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Message de Liben Gebremikael, président du conseil d'administration, Alliance pour des communautés en santé

Date:

le Lundi 10 Août 2020

Chers membres,

C'est avec plaisir que je vous envoie ce message à titre de nouveau président du conseil d'administration de l'Alliance pour des communautés en santé. Après avoir été vice-président du CA de l'Alliance au cours de la dernière année, c'est un honneur pour moi d'assumer cet important rôle et je tiens à remercier ma prédécesseure, Claudia den Boer, pour son leadership et son engagement envers l'équité en santé pour des soins de santé primaires complets.

En réfléchissant à ce que j'allais inclure dans ce message, je me suis souvenu du Prix du leader émergent qui m'a été remis par l'Alliance pour des communautés en santé en 2012. Je crois que ce nouveau rôle sera l'occasion pour moi de donner en retour. Je peaufine également ce message à un moment où nous, l'Alliance et moi personnellement, avons perdu une grande leader, Denise Brooks. J'ai appris qu'elle fut l'instigatrice de ce prix. Je serai toujours redevable à son leadership, à son mentorat, à sa passion et à son dynamisme contagieux. J'espère qu'ensemble nous pourrons contribuer à l'amélioration de l'équité en santé, ce qui a toujours été la valeur fondatrice dusecteur des soins de santé gérés par la communauté, et le legs de Denise. En ce sens, je compterai sur votre soutien habituel.

L'équité en santé a été l'un de mes principes directeurs au cours de mes 12 dernières années et demie au Centre de santé communautaire TAIBU à Toronto. Premier directeur général de cet établissement, j'ai eu le privilège de créer de toutes pièces ce CSC unique avec le conseil d'administration, le personnel dévoué et la communauté. Avant de me joindre au CSC TAIBU, j'ai travaillé dans des milieux semblables au Royaume-Uni dans des services de soins primaires interdisciplinaires pour les personnes vivant dans l'itinérance, les réfugiés et les demandeurs d'asile. J'ai commencé ma carrière comme intervenant de première ligne en soutien à la famille et travailleur social, puis mon parcours m'a amené à travailler en santé mentale afin d'offrir des services interculturels spécialisés dans divers milieux communautaires et milieux de santé, y compris la Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture. J'ai aussi participé au lancement de nouveaux projets comme des services de counselling pour les réfugiés et les demandeurs d'asile et un programme national de petite enfance pour les parents à faible revenu et les quartiers défavorisés.

J'ai obtenu ma maîtrise en migration, santé mentale et soins sociaux de l'Université Kent (mon deuxième diplôme de deuxième cycle universitaire). J'ai aussi obtenu un diplôme de deuxième cycle en gestion des soins de santé de la Schulich School of Business et du Community Health Leadership Program de l'École de gestion Rotman.

De mon travail de première ligne à la gestion, mon cheminement m'a permis d'acquérir graduellement l'expérience qui m'a préparé pour mes fonctions au CSC TAIBU, et qui m'a aussi inculqué l'importance du travail que nous faisons tous. Au cours de mes 12 années au centre de santé communautaire, j'ai pu constater à maintes reprises le leadership des membres de l'Alliance en matière de soins de santé primaires et d'équité en santé.

Aujourd'hui, des possibilités s'ouvrent toujours à nous d'être des leaders, notamment dans la lutte contre le racisme systémique envers les Noirs et les Autochtones, les efforts dans le cadre de la crise de la COVID-19 et du rétablissement qui s'en suivra, et la collecte et l'analyse de données sociodémographiques et fondées sur la race. Nous poursuivrons nos efforts afin d'engendrer des changements concrets pour les diverses populations que nous servons en leur donnant la possibilité de mieux se faire entendre et en luttant contre les nombreux obstacles auxquels elles font face.

De nombreux défis se pointent à l'horizon. Nous sommes toujours aux prises avec la crise de la COVID-19 et le rétablissement post-COVID s'intègre de plus en plus à la conversation. Le discours entourant le rétablissement présume que les communautés retourneront tout simplement à la santé et au bien-être dont elles jouissaient avant les perturbations causées par la COVID-19.

Nous savons, bien sûr, que ce n'est pas le cas pour les communautés autochtones et noires et les autres communautés racialisées et marginalisées servies par les membres de l'Alliance. De quoi pourront-elles jouir par la suite? Des inégalités en ce qui concerne les résultats sur le plan de santé? D'un taux de chômage deux fois supérieur à la moyenne nationale? De la surreprésentation qui demeure dans les systèmes de justice pénale, de protection de l'enfance et de soins de santé mentale? De la même violence aux mains des policiers? Et que dire des communautés francophones? Des personnes handicapées? Des travailleurs agricoles migrants? Des communautés bispirituelles et LGBTQ+? Des personnes à faible revenu et des aînés isolés dans les milieux ruraux en Ontario?

J'espère qu'en raison de l'impact disproportionné de la COVID-19 sur les communautés marginalisées et les récents évènements au Canada, aux États-Unis et ailleurs dans le monde, nous pourrons saisir cette occasion pour lancer une stratégie à long terme pour faire bouger l'aiguille un peu plus vers l'équité.

Au cours des dernières années, des changements ont eu lieu au sein de l'Alliance, et celle-ci a jeté une base solide pour diriger la stratégie visant des résultats plus équitables en santé pour les personnes et les communautés que nous servons. Je souhaite que les efforts se poursuivent pour reconnaître les obstacles, les iniquités et les injustices auxquels ces personnes et ces communautés font face et pour entendre ce qu'elles ont à nous dire sans avoir à ressentir que ce sont des urgences concurrentes. Les principes de l'équité veulent que nous commencions par la fondation afin de transformer nos communautés en des milieux équitables.

L'avenir réserve beaucoup de changements à l'externe et au sein de l'Alliance alors que nous nous apprêtons à dire au revoir à Adrianna Tetley et à accueillir une nouvelle directrice générale à la barre de notre organisme. J'ai confiance que nous continuerons à tirer parti des occasions qui se présentent à nous pour atteindre notre objectif d'assurer la meilleure santé et le meilleur bien-être qui soient pour toute personne vivant en Ontario, la vision qui nous anime.

Sincèrement,

Liben Gebremikael

Président du conseil d'administration, Alliance pour des communautés en santé

Message from Liben Gebremikael, Chair of the Alliance for Healthier Communities

Date:

le Lundi 10 Août 2020

Greetings everyone,

It is my pleasure to send this message as the new Chair of the Alliance of Healthier Communities. After serving on the Alliance Board as a vice-chair for the past year, I am honoured to take on this important position and I want to thank my predecessor, Claudia den Boer, for her leadership and commitment to advancing health equity through comprehensive primary health care.

As I was reflecting on this message, I remembered that in 2012, the Alliance for Healthier Communities conferred on me the Emerging Leader Award. I feel in a way that this will be a way of giving back. I am also finalizing this message at a time when the Alliance and I personally have lost a great leader - Denise Brooks. I heard that she was the instigator behind the award. I am forever indebted to her leadership, her personal mentorship and her contagious passion and energy. And so, I am hoping that my role will be another vehicle through which we can continue to advance further what has always been the foundational value of the community-governed primary health care sector - health equity - Denise's legacy. I ask and will rely on your usual support.

Health equity has been my guiding principles over the past 12 years and a half of working at TAIBU Community Health Centre in Toronto. As its first Executive Director, I've been privileged to build from scratch this unique CHC together with the Board of Directors, dedicated staff and the community. My journey before I joined TAIBU was in similar environments in the United Kingdom working in inter-disciplinary primary care services for homeless population, refugees and asylum seekers. I started as a front-line family support worker, social worker, then moved into mental health providing specialized cross-cultural services in various health and community settings including the Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture. I was also involved in the start up of new projects such as a counselling service for refugees and asylum seekers and a national early years program for low income parents and neighborhoods.

I have completed my MA in Migration, Mental Health and Social Care at the University of Kent (my second post graduation). I have also had the opportunity of completing the Masters Certificate in Healthcare Management from Schulich School of Business and the Community Health Leadership Program at the Rotman School of Management.

My experience of gradual growth in the sector from front line to management, beyond preparing me for my position at TAIBU, has also engrained in me the importance of the work that we all do. And in my 12 years of working at a community health centre, I've witnessed over and over again Alliance members' leadership in primary health care and health equity.

Today, we continue to have opportunities ahead of us to demonstrate this leadership through addressing systemic anti-Indigenous and anti-Black Racism, the COVID-19 crisis and recovery, race-based and socio-demographic data collection and analysis, among other things. As we move forward, we will continue to bring about meaningful change to the diverse populations we serve by amplifying their voices and addressing numerous barriers they face.

The challenges ahead are numerous. We continue to deal with the COVID-19 crisis, the post-COVID recovery is becoming part of the conversation. The narrative around recovery presumes that communities will just return to the health and wellbeing that they were enjoying before COVID-19 disrupted it.

We know, of course, that is not the case for Indigenous, Black, other racialized and marginalized communities that Alliance members serve. What are they recovering back to? Disparaging health outcomes? Twice the national average unemployment rate? Continued over-representation in criminal justice, child welfare and mental health institutions? Continued brutal treatment by the police? How about Francophone communities? People with disabilities? Migrant agricultural workers? Two Spirit and LGBTQ+ communities? Those living on low incomes or isolated seniors in rural Ontario?

I hope that with the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on marginalized communities and recent events in Canada, the United States and around the world, we can seize the opportunity to spearhead a long-term strategy to shift the needle a little further towards equity.

Over the past few years, the Alliance has undergone a number of changes and has laid a firm foundation for leading the strategy towards more equitable health outcomes for people and communities we serve. I would like to see a continued effort to acknowledge the barriers, inequities and injustices and listen to their voices without feeling that there are competing urgencies. The principles of equity demand that we start at the bottom and raise our communities up.

The future promises a lot of changes, both in the external environment and at the Alliance as we are preparing to say good-bye to Adrianna Tetley and welcome a new CEO to lead our organization. I am confident we will continue to capitalize on the opportunities being presented to advance our vision - the optimum health and wellbeing for everyone in Ontario.

Sincerely,

Liben Gebremikael

Board Chair, Alliance for Healthier Communities

The Alliance mourns the passing of Denise Brooks

Date:

le Jeudi 30 Juillet 2020

The Alliance for Healthier Communities Board of Directors and staff join the Hamilton Urban Core Community Health Centre (HUCCHC) team in mourning the passing of Executive Director, Denise Brooks. For more than 25 years, Denise led HUCCHC and played a crucial role in Ontario’s community health sector. She was a titan of the sector, her voice and vision will be greatly missed.

Denise will be remembered for her unwavering commitment to health equity. Throughout her career, Denise worked to improve life for the most marginalized among us. She was committed to leaving no-one behind. In more recent years, Denise led important work addressing social inequality in Hamilton and highlighting the detrimental impact of poverty on health, including Hamilton’s Community Truth Hearings on poverty and equity.

As an organization, the Alliance owes a great debt to Denise Brooks, who in her tenure as the chair of our Board of Directors played a critical role in the development of sector-wide responses to systemic and structural inequality, particularly anti-Black racism. Today, the Alliance prides itself on its strong institutional commitment to health equity. Much of this strong focus would not exist were it not for the role Denise played during her tenure as Board chair and her mentorship of the Alliance executive leads. Denise’s bold voice and leadership will be missed.

Black Creek CHC and its partners lead community response to COVID-19 in northwest Toronto

le Jeudi 23 Juillet 2020

Staff at a community mobile testing site in northwest Toronto in mid-July 2020, after months of advocacy for a more community-focused approach to COVID-19.

[Community health staff pose in the lobby of one of the COVID-19 mobile testing sites that opened July 18, 2020 in the northwest of Toronto to help make services and supports more accessible for people facing higher risk during the pandemic due to marginalization.]

For months, leaders and staff at community health centres in the northwest and other areas of Toronto have advocated tirelessly for a coordinated community response to COVID-19 in support of marginalized people at higher risk of infection due to socioeconomic and other factors, such as the accessibility of testing.

This week, we celebrate the work of Black Creek Community Health Centre and its staff and partners, as mobile testing officially began in the northwest of Toronto on Saturday July 18, as reported by CBC News. This comes after months of advocacy, including in the media, as seen here in April, May and June.

We spoke briefly this week with Cheryl Prescod, Executive Director at Black Creek CHC, about what the community’s reaction was on Saturday to the arrival of mobile testing and a more community-centred model of COVID-19 response writ large, and what it took to get key factors affecting infection rates addressed at the community level.

What has the community’s reaction been to Black Creek CHC and others being able to deliver mobile testing and community-based contact tracing in areas seeing much higher rates of COVID-19?

People are feeling that they’re (finally) being listened to. But they are also still wondering why it took as long as it did. It’s so important that communities are meaningfully involved and have their voices heard in any plan and response to COVID-19, partly because gaining and keeping trust is so important, but also because the community has innovative ideas, strengths and contributions to make to keeping everyone safe during the pandemic. We've tried to amplify those voices, and now they're being heard and reflected in the response.

How are community members now being directly involved in managing and deploying the community response?

There are community outreach volunteers (who are paid honouraria), who are making a big difference in reaching “hard to reach” residents who remain skeptical about the testing. Through these volunteers, we’re able to reach people who speak many different languages and we see people’s cultures represented in outreach strategy, which is important for ensuring trusted relationships, openness with information, etc.

How else are people feeling generally about being able to get the test in their communities, vs. needing to get to a centralized or hospital assessment centre?

It’s big for people, because it means they can get tested, and they can walk to the place to get their test and not worry about taking public transit. And we’re finding that people are much more comfortable coming to a community space they’re familiar with already, vs. an assessment centre or hospital setting where they might have fear of contracting the virus.

What was a key step in making the mobile testing and a more community-focused response happen?

We started by listening closely to community agency partners involved in immediate COVID-19 responses, and hearing the things they found needed to be addressed, and the barriers people were facing. We were also hearing stories from staff doing meal deliveries who were validating those concerns. We also knew from other work that underlying issues in the community would impact infection rates: the types of jobs people have requiring them to interact with the public and others; dwelling conditions where crowding was likely, and newcomers not connected to services, to name a few examples.

Who were some of the key partners in getting things done locally in the northwest of Toronto?

We’ve worked with Emery-Keelesdale Nurse Practitioner Clinic; Toronto Medics; Home and Community Care, Central and Central West LHIN, and of course Ontario Health and Toronto Public Health. We also had support on the political side from Ward 7 Municipal Councillor Anthony Perruzza, who took these issues to the Board of Health and provincial MPP Tom Rakocevic (Humber River-Black Creek) who spoke up in the Ontario legislature about concerns in northwest Toronto. And once we got started with planning the mobile-testing and community outreach, there have been many local partners helping us on the ground, including faith-based organizations who’ve helped with offering spaces for things.

A staff member waits to screen people coming to a COVID-19 mobile testing site in northwest Toronto in July 2020.

[Community volunteers who are being paid honouraria play an important role in getting information, services and support to hard-to-reach and often isolated people, and getting them to mobile testing sites like the one being staffed here in a northwest Toronto community space, where they can also be connected to other supports.]

BLAC and Alliance Shared Statement on Detainees

Date:

le Jeudi 9 Juillet 2020

The Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC) and the Alliance for Healthier Communities are concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on those who are incarcerated. Due to the staggering numbers of Black people incarcerated in correctional facilities across the country, BLAC and the Alliance are acutely aware that the impact of the virus will be felt disproportionately by Black communities. BLAC and the Alliance have jointly issued a statement that outlines the issues and calls for seven concrete actions to address them.

____

“Failure to develop clear strategies will further harm Black populations and communities already bearing a heavier pandemic burden due to systemic and structural inequity.” – BLAC & The Alliance

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Read the full statement here.

Letter to Minister Elliott and Dr. Philpott regarding the collection of race and sociodemographic data

Date:

le Vendredi 3 Juillet 2020

The Alliance for Healthier Communities is a network of community-governed primary health care organizations. Alliance members serve diverse communities across the province. They share a commitment to advancing health equity through the delivery of comprehensive primary health care.

On April 10, 2020, the Alliance joined 200 organizations in sending a letter to the province calling for the urgent collection of race and socio-demographic data as part of Ontario’s COVID-19 pandemic response. Our members welcomed the Province’s announcement on May 6th that Ontario will begin collecting race and socio demographic data.

Advocates and experts have long called for the collection and use of these data. Inequities leave 3.5 million people in Ontario at risk of poor health. The populations facing the worst health disparities are also among the most marginalized. Advocates contend that collection and use of these data is a crucial step in addressing health disparities and inequities. However, the collection of the data is not in itself the end goal. Black Health experts say that the province must not stop at data collection. It must use these data to reduce disparities and inequitable outcomes. It is imperative that appropriate infrastructure is put in place to facilitate this goal. The collection of these data must not further entrench harms and systemic inequity.

Steps have been taken to facilitate the collection of these data- including the amendment of regulation 329/04 (General) under the Personal Health Information Protection Act, (PHIPA). However, the province is yet to clearly articulate how accountability and responsibility in use of data will be embedded into protocols currently under development. The Alliance is concerned about the failure to meaningfully engage stakeholders in designing strong accountability and data ownership frameworks as critical elements of the implementation process. The province has thus far failed to engage impacted communities, advocates who led calls for the collection of data and key leaders in the healthcare sector. The Alliance is aware that several advisory tables have been convened to filter information back to the province as data collection infrastructure is developed, however, we are deeply concerned about the failure to engage crucial voices at some of these tables, in particular Black health leaders- a population group who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.

The regulatory amendment allows the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and Ontario Health (OH) to disclose personal health information (PHI) to the MOH. While the regulatory amendment will allow for the collection of these data, the province has thus far not articulated how the data will be protected, where it will be held, how it will be used and how it will be shared. The province has also not clearly articulated data disclosure beyond the above named parties. Black communities in particular have expressed concerns about the sharing of data with private entities and the risk of further stigmatizing their communities. Alliance members are deeply concerned about the disclosure of these data beyond the health sector and further harms to already marginalized communities. Furthermore, the province has not clearly articulated how data will be analyzed and used. Data analysis must be led and guided by impacted communities. The province has so far failed to engage researchers and experts from impacted communities. Should the province continue along this path uninterrupted, flawed analysis and stigmatization of already marginalized communities will be the inevitable outcome.

Actions taken by the province to engage stakeholders have been thus far too narrow and lacked strategic scope to ensure no further harm to already marginalized communities. The Alliance urges the province to engage the appropriate communities in co-designing appropriate frameworks. The Alliance also urges the province to ensure data ownership and use principles are developed and endorsed by priority populations including Black and racialized populations, 2S & LGBTQ populations, low income populations and other key stakeholders.

The province’s current data collection strategy lacks both a health equity and an anti-racism lens. In its current iteration, the province’s strategy will replicate systemic harm to marginalized populations. We urge the province to immediately address these concerns and meaningfully engage key voices in the development of data collection and use infrastructure.

The development of data collection, analysis of the data and use protocols must be determined by the communities who will be most impacted. Anything less simply replicates existing systemic and structural inequalities. We look forward to discussing these concerns with you and supporting you in the development of solutions that are acceptable to impacted communities.

Regards,

Adrianna TetleyCEO, Alliance for Healthier Communities

COVID-19 Advocacy: Alliance members in the news

le Mardi 30 Juin 2020

Staff and leaders at Alliance member centres were very busy in the media in the last week, advocating on behalf of marginalized people and communities for equitable COVID-19 responses, and supports for people who are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

From advocacy people facing systemic barriers and racism during COVID-19 responses, to urging the government to act quickly on housing for people experiencing homelessness, to addressing the intersection of the overdose crisis with COVID-19, Alliance members were raising their voices across Ontario for marginalized communities.

Staff and leaders at Rexdale CHC and Black Creek CHC in northwest Toronto were part of an in-depth story unpacking the missing parts of community level responses to COVID-19, talking about the work they’ve been doing to help people stay safe and get tested, and what’s missing from the provincial COVID-19 strategy for vulnerable people, including mobile testing. The article also goes into detail regarding the lack of primary care access in some parts of the city, and how this has contributed to higher rates of infection and illness among racialized and low-income people living in those areas.

In the Ottawa Citizen, Suzanne Obiorah, director of primary care at Somerset West CHC, discussed how systemic racism and existing health inequities are at the root of what racialized and immigrant communities in Ottawa are experiencing higher rates of COVID-19 and more impacts. “Health inequities are deep-rooted, and they’re a direct consequence of systemic barriers, of systemic racism.”

Parkdale-Queen West CHC executive director Angela Robertson spoke to the media this week about the crucial work that needs to happen to provide housing for people experiencing homelessness ahead of an anticipated second wave of COVID-19. “The pandemic has identified that housing is the most responsive remedy — a medicine for homeless, unsheltered folks who are affected by COVID-19,” Robertson says in the article.

Elsewhere, South Riverdale CHC CEO Jason Altenberg spoke to CBC about the high rates of overdose that have likely resulted from the increased isolation of people who use drugs due to COVID-19 public health measures, also noting that the supply of drugs is more toxic than it was before the pandemic began.

In Thunder Bay, NorWest CHC’s CEO Juanita Lawson and Brad King, supervisor of Path 525, the Consumption and Treatment Services at NorWest, also sounded the alarm in a CBC article, explaining that marginalized communities and staff who support them are dealing with “two intersecting crises and they're affecting our city's and our country's most vulnerable people," with Lawson pointing to staff adapting to work in different ways with their clients as essential, as well as additional support to get harm reduction supplies into the hands of people who need them.

Letter to Minister Elliott, Minister McNaughton and Dr. Williams regarding public health guidelines for asymptomatic migrant agricultural workers

Date:

le Lundi 29 Juin 2020

Dear Hon. Minister Elliott, Hon. Minister McNaughton and Dr. Williams,

We are writing to express our deep concern regarding the Public Health Guideline introduced for farms and the agricultural sector, which allows positive asymptomatic migrant agricultural workers to continue working. This is a noticeable departure from guidelines that have been given to all other essential workers. No other group is expected to work if they test positive for COVID-19. Everyone else in the province is required to self-isolate and can only return to work after two negative COVID tests. This protects workers and limits COVID transmission. We are deeply concerned about why the same protections are not being afforded to farm workers.

During the press conference announcing the three-point action plan to address outbreaks in the Windsor-Essex region, Minister McNaughton assured that migrant workers have the same rights as all other workers in the province. The new Public Health Guidance for migrant workers directly contravenes this statement. Unlike other labourers, farm workers are required to work while ill and assurances are not being given that they will continue to receive wages should they need to cease working to recover.

Migrant farm workers are essential to our food supply, yet we continue to deny them the same rights and protections as the majority of residents of Ontario. Even before COVID-19, this population faced numerous documented violations of their rights, inadequate housing, poor access to services and racism, and COVID-19 has further exacerbated these inequities. Growing outbreaks in migrant worker communities, and now deaths of three workers, are the result of the province’s failure to act quickly to put proper protections and supports in place. These workers have contracted COVID while working in farms in Ontario. Rightfully, the province should extend care and support to these workers and prioritize protection for labourers in the sector.

While maintaining food supply is important, we can’t do it at the expense of migrant workers’ rights and safety. We urge the province to urgently address these inequities immediately by:

Extending the same protections to migrant farm workers that are extended to other labourers in Ontario by requiring that asymptomatic workers be supported until they test negative. No labourers should be required to work while recovering from a pandemic that has led to the deaths of over 2,600 people in Ontario.
Extending compensation to workers who test positive and need to self-isolate until they test negative. Workers must be given access to either WSIB or CERB, regardless of whether they exhibit any symptoms.

We urge the province to immediately reverse this decision. The focus on the operational business needs over the lives and health of migrant workers who are playing a critical role in maintaining Ontario’s food chain is unjust and harms essential workers responding during this pandemic.

Sincerely,

Adrianna Tetley CEO, Alliance for Healthier Communities

PRIDE 2020: Addressing isolation in the community and reminders of roots in resistance

le Jeudi 25 Juin 2020

Pride 2020 has, not surprisingly, been unfolding unlike any other Pride celebration in history. Events moved to online platforms; celebrations, campaigns, gatherings and even Pride Toronto's large events have gone virtual; parades are still happening (at the neighbourhood scale), with physical distancing measures; and the roots of Pride, founded in the resistance of racialized transgendered people against police violence, are reinforced by current protests and resistance to anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, and state-sanctioned violence. In a time when isolation risks are high for everyone, but especially for LGBTQ+ and Two Spirit people at risk of re-closeting, the role of community is paramount. Across the province, Alliance members and their staff and volunteers continue to adapt to the realities of supporting LGBTQ2S communities during COVID-19, finding ways to address barriers to health and wellbeing.

“We’ve been hearing that it’s been pretty hard on youth, and people living in less supportive environments,” says Stephanie Vail, a community health worker at Quest Community Health Centre in St. Catharines. Vail works with LGBTQ2S as part of Quest’s Rainbow Niagara LGBTQ+ program serving people across Niagara Region. “But it’s hard for people of all ages being home this much. The LGBTQ community can feel isolated in general, and COVID-19 amplifies that sense of isolation and not being connected to their peers.”

Vail provides individual support for people 12 years of age and up around sexual identity and gender identity, and is continuing to offer phone counselling and Zoom appointments to Quest’s clients. “I’ve been doing a lot of checking in with people and seeing how their mental health is, and how they’re staying connected to people.”

Pride History She also notes that Quest CHC is still seeing people in person for care, including through Quest’s award-winning Rainbow Niagara program, as well as continuing peer support groups virtually. “Trans people who require injections for hormones, that’s still happening. For those taking hormone blockers, that’s still happening. But we’re trying to do as much as possible over the phone, or video.”

While working on the annual Pride Prom for youth in Niagara back in March, the planning committee had to quickly pivot. In conjunction with Niagara Falls Community Health Centre, staff and volunteers instead planned for a virtual Pride Talent Show, taking privacy and security concerns into consideration for a show of pre-recorded talent videos accompanied by a live online Zoom chat between participants.

That kind of approach to technology and finding ways to keep people connected is essential work for LGBTQ2S communities right now, says Cliff Ledwos, chair of the Alliance's Rainbow Communities Advisory Committee, and Associate Executive Director at Access Alliance Multicultural Health and Community Services in Toronto.

“Bars, restaurants, bathhouses are closed, services and agencies are shut down – all of those places that this community uses to meet people and to be able to interact with other people in the LGBTQ community are unavailable. Add in the requirement to self-isolate at home, and you’ve got a real increased risk of people being shoved back into the closet,” Ledwos says. “The silver lining is that we have technology available, and it allows us to stay connected. It allows agencies and organizations to stay open and in contact with people who are vulnerable. Mature use of this technology to maintain social ties and connections is critically important during COVID-19 for everybody. For LGBTQ communities, it’s life-saving.”[[{"fid":"2775","view_mode":"media_link","fields":{"format":"media_link","alignment":"right","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Pride History","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"3":{"format":"media_link","alignment":"right","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Pride History","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"alt":"Pride History","height":248,"width":248,"style":"border-image-outset: 0; border-image-repeat: stretch; border-image-slice: 100%; border-image-source: none; border-image-width: 1; color: #000000; cursor: default; float: right; font-family: \\\" lucida grande","lucida sans unicode",sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: right; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; border-width: 0px; border-color: currentColor; border-style: none; padding: 0px;","class":"media-element file-media-link media-wysiwyg-align-right","data-delta":"3"}}]]

Pride History2

While Pride 2020 is highlighting creative ways people and providers are staying connected during COVID-19, Ledwos points to the intersections of recent protests and resistance against anti-Black racism and police violence with Pride’s historical roots in resistance as a key theme this year.

“In terms of the LGBTQ community, it was Black transgendered people who were among the first people to stand up and say this is not acceptable,” Ledwos says. “Some members of the community, such as the trans community, still continue to experience state-sanctioned violence and oppression in more immediate ways today. We also see this in the intersectionalities in the LGBTQ+ and Two-Spirit communities. Some parts of the LGBTQ community still feels a lot of the burden, stress, pressure of systemic oppression and violence. That’s why Pride directly relates to Black Lives Matter. It’s important for people in the LGBTQ community, Black community, among women, and among other communities who’ve been excluded to take a really active role in defining what the future needs to look like, not just what it could look like.”

One of the key changes Ledwos and other health leaders say needs to change is the data collected in health care to help identify needs and support health equity for LGBTQ2S and other marginalized populations.

“Collecting data that’s about who people are and who LGBTQ people are, means that they have a voice at the decision-making table,” he says. “When data is collected for the right reasons and with care in the right ways, when it’s meaningful, and when there’s depth to it, the community being captured in that data has a voice from it,” he says.

For Vail, changing the system means that continuing her work of training social services, schools and medical providers in trans health care and LGBTQ2S health issues is vital.

“I did my first training session for other professionals via Zoom last month. That’s really important work and we need to continue it,” she says. “We need to look systemically at education for primary care providers on trans care, and also LGBTQ culturally safe practices in health care, across the board.”

Pride 2020 will be remembered in many different ways. For Ledwos, it’s importantly a time to consider the work still to be done.

“Pride needs to be both a celebration for the victories that have happened, for the changes that have happened, for the freedoms that society has, often grudgingly, given. But also it needs to continue to be an active resistance because the fight isn’t over.”

[All images in this post courtesy Rainbow Niagara/Quest CHC]

Celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day 2020

le Jeudi 18 Juin 2020

Text graphic that reads: Happy National Indigenous Peoples Day, June 21, 2020

Indigenous Peoples Day generally involves plenty of live events, celebrations, talks and gatherings. Of course, during COVID-19, most of these events have been cancelled, but the celebration continues – in many cases virtually. Here, we’ve collected some events, reads, films, resources, and more to help you celebrate, and also to engage and go deeper on expanding knowledge, awareness and understanding of First Nations, Métis and Inuit cultures, histories and issues.

Indigenous Cultural Safety Collective webinar series: 10 webinars and counting covering topics like racism in health, critical race theory, and the health impacts of anti-Indigenous racism

Indigenous Cultural Safety Training, and post-training modules like “From Bystander to Ally” and “Unpacking our Colonial Relationship”: Email Leresha Lickers, llickers@iphcc.ca for info.

Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival: Livestream the virtual edition of the Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival, until June 21.

Film: Documentaries and film are important media for learning about the diverse histories and complex issues faced by FNIM. Check out this list for some good places to start: Reel Injun (trailer); Smoke Signals (trailer); Colonization Road (full documentary); 50 Years of Indigenous-Made Cinema: A Celebration (article); Reel Canada catalogue of Indigenous Made Films

Podcasts: Check out this list of podcasts for their speakers, interviews and insights: Media Indigena; Native Currents; Ryan McMahon’s Red Man Laughing; All My Relations; The Jig Is Up; Homies Chatting; Missing and Murdered: Finding Cleo; This Land; Coffee With My Ma.

Comedy: This episode of CBC Radio’s Unreserved from January brings together Indigenous comedians and satirists for almost an hour of learning through laughter.

Review the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 calls to action. No. 18-24 focus on health. It’s only by knowing and living these calls that we can hold our leaders and each other to account for them. Looking to go deeper on the TRC’s work? Here’s the full executive summary report.

Music: Art that appeals directly to the heart while also teaching us can be a powerful way to learn, and to understand others. Check out this list of Indigenous musicians across many genres to start your exploration.

Books, books and more books: We love to read and we know you do, too. Here’s a great list from CBC Books of 35 Indigenous authors and important reads that includes audio clips of many of the reads.