Community initiatives (CIs) are a fundamental part of how Alliance members foster resilient, healthy communities and improve health and wellbeing at the population level. CIs achieve collective social, environmental, and/or policy change that benefits whole communities. They are often community-led and are always delivered in partnership with community members and organizations.

# What is a Community Initiative?

A community initiative (CI) is a set of activities aimed at improving the health of a community and strengthening the community's capacity to identify and change issues that support or undermine health. It may involve

  • Advocating for or implementing local changes to the physical, social, political, or economic environment;

  • Increasing people's collective ability to achieve such change themselves; or

  • Helping people and communities adapt to conditions they cannot affect, such as technological change.

Alliance member organizations actively participate in a variety of community initiatives that address the social and structural determinants of health, such as income, social support, housing, education, and neighbourhood design. 

# How is community initiative data collected?

Collecting CI data needs to be done regularly and consistently.  Community development is a long-term process that is often nonlinear in character and works best when combined with other health promotion strategies. Successes may appear modest, and they are often incremental, process-related and capacity-linked. They also tend to be qualitative rather than quantitative. For this reason, our approach to CI data collection calls for a monthly snapshot of achievements that have occurred during the month under review, as well as lessons learned and numbers of participants.  

To help our members collect CI data, the Alliance worked with TELUS to develop an EMR-based tool for collecting CI Data in TELUS PS Suite. This tool consists of two custom forms:

  • A registration form, which records key information about the design and purpose of the CI. This form is completed whenever a new CI is created. 

  • An activity form, which is used to document the activities of the CI. This form is completed monthly. 

To help our members implement and use this tool, we produced a CI data entry manual (available in both English and French), which provides:

  • Additional information about Community Initiatives and how they are distinct from other activities such as Personal Development groups.
  • Detailed instructions on how to create and complete custom forms in PS Suite to record Community Initiatives (CIs) and CI Activities

A launch webinar for the tool was held in 2025. You can find the recording and slide deck here. 

For more information, reach out to LHS@AllianceON.org to be connected with our provincial data management coordinator.

 

#More about community initiatives in our sector

Why collect community initiative data?

Although they are essential, community initiatives (CIs) are often misunderstood or overlooked by policymakers and funders. Measuring outcomes for all types of services provided, including CIs, is essential for demonstrating the value of CHCs. Data collection about CIs:

  • Promotes a richer understanding of their components, objectives/ processes and achievements;
  • Facilitates the identification, spread, and scale of promising initiatives;
  • Supports learning and  continuous improvement; and 
  • Informs our advocacy efforts on behalf of the sector. 

In the past, data about CIs and their impact was not consistently collected in Ontario. This was noted by the Auditor General (AG) or Ontario in her 2017 report, where she called out a lack of useable CI data. In response to this, and further motivated by our intention to build a learning health system, the Alliance worked with our members and TELUS to create a streamlined, EMR-based reporting tool for that would reduce the reporting burden associated with CIs while supporting the collection of useable, high-quality data. 

How is a community initiative different from a personal development group?

Community initiatives (CIs) are sometimes confused with personal development groups (PDGs). The key difference is that a CI is designed to help a community strengthen its collective health, whereas a PDF is designed help individual participants improve their health through changes to their behaviour, knowledge or attitudes. Additionally:

  • Community initiatives are frequently nonlinear and of indeterminate length, and they may have shifting participation, goals and objectives. They usually involve communities directly.  

  • Personal development groups tend to be structured, consisting of a time-limited series of sessions directed at identifiable participants, and conducted, (co-)facilitated, or supported by CHC staff/volunteers, at the CHC or off-site. 

A brief history of CI data collection in our sector

The Alliance has always been committed to helping our members collect and share information about their CIs. 

Before 2012, Alliance members recorded their CIs using the Purkinje EMR. 

In 2012, after Purkinje was retired, the Alliance crated a web-based platform called the Community Initiatives Reporting Tool (CIRT). 

In her 2017 report, Ontario's Auditor General highlighted the value of CIs but pointed to a lack of high-quality data, calling on CHCs to more consistently collect and analyze CI data. 

After learning that CIRT was not being consistently used across the sector, the Alliance, with the help of member organizations, conducted a full review of the tool and identified opportunities for improvement. Based on the what we learned, the Alliance worked with TELUS to create a streamlined solution for recording CIs within the PS Suite EMR. This new solution was rolled out to the sector in late 2025.