Towards the Best Possible Health and Wellbeing for Everyone
We've advocated alongside our members, the 600,000+ people they serve across Ontario, and our health and social services partners for many years on this issue.
When someone is sick, they should not have to choose between their job, including ensuring they can earn a living, pay rent or the mortgage, and their own health or the health of their family members. This is a fundamental prerequisite for ensuring healthier communities across Ontario.
In partnership with four national and provincial Community Health Centre (CHC) Associations, the Alliance for Healthier Communities has formed a coordination table to improve vaccine-related communications for marginalized people in Canada. This work is funded by Community Vaccination Promotion (CVP) grants from the Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) Immunization Partnership Fund. The $30.25 million Immunization Partnership Fund was announced in June 2020 and is meant to support community-based initiatives to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake.
The Alliance celebrated a record number of Transformative Change Awards at our 2021 Conference Power in Community last week. Congratulations to all of this year’s recipients, and thanks to everyone who helped us to celebrate these amazing community health champions and their work.
If you missed the awards, we can offer you some videos to catch up on what happened, and here’s the full list of 2021 award recipients.
Transformative Change Awards – teams and programs
We start Indigenous History Month in a sombre way – grieving the discovery of 215 children’s bodies, alongside residential school survivors, their families and all Indigenous peoples and communities across Turtle Island.
By Meghan Perrin and Christopher Hoy
This April 2021, the Alliance for Healthier Communities and CATIE hosted a webinar on community health approaches to supporting immigrants and newcomers in Ontario during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our speakers explored how inequities have a pronounced impact on immigrants and newcomers during the pandemic, and what frontline workers can do to mitigate these impacts.
Here are five key takeaways shared during the webinar that service providers can implement now.
Last December, the Southwest Aboriginal Health Access Centre and Guelph CHC announced that oversight and leadership for the Waterloo Wellington Indigenous Healing and Wellness Program is transitioning from Guelph CHC to SOAHAC. Learn more about this key moment for Indigenous Health in Indigenous Hands in Ontario.
Black History Month is here. It’s an important opportunity for all of us to celebrate and acknowledge Black histories and truths, to hear and find new ways of listening to Black voices and Black leaders, and in the case of the Alliance for Healthier Communities and its comprehensive primary health care members, to highlight work to improve Black health and wellbeing, which also means how to improve Black mental health.
In the last several weeks, Alliance members across the province have continued and stepped up their efforts to support marginalized people facing the worst impacts of the pandemic and the effects of measures to slow the spread of COVID-19. Here are some of their stories of support
Late last week, like many other stakeholders in the province’s health system, we were encouraged to see the Ontario government modify its COVID-19 Response Framework to lower thresholds for putting public health restrictions in place in different regions.
Congratulations to the 2020 Transformative Change Award recipients! Watch the award videos here.