By Sarah Hobbs, CEO, Alliance for Healthier Communities
Towards the Best Possible Health and Wellbeing for Everyone


Alliance for Healthier Communities’ CEO Sarah Hobbs presented our Pre-Budget Submission to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs on February 15. Alliance previously submitted our 2023 Pre-Budget Submission, Investing in Comprehensive Primary Health Care: the foundation of an integrated health system (version française ici).

This year marked big milestone year for the Alliance for Healthier Communities overall, celebrating 40 years of community health advocacy and support for community health organizations and teams across Ontario. Thanks to everyone who helped to shine a light on four decades of collective history and accomplishments for community health.

Since 2016, Ontario has marked Treaties Recognition Week, inviting people of all ages across the province to learn more about the treaties that govern the lands we live on, the relationships those treaties establish, and what our responsibilities are -- to Indigenous peoples, to the lands, and to the future of our relationships.

[Celebrating the groundbreaking at Hamilton Urban Core CHC's new location.]
It was a ground-breaking ceremony literally generations in the making.

In the months ahead, we’re aiming to get local leaders, community supporters and our partners in the community to commit to the Health Equity Pledge, to show broad, strong and unified commitment to the actions needed for equitable health for everyone living in Ontario. Below, you’ll also find templates to share your pledge, either as an organization or as an individual.

On October 3, the Ontario Science Table (OST) released its final report, a three-part brief about the importance of Primary Health Care (PHC) in the pandemic and what we can learn from it.

Happy Pride. Before all else, we wish everyone who is or will be celebrating in the days and weeks ahead a happy, safe, joyful, inspiring and mindful Pride. To all the 2SLGBTQ+ communities who are gathering, demonstrating, marching, parading and partying together, we stand and celebrate with you

While most of us have experienced some degree of social isolation over the past couple of years due to the steps taken to slow the spread of COVID-19, for many older adults, these feelings existed long before the pandemic began in March 2020.
To sustainably address social isolation, especially among marginalized populations, the Alliance for Healthier Communities and its members -- community health organizations across Ontario – are working to bridge the gap between clinical and social care through an intervention called social prescribing.

[Tailored clinics, like the one pictured above in Mississauga coordinated by LAMP CHC, are helping to raise vaccination rates among marginalized populations across Ontario, and are being led by community health organizations with strong trusted relationships with their communities and partners.]
Relentless.
In facing the Omicron variant of COVID-19, it’s possibly the best word to describe Alliance members’ efforts to support, care for, and inform their communities and increase access to life-saving vaccines.