Duration: 12 months
In brief: The project aims to establish a network of intersectoral partners whose organization is supporting families with children aged 6 to 12 years. The aim is to address the barriers that families are currently facing with a lack of coordinated services as their children transition from the well-supported "Early Years" phase to "Middle Childhood." Through this project, centralized community resources will be established that will include: ongoing evaluation and reporting on the developing needs of children aged 6 to 12 and their families; create an Advisory Committee to support ongoing community efforts; and develop training modules for those professionals working with children aged 6 to 12 years that addresses the target vulnerabilities identified from the community.
Lloydminster social needs assessment and social policy framework
Lead or recipient: City of Lloydminster
Location: Lloydminster, Saskatchewan/Alberta
Start date: December 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project aims to create an understanding of the needs and of residents in Lloydminster and create a pathway forward to address those needs through collective impact. First a social needs assessment of the City of Lloydminster will be completed to identify the needs of its residents. The social needs assessment will use various tools such as online/print surveys, facilitated interviews, and focus groups to widespread participation and inclusivity. The project will also develop an extensive marketing plan that promotes diverse representation. The expected outcomes of the project include the collection of data on community social needs and priorities, which will be published in a report accessible to all community serving groups for planning and grant applications. Using what is learned from the needs assessment, a social policy framework will be created, providing guidance to the City of Lloydminster on its role in addressing social issues and how to effectively partner with the community groups. The social policy framework will bring partners together for collective action and create leadership and working groups to leverage social capital. Training will be provided to community partners and a system for evaluation will be built into the framework to determine progress over time and provide opportunity for flexibility as new community issues arise.
Culture as a social determinant of health: An assessment of the needs of newcomer African parents with children aged 0 to 12 in Toronto
Lead or recipient: Early Childhood Development Initiative
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Start date: December 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This community needs assessment aims to understand the needs of newcomer African immigrants as they navigate childcare, education, and healthcare services for their children. The project explores culture as a social determinant of health among newcomers from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Ghana. Individuals will share their lived experiences, identify their needs, pinpoint any cultural barriers that hinder their access to obtaining services for their children, and explore the links to parental health and wellness. A total of 580 individuals will be involved in completing surveys and/or engaged in 12 community consultation meetings, in English, French, Amharic and Somali. Collaboration will be built between the project team, Toronto Public Health, Toronto Children's Services, and the African Canadian Social Development Council. Community elders will be engaged for community trust-building, to support the design of the consultation activities and selection of appropriate consultation meeting locations. They will also participate in interpreting the data, publicizing the project findings, and conducting advocacy activities to support cultural safety in the delivery of the identified services and promote equitable health outcomes.
The intersectoral collaboration for sustainable housing, income, and health intersectoral collaborations for sustainable housing, income and health supports on release from provincial incarceration: Challenges and opportunities following Nova Scotia's COVID-19 rapid decarceration
Lead or recipient: Elizabeth Fry Society of Halifax
Location: Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Start date: December 2022
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project aims to establish a foundation for coordinating systems to improve access to housing and income/healthcare support for individuals released from Nova Scotia's provincial correctional facilities. The project will evaluate and consolidate strategic action plans by involving representatives of justice, community services, health, government, civil society sectors, and individuals with lived experience of incarceration. Through conversations and recommendations, captured in a Community Action Plan, the project seeks to learn from successful decarceration efforts and address common challenges in post-COVID-19 community recovery. This project will deepen and sustain intersectoral initiatives by promoting discussion to identify barriers, facilitators, and priority actions for promoting equitable access to person-centred housing, income, and healthcare support during the bail and release process. The project will not only enhance readiness for future emergencies but also promote sustainable decarceration through equitable access to the social determinants of health.
From evidence to action: Building capacity to take action on social determinants of health and well-being of diverse young people in British Columbia
Lead or recipient: Foundry, St Paul's Foundation of Vancouver
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Start date: March 2023
Duration: 12 months
In brief: Foundry is an integrated youth services (IYS) initiative for youth ages 12 to 24 and their families/caregivers throughout British Columbia. Foundry's mandate is to provide early intervention, remove barriers, and improve care pathways for youth through five core service streams: physical and sexual health, mental health, substance use, peer support and social services. The project objectives are to create and implement a linked data initiative to gain a deeper understanding of how social determinants of health, mental health, and substance use are interconnected throughout a person's life. The data created will enhance the Foundry's capacity to conduct sophisticated data analyses, including predictive modelling and life-course trajectories; and to establish the capacity to swiftly and effectively apply research findings to influence policies and practices through collaborative partnerships across various sectors.
Health equity and ecosystem development
Lead or recipient: London Intercommunity Health Centre
Location: London, Ontario
Start date: March 2023
Duration: 12 months
In brief: Health Equity and Ecosystem Development (HEED) will act as a bridge between healthcare services, community-based support, and community members. By engaging people with lived/living experience and stakeholders from various sectors, HEED will improve equitable access to health services for marginalized populations in London. The focus will be on engaging people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity, individuals using drugs and experiencing stigma, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples, and those living with complex mental health needs. These individuals and groups will be supported through a safe and accessible engagement strategy, ensuring representation across target populations and relevant sectors who are often excluded from mainstream health service planning, delivery, and evaluation. Specifically, this project will work collaboratively with individuals with lived/living experience to identify gaps in hospital services and barriers to access. HEED's focus will be on improving access to health services, social support, coping skills, and addressing culture as determinants of health that impacts the health outcomes of the target populations. The project will lead this work through the lenses of harm reduction, trauma & violence-informed care, and cultural safety to improve institutional: policy, education/capacity-building and clinical pathways.
A newcomer journey in local healthcare
Lead or recipient: REP Here In Canada
Location: Victoria, British Colombia
Start date: March 2023
Duration: 12 months
In brief: REP Here in Canada will engage newcomers to Canada who have used or tried to access healthcare in the Capital Regional District (CDR). Data. Lived experiences will be gathered from participants through surveys, community-based dialogues, and one-on-one interviews. The project aims to include various intersectionalities, such as race, racial identity, gender identity, expression, and sexual orientation. It will operate ethically, respecting the stories and experiences of all participants. These narratives will then be used to create composite stories as an approach which acknowledges individual complexities while also extracting broader insights and understanding. The project amplifies underrepresented voices in our communities in order to better inform the delivery and accessibility of healthcare services in the CRD.
Elkstwéwc ne tmicw: Collectively implementing indigenous food sovereignty
Lead or recipient: Tk'emlúps te Secwe̓pemc
Location: Kamloops, British Columbia
Start date: February 2023
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project aims to foster collaboration among departments and partners to create an Indigenous collective impact process. The process will identify priority initiatives related to food sovereignty for Tk'emlups te Secwepemc members. The project will result in a stronger and larger network of partners, an evaluation plan and a theory of change to advance Indigenous Food Security. Additionally, a Food Sovereignty Implementation Plan specific to the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc community will be developed. The primary goal of this project is to take action towards implementing food sovereignty for Tk'emlups te Secwepemc members. The plan, Elkstwéwc ne tmicw (Working Together for the Land), outlines key areas of focus, including community food security, social and economic development, food sovereignty education, and decolonizing food policy and governance.
2023 to 2024
Advancing the right to housing for individuals released from health-care facilities Canadian Centre for Housing Rights
Lead or recipient: Canadian Centre for Housing Rights
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Start date: March 2024
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project aims to address the pressing issue of homelessness risk associated with individuals staying in and being discharged from health-care institutions in Canada. This will be done through investigating the scope of the present issue, its impact on different equity-seeking groups (including seniors and people with addictions and mental health challenges, who it is suspected may be most impacted) and by formulating effective strategies to support individuals whose housing is at risk during extended healthcare stays or upon discharge into precarious housing situations or homelessness.
Toronto supportive housing growth plan: Advancing intersectoral action on harm reduction and anti-racism
Lead or recipient: Canadian Mental Health Association, Metropolitan Toronto Branch
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Start date: March 2024
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project will drive progress in the implementation of two priorities of the Toronto Supportive Housing Growth Plan: harm reduction and anti-racism. It will strengthen and formalize partnerships between municipal partners, community organizations, housing providers and health providers to co-design improvements to advance health equity by:
- enhancing access to harm reduction services in housing settings and streamlining the integration of leadership from organizations that are led by and serve racialized communities and people with lived experienced.
- expanding the capacity of multiple sectors to establish and grow a network of community partners to address urgent needs of people experiencing homelessness in the City of Toronto.
Development, implementation, and evaluation of a bilingual rights-based data repository: An educational intervention to improve knowledge about the human rights of older adults
Lead or recipient: Centre for Innovation and Research in Aging Inc.
Location: Fredericton, New Brunswick
Start date: March 2024
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project seeks to develop an interactive web-based tool offering up-to-date, de-identified, and customizable data on Older Persons Human Rights. The project aims to develop, implement and evaluate a web-based Older Person's Human Rights Indicator Framework (OPRIF) data repository in both of Canada's official languages and to establish the feasibility and acceptability of an online framework. This will be based on the Child Rights Indicators Framework (CRIF), which was implemented a few years ago as a static online report. The two web-based CRIF and OPRIF data repositories will support the Government of New Brunswick, and other provinces, to uphold the human rights of children and older persons, respectively, in their development, implementation, and evaluation of policies, programs, and practices.
Establishing the Canadian coalition to abolish conversion therapy
Lead or recipient: Community-Based Research Centre Society
Location: Burnaby, British Columbia
Start date: March 2024
Duration: 12 months
In brief: The Canadian Coalition to Abolish Conversion Therapy will connect 2SLGBTQIA+ community organizations (including those serving Indigenous people, Black and People of Colour and newcomers), with academics, researchers, legal experts, survivors, and key stakeholders from mental health organizations and affirming faith organizations. Collaborative knowledge sharing and coalition development are necessary to support broader prevention efforts. By working together, they aim strengthen equality for 2SLGBTQIA+ people; and help people who have been exposed, or may be at risk of exposure, to conversion practices, center themselves.
Racialized health initiative: Addressing health disparities in racialized communities in Ontario
Lead or recipient: Council of Agencies Serving South Asians
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Start date: March 2024
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project seeks to create system-level changes in health care in Ontario by addressing health disparities in racialized communities. The project seeks to further develop work by the Racialized Health Working Group to develop population specific health and wellbeing strategies, create community awareness for the need for disaggregated race-based data collection, and gain community input on strategies and data standards.
Development of an intersectoral intervention protocol to support the transition to adulthood of former youth protection cases
Lead or recipient: Déclic, Initiatives pour la formation et l'emploi des jeunes
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Start date: June 2024
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project seeks to develop an intersectoral action protocol for former children and youth in care of Quebec's Director of Youth Protection. This vulnerable population faces major challenges in terms of health, education and social and professional integration. This protocol will focus on the social determinants of health and wellbeing and facilitate collaboration between players who traditionally operate independently (in "silos").
It's not so "simple": Assessing the impact of the simple drug possession and trafficking offences on health equity
Lead or recipient: HIV Legal Network
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Start date: March 2024
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project seeks to gather information through a comprehensive review of literature and primary interviews on the distinction made between drug possession for personal use versus for the purpose of trafficking. Additionally, it explores how people acquire, keep, carry, and consume criminalized substances for personal use. The project will also look at the immediate and longer-term impacts of the prohibition of simple drug possession and trafficking on the health and well-being of people who use drugs. The findings will assist policymakers to make more informed decisions that improve the justice system's response to personal drug use and trafficking, with potential beneficial outcomes that include reduced harms to the health and wellbeing of people who use drugs.
Black Canadian perinatal health network: A Canadian African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) reproductive and perinatal health research and policy initiative
Lead or recipient: Mino Care
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Start date: March 2024
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project proposes a national study and policy initiative that addresses the Black maternal health experience that Black birthing persons have had over the past decade in Canada through a survey and focus groups. This knowledge will then be used to begin policy-based initiatives that will encourage the Canadian government to acknowledge the Black maternal health experience and make care more equitable, culturally safe and reduce morbidities and mortalities.
Becoming an intersectoral network-of-networks: Leveraging the Health Promotion Canada platform to create an intersectoral and interdisciplinary space for promoting collaborative action on the social determinants of health and wellbeing
Lead or recipient: National Collaborating Centre of Determinants of Health (via St. Francis Xavier University)
Location: Antigonish, Nova Socia
Start date: March 2024
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project seeks to support an intersectoral network-of-networks, through a virtual space uniquely designed to undertake collaborative action on the social determinants of health at the national level. This does not currently exist in Canada and has been identified as a need by health promotion and public health practitioners, including both the National Collaborating Centre of Determinants of Health and Health Promotion Canada.
Building Indigenous partnerships for pay equity
Lead or recipient: New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity Inc.
Location: Moncton, New Brunswick
Start date: March 2024
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project will partner with the New Brunswick Committee for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women (CAAW) to build capacity to advance intersectoral action on New Brunswick Indigenous women's income and pay equity in New Brunswick First Nations communities, in collaboration with First Nation communities and Indigenous organizations. The New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity and CAAW will identify and meet key Indigenous organizations, share their knowledge of pay equity and invite them to propose representatives to join an advisory committee to co-develop research and make recommendations on pay equity in the context of NB First Nations communities.
Building an intersectoral primary prevention workforce to advance gender transformative approaches to sexual violence prevention in Saskatchewan
Lead or recipient: Sexual Assault Services of Saskatchewan (SASS) Inc.
Location: Regina, Saskatchewan
Start date: March 2024
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project seeks to build capacity for a diverse team of policy and practise stakeholders who are committed to intersectoral action in leading and testing new primary prevention efforts to end sexual violence. In partnership with Shift: The Project to End Domestic Violence at the University of Calgary, SASS will develop an understanding of root causes and drivers of sexual violence for Saskatchewan's unique context; identify the multi-sectoral policy structures that inform strategic priority setting in Saskatchewan; and develop internal processes and tools to support intersectoral action on sexual violence prevention.
Strengthening the core: Increasing social license for healthy infill development in London, Ontario
Lead or recipient: Smart Prosperity Institute (via University of Ottawa)
Location: Ottawa, Ontario
Start date: March 2024
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project seeks to identify and co-develop policy solutions, with the London community, to encourage greater social license for building "healthy infill" housing in urban cores that improves community health outcomes, quality of life, and housing affordability.
Project SEEIM: Sports Socio-Environmental-Economic Impact Model
Lead or recipient: Sport Tourism Canada
Location: Kingston, Ontario
Start date: March 2024
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project seeks to build a free and universally accessible online tool that will function as an accountability system for sport activity planning. It will allow for an accurate assessment of not only financial impacts but also indirect and induced social, economic, health and environmental impacts, separately and collectively. This will allow for the calculation of the total impacts associated with the activity, which will inform decision-making.
Building capacity across health and education boundaries for action on social determinants of health and wellbeing in First Nations communities
Lead or recipient: The Alberta First Nations Information Governance Centre
Location: Tsuu T'ina First Nation, Alberta
Start date: March 2024
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project seeks to determine cross-cutting issues in health and education with the greatest potential to address overall wellness in Alberta First Nations communities. By engaging sectors and experts of First Nations health and education, the project intends to gather and synthesize information, both through an examination of research literature and engagement of program staff, as well as community members/Elders, on cross-cutting issues that may then be used as a 'source of truth' in the development of a set of 'Consensus Statements'.
Scaling up equity-mobilizing partnerships in community (EMPaCT) to facilitate intersectoral action on the social determinants of health
Lead or recipient: Women's College Hospital
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Start date: March 2024
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project seeks to directly scale the adoption of EMPaCT, an award-winning, scalable model of diverse citizen engagement, at Trillium Health Partners (THP) to foster transformative partnerships capable of co-creating knowledge and policy solutions to advance health equity in Mississauga. Specifically, the project will co-design, co-initiate and co-develop a jurisdictionally-based EMPaCT at THP. This will directly generate transferable knowledge about how EMPaCT can be implemented across organizations and communities, break down institutional silos, and build capacity to mobilize knowledge between jurisdictions for greater collective impact through advocacy and upstream policy influence.
Social procurement collaborative for York region
Lead or recipient: York Region Food Network
Location: Aurora, Ontario
Start date: March 2024
Duration: 12 months
In brief: This project seeks to develop the necessary infrastructure for social procurement to flourish in York Region, by improving access to fair employment and decent work. This will be done by connecting the dots between the policy (regional) and practice of social procurement on the ground by curating the tools, processes and relationships to make these opportunities accessible to communities.
Page details
- Date modified: