Centre for Health Promotion
University of Toronto
Public Health Sciences
155 College Street, Suite 400
Toronto, ON
M5T 3M7
Tel: 416-978-2182
Fax: 416-971-1365
centre.healthpromotion@utoronto.ca

 
E-Info Update Fall 2007

CONTENTS


DIRECTOR'S REMARKS

Summer at the Centre for Health Promotion is always a busy time. We had 3 German students and 3 Greek students on exchange with the Centre. Their individual projects are listed elsewhere in this newsletter. It was also the summer of summer schools! I and the Centre led four training events, one week in May in the Yukon with First Nations about health promotion planning, our annual summer school in June in Ontario on mental health promotion, two weeks in July for Bosnian and Serbian health professionals on health promotion planning and youth friendly primary health services, and two days in August in St. Vincent and the Grenadines for people from 11 countries in the Caribbean on participatory evaluation. There is more information on each of these events in different sections of this newsletter. The evaluations of these training events show that people found them to be very useful and it was a wonderful chance for me to meet people doing some marvelous things in health promotion in different parts of the world.

As we move into the fall months, we need to celebrate that Ali Kilbourn from The Health Communication Unit started a Masters of Social Work, Noelle Gadon (of OHPE Bulletin fame) started a PhD in medieval literature at University of Toronto, and Mohini Athia (at the Centre) started a one year Bachelor of Education program at OISE to become a high school teacher. We are sad to see these people go but it is wonderful that they are moving on to bigger and better things. Ali’s replacement as Coordinator of the Workplace Health Promotion project is Jessica Elgie and Mohini’s replacement as the Financial and Administrative Assistant for the Centre is Kate Thorpe. I want to say a big thank you to both Ali and Mohini for all of their work at the Centre for Health Promotion and I would like to extend a warm welcome to Jessica and Kate.

In other big news, the Centre has been renewed as a WHO Collaborating Centre in Health Promotion for another four years. Our main partner is the Pan-American Health Organization, although we continue to have good relations with WHO-Geneva. This is a prestigious designation but it does not come with any funding. The University of Toronto is paying my full salary for a year in my role as Director of CHP as I continue to play a role as the Co-Director of the Global Health Concentration in Public Health Sciences as well as teach and supervise students in the MHSc in health promotion. Michael Goodstadt, Fellow of the Centre, is the new Director of the MHSc Health Promotion, after Blake Poland stepped down from that position after many long years of dedication and service.

It has been a pleasure to be Director of the Centre for Health Promotion over the last six months since the last newsletter and I look forward to seeing you at our AGM in November!

All the Best,

Suzanne F. Jackson, Ph.D.
Director

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Centre for Health Promotion’s

Annual General Meeting 2007

Tuesday November 27th
4:00-7:00pm


Croft Chapter House, University College

Guest Speakers: Cameron Norman and Charlotte Lombardo (Youth Engagement Unit)
“Youth Voices Research: From Engaging Young People to Fostering Communities of Practice”

A formal invitation will be sent at the end of October.


NEWS FROM THE HEALTH COMMUNICATION UNIT (THCU)

THCU Workshops

Introducing:

Health Promotion Skills and Tools
At a Glance Series of Introductory Level Web Conferences

***********************************************

Topics and dates
You may enroll in one, some, or all of the following sessions:

  • Developing Health Communication Campaigns: November 9, 2007
  • Evaluating Health Promotion Programs: November 14, 2007
  • Planning Health Promotion Programs: November 28, 2007
  • Influencing Policy Change and Development: December 4, 2007

Time
All sessions will be held between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m.

Web conference technology
Sessions will be held by teleconference and supported by web conference technology. You will be notified in advance about how to participate in the session.

About the series
These introductory-level, two-hour web conferences cover the basics of The Health Communication Unit’s (THCU) recommended step models.

In each web conference,

  • we begin with a discussion about the brief, pre-assigned participant preparation task;
  • provide an overview of key concepts and terms;
  • then briefly address the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of each step; and to close,
  • identify quality sources of more information, tools and personalized consultation services.

Continuing:

THCU introduced a new series of provincial workshops this year entitled, Skills for Health Promotion. The first set of four half-day workshops was held at Oakham House, Ryerson University in downtown Toronto on May 30 and 31. This successful pilot will be followed by additional events covering all four half-day topic sessions and are offered in upcoming months:

  • October 24 & 25 at the Waterloo Health Unit, Waterloo (Central West Area)
  • January 29 & 30 at the Wheels Inn in Chatham (South West Area)
  • March 5 & 6 at the Days Inn, Kingston (Eastern Area)

For more information, or to register online, please visit our website at http://www.thcu.ca.

THCU Regional Workshops
We have held 15 regional workshops in various locations across the province since April, 2007, on a variety of topics.


THCU Consultation Services
Our team is available to work on health promotion challenges relating to:

• Program Planning
• Program Evaluation
• Policy Development
• Health Communication
• Sustainability
• Scope of services

The scope of our consultation service varies, depending on need. We offer:

• short training sessions;
• brief, one-time advice;
• reviews of your work or products;
• hands-on assistance working through our step models;
• links to other sources of information and resources.

They range from short one-time contacts to a number of longer sessions (1/2 day or more). Some time and travel limitations may exist. During the past 6 months, we have provided advice and assistance to over 160 people. Service request forms are available online at http://www.thcu.ca/consultation/request_form.htm.


THCU Website and New Projects

  • We successfully completed a partnership with the Physical Activity Resource Centre to develop a short guide to policy development for physical activity, based on THCU’s policy development model. This product is currently in Press.
  • Following completion of our new and successful online conference entitled: From Strategic Plan to Program Plan and back again, we transcribed the proceedings, for broader dissemination. They are available at http://www.thcu.ca/workshops/workshopfollowup.html
  • We also transcribed the proceedings from our online conference entitled, Breastfeeding initiatives: managing the planning, implementation and evaluation process. These are also available at http://www.thcu.ca/workshops/workshopfollowup.html
  • We have developed some new Program Planning workshop materials and substantially updated our slideshow. New resources available at http://www.thcu.ca/workshops/workshopfollowup.html include:
    • Feedback on objectives submitted by workshop participants
    • Planning scenarios with solutions
    • Working with Stakeholders: Dos and Don’ts
    • Useful Tools and Promising Practices
    • At a Glance: The Six Steps to Planning a Health Promotion Program
    • Create Your Own Planning Process
  • We developed the following tools, available on our website:
    • Planning at a Glance: The Six Steps to Planning a Health Promotion Program
    • Evaluation at a Glance: The Ten Steps to Evaluating a Health Promotion Program
    • Policy Development at a Glance: The Eight Steps to Developing a Health Promotion Policy
    • Health Communication at a Glance: The Twelve Steps to Developing a Health Communication Campaign
  • A French version of Summaries of Social Science Theories was released in early spring. Sommaire des théories de sciences socials is now on our website.
  • We conducted the following literature searches for clients.
    • Campaigns Targeting 13-17 Year-Old Girls about Substance Abuse - April
    • Cartoons as a Communication Tool
    • Effective use of community cable - April
    • Effectiveness and Community Kitchens – June
    • Email Marketing and Privacy – April
    • Health Fairs Update – 2003-2007 – April
    • Local Health Integration Networks – May
    • Making Presentations to Children and Youth – June
    • Policies for Fitness Drop-in Centres – July
    • Scores on the Business Health Culture Index – July
    • Strategies for Communicating with Youth – June
    • Fear Appeals – September
  • In addition to the products noted above, we are working hard to develop and implement an enhanced French Language Services plan, promotional plan and evaluation strategy. In the next six months, the fruits of this labour will become apparent!


Ontario Health Promotion E-Bulletin

There have been 26 issues of the OHPE Bulletin since April 1, 2007 with various features. For more detailed information about the E-Bulletin please go to http://www.ohpe.ca/index.php.

THCU's Workplace Project

THCU’s Workplace Project is now into its 8th year of promoting comprehensive workplace health promotion to intermediaries across Ontario. The role of project coordinator has now been filled by Jessica Elgie. We are excited for a busy and productive upcoming year.


Ontario Health Workplace Coalition

THCU continued to facilitate the development of the Ontario Healthy Workplace Coalition (OHWC) by fulfilling the role of Secretariat. The Coalition is now moving forward, the Steering Committee has now been chosen and on September 14, the newly-elected steering committee had its inaugural meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to chart a course for the future, beginning with the confirmation of roles and responsibilities. We plan to hold another Provincial Gathering in March 2008, where the work of the Coalition will continue to grow.


Workplace Health Promotion E-learning

Starting in October we will be offering a series of comprehensive workplace health promotion webinars from October 2007-March 2008. We will offer the regular webinar series on topics such as: ‘Influencing the Organizational Culture’, ‘Situational Assessment and the New Mandatory Core Guidelines’ as well as addressing ‘Mental Health in the Workplace’. New this year we will be offering shorter, 30 minute webinar series on topics such as ‘The International Perspective’ (who is doing what), ‘Data for the Business Case’ and ‘The OHA and Working with Hospitals’. And a third short webinar series we will be offering is called ‘Trials and Tribulations’ presented by outside intermediaries who will share their strategies and success stories around workplace health.


Workplace Health Promotion Resources and Website

There will soon be new Well-Regarded Interventions available on-line; we will continue to add interventions to the Catalogue as they are nominated. As well, the existing resources on the THUC website (www.thcu.ca/workplace) have been updated with a variety of new resources available. We will continue to look for more resources to add to our web-site. You are also able to post your own resources, messages and connect with professionals in the field through our Virtual Community, go to http://www.thcu.ca/workplace/vc/ for more information and how to sign up (it’s free!).

If you have Workplace Project questions, comments and/or requests for materials, please contact Jessica Elgie at workplace_admin@thcu.ca.


Youth Tobacco Vortal Project

The Youth Tobacco Vortal Project is now in its 8th year of encouraging and supporting community public health agencies make use of web-based technologies to communicate with and engage young people in tobacco control issues. The project’s central website, Smoke FX (www.smoke-fx.com), provides local agencies a gateway to information and resources targeting young people.

Since its inception, the Youth Tobacco Vortal Project has grown to include 47 community-based affiliate sites. The majority of these affiliates are Youth Action Alliances representing the various regions throughout Ontario. The YTVP supports its affiliate base by assisting them in developing their own regional websites that focus on tobacco control and youth. All of the YAAs are affiliates of the project and over half of these YAAs worked with the YTVP web development team to create their regional site(s). As part of the YTVP’s promotional campaign the YTVP affiliates all received bookmarks promoting SmokeFX and its network of sites.

The first part of the 2007/08 fiscal year has been busy for the YTVP. The year started out with plans to completely revamp the content of SmokeFX. The content has been re-written to appeal to the target audience (i.e., youth) and to improve usability. The finishing touches are being finalized before being uploaded to SmokeFX. In order to better support our affiliates, SmokeFX was moved to a new ISP who specializes in Action Apps, the technology used to help our affiliates create their websites. To expand the YTVP affiliate base, a submission outlining the YTVP and inviting new affiliates was included as part of the Stupid.ca and PTCC toolkits which were distributed to all High School Grant Programs. To promote the project, 800 SmokeFX bookmarks were included in the delegate packages of OPHEA’s Kid’s Health Conference.

Comments and/or questions about the Youth Tobacco Vortal Project can be directed to Julie Duda (SmokeFX.Julie@thcu.ca).


-- Cathy Duerden, Julie Duda, Jessica Elgie

 

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News from the International Health Promotion Unit


IUHPE

Fran Perkins played an active role at the IUHPE conference in staffing the IUHPE booth and answering questions for delegates to the conference in Vancouver, June 10-15. The Centre for Health Promotion was also profiled as one of the organizers of the conference which attracted around 3000 delegates from around the world interested in health promotion. Suzanne was elected to the International Board of Directors for IUHPE and to the Board of Directors for the North American Region.


Canadian-European International Health Promotion Exchange Program

Over the summer, this program attracted 3 German students, Kristin Haefner, Nicole Siegmund, and Wiebke Stoppelmann, from the University of Magdeburg to the Centre for 3.5 to 5.5 months. They worked on the Summer School, projects with CAMH and projects of the Youth Engagement Unit. Three Greek students, Dina Zota, Despina Christacou, and Filippos Filippidis from the University of Athens also came to the Centre. The women stayed for 6 weeks and explored ideas and ways of working in the Canadian health system regarding school health and mental health. Filippos worked with the Toronto Public Health for 3 months. All of these students got funding from the European Union to come to Canada. In exchange, two students from Toronto went to Magdeburg with funding from HRDC. It was a pleasure to have these students here for the summer and we learned a lot about our respective health promotion perspectives.


Youth and Health in Serbia and Bosnia

The Canadian Society for International Health coordinates this project with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). All of the Centre’s senior staff (Fran Perkins, Larry Hershfield, Charlotte Lombardo, and Suzanne Jackson) are involved as consultants. The work in the summer was to plan and deliver a two-week summer school which was a combination of a course in health promotion planning and evaluation and site visits and information about youth friendly health services, particularly for vulnerable youth in Toronto. Melisa Dickie (a recent MHSc graduate) was the amazing person who set up the site visits almost every day for two weeks. It was a very intensive two weeks for the 24 Serbians and Bosnians and the hope is that many of them will become the leaders and trainers for a summer school to be held in their countries in 2008.


WHO/PAHO

As a WHO Collaborating Centre, our main partner is PAHO. Sustainable Development and Environmental Health Area, with the Urban Health, Health Determinants and Social Policies Unit, the following activities happened between April and September:

  • The Guide to Economic Evaluation in Health Promotion was finally published in time to be released at the IUHPE Conference in Vancouver. It was exciting to see this Guide in print! It is waiting for a second printing to correct some of the errors and to be put on-line.
  • The Participatory Evaluation Resource Manual was also printed and released in English and Suzanne developed a 2-day course to teach to this Manual with Marilyn Rice of PAHO.
  • A Caribbean Workshop on Health Promotion was held at the end of July in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Suzanne gave presentations on Policy Coherence and Mainstreaming Health Promotion. She also conducted a 2-day workshop on participatory evaluation for participants from 11 countries in the Caribbean. It was very impressive to see how much good health promotion work was happening there.
  • Suzanne was invited to work with PAHO to “mainstream” health promotion across the whole organization. She met with PAHO staff in May and September and started the process.
  • A meeting of Collaborating Centres in the Americas linked to sustainable development, urban health, healthy settings, health promotion and determinants of health was held in Mexico City. Work was done to try to link and coordinate the work of the Collaborating Centres in support of the WHO/PAHO strategic plan.

-- Fran Perkins and Suzanne F. Jackson

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HEALTH PROMOTION SUMMER SCHOOL (HPSS)


HPSS 2007

The 14th Ontario Health Promotion Summer School, organized by the Centre for Health Promotion, was held June 25-27 at a new location - the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Toronto. Close to 150 registrants, 40 volunteers and 80 presenters from a rich array of organizations and disciplines, from all over Ontario joined us at HPSS 2007. The theme highlighted in all three curriculum streams was 'Mental Health Promotion'. As occurs each year, committees actively helped plan the event – the First Peoples, Francophone and General Curriculum subcommittees, along with the Steering Committee. This year, Marianne Kobus-Matthews from CAMH joined us as co-Chair of the Steering Committee, bringing her specialized expertise in mental health promotion. This year the Summer School was reduced to 3, instead of 4 days, in response to participants who described the difficulty in leaving their workplace for a full week. It also made the event more affordable for participants, given rising costs and frozen government grants.

Special cultural and social events were organized, including a Francophone multi-media presentation and special introduction to 'la francophonie' in Ontario, offered by the Chair of the Francophone subcommittee, Denise Hébert (Public Health, Ottawa). The Francophone subcommittee also offered a special banquet highlighting bilingual storyteller and musician, Njacko Backo and international cuisine. The First Peoples' Committee organized the annual Aboriginal Feast, with a special performance by a youth dance group from Hamilton. A fantastic feast was offered, featuring traditional Aboriginal cuisine - and a special book of recipes created by a member of the subcommittee and a student placement at the CHP was distributed to eager participants. The subcommittee also organized a tipi to be set up and available to all, with special times set aside to talk to Elders attending the Summer School.

HPSS 2007 was rated very highly by participants in the evaluations and anecdotally, expressing their appreciation for the high quality curriculum, and nourishing atmosphere: “Excellent! I am so glad I came. I would recommend this Summer School to anyone who wants to enhance their work in teaching, research, and practice” “I thought that the HPSS was fantastic! Well organized, great sessions. Well done! I hope to be back again!” A special thank you to our funding partners Heritage Canada, Ministry of Health Promotion, and Ministry of Health Promotion, Smoke Free Strategy.

HPSS 2008

HPSS 2008 will take place in Toronto June 23rd - 25th, 2008, highlighting the theme of health promotion in times of crisis. A title for the theme was selected in October by the Steering committee from submissions by participants who entered a contest offered at HPSS 2007 -- the winning contestant will receive free registration! The winner was Laurie Schertzer (Canadian Diabetes Association) with “Health Promotion Under Pressure: Strengthening Community Action”.

The Summer School will again take place over three days. Planning subcommittees are gearing up again, following debriefing from last year, in collaboration with the CHP’s Steering Committee. Publicity and HPSS 2008 web site are well underway. HPSS 2008 promises to be another appealing and important educational and networking experience.

-- Lisa Weintraub


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YOUTH VOICES YOUTH ENGAGEMENT UNIT

Youth Voices seeks to promote Youth Engagement, Expression, Empowerment and Exchange through youth-driven media and participatory research.

Current Projects

The 5 E’s for Health: Understanding eLiteracies for eLearning in Electronic Educational Environments
This ongoing research project is an evaluation of our eLearning resources developed with the Gendering Adolescent HIV/AIDS Prevention Project and TakingITGlobal. We are currently seeking high school teachers to participate in this evaluation by pilot testing “TIG Xpress - HIV/AIDS” and the “Virtual Classroom for Tobacco Control” with their classes. Stipends are available for both teachers and students; please contact us if you would like more information.

Youth Engagement in Ontario: Towards a Community of Practice
Youth Voices will be holding a youth engagement forum on October 20-21st, bringing together youth and practitioners from across Ontario for relationship and capacity-building. A main goal is to explore next steps for fostering a youth engagement Community of Practice, with a focus on the role of youth engagement for building healthy communities. Visit our website www.youthvoices.ca in the coming months for updates on this initiative.

To Our Good Health: Youth Leadership for Healthy Communities
Youth Voices is collaborating with the Royal Winter Fair to engage youth in discussion on issues of agriculture, food security, healthy living and the environment. Rural and urban youth will use the Photovoice methodology to explore these issues in their daily lives, with the resulting photographs to be displayed at this year’s Royal Winter Fair, from November 2nd to 11th, 2007. Stay tuned to our website for updates!

Balkans Youth and Health Project
This CIDA-funded project seeks to develop capacity for responsive and accountable youth-friendly primary health care in the Balkans. Youth Voices is serving as youth outreach consultant for this initiative. In November Youth Voices will be hosting a youth delegate team from Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovnia, and assisting with the project’s workshop to be delivered at the 14th Canadian Conference on International Health.

For more information on any of our initiatives please contact Youth Voices project manager, Charlotte Lombardo at 416-978-2201, c.lombardo@utoronto.ca.


Current Gambling Projects

New YouthBet.net (19-24) Website Development
Recent research indicates the growing prevalence of problem gambling among young adults. The current YouthBet.net website is designed for youth ages 12-17. As part of our ongoing funding from the Ministry of Health Promotion, the Youth Voices Gambling Project is currently developing a new gambling prevention/education website directed at youth ages 19-24. The site will designed by youth for youth, and based on public health strategies of health promotion, harm reduction and problem prevention. We are expecting to have the site completed by Spring 2008!

For more information on any of our gambling initiatives, please contact Jennifer Reynolds, project manager at (416) 978-8498, jennifer.reynolds@utoronto.ca.

-- Charlotte Lombardo

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NATIONAL PROJECTS

Circumpolar Health

Suzanne is a Co-Investigator on a Team Grant on Chronic Disease Prevention in the Circumpolar Regions of Canada with Dr. Kue Young at University of Toronto. Her role is to work with residents of the three Territories, especially the First Nations, to help them take the data and research results related to their communities and turn this into disease prevention and health promotion actions at the community level. Working closely with a planning team in the Yukon and with the support of MHSc student, Katherine Minich, Suzanne conducted a one week health promotion planning Spring School in May for about 22 participants, representing 11 First Nations in the Yukon. They worked in small groups focused on the top health issues they identified in the Yukon -- residential schools, depression, substance use, diabetes and food security.


Multiple Interventions Project

Under the leadership of Nancy Edwards at the University of Ottawa, Suzanne is part of a writing team working on some papers discussing the issues and ideas for planning and evaluating programs (like most health promotion programs) that use multiple strategies at multiple levels with multiple outcomes and that affect and are affected by the context.


Canadian Consortium for Health Promotion Research

The Centre for Health Promotion is one of the members of the Canadian Consortium for Health Promotion Research. Although its main interest is research and training, the Consortium has been focused on planning the IUHPE Conference that was held in Vancouver in June. As a member of the Board of Directors, Suzanne provided some of the oversight for the financial and personnel issues of running a huge international event like this and the Centre was profiled at the event as one of the sponsors.

-- Suzanne F. Jackson

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UPDATE ON SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS

Cancer Prevention Interest Group (CPIG)

Members of the CPIG group have and continue involvement in numerous programs and activities including:

  • Contribution to the document: Gap Analysis: Cancer and the Environment in Ontario:
    Gap Analysis on the Reduction of Environmental Carcinogens

    carried out as members of the The Cancer and the Environment Stakeholder Group with Cancer Care Ontario and the Canadian Cancer Society (published July 20, 2007).
  • Participation in the promotion of Community Right to Know legislation at both the municipal and provincial levels see Toronto Cancer Prevention Coalition website www.tcpc.toronto.ca

    Support for the Toronto screening of the documentary, Toxic Trespass on children's health and the environment (an NFB co production, Dorothy Goldin-Rosenberg executive producer) to be screened Friday Oct.26th, 7pm, at the Royal Cinema as part of the Planet in Focus Film Festival and November 8th at the National Film Board, 150 John Street.

    “ I am polluted.” – A powerful statement. These three words should never be heard from a child or to a greater extent your own child. But this is the reality for Ada Cohen daughter of Barri Cohen director of the film Toxic Trespass.

    The documentary investigates the growing evidence that we are conducting a large-scale toxicological experiment on our children. Together, Barri and Ada confront polluters, researchers who see no conclusive link between environmental poisoning and childhood diseases, and the government officials who are supposed to be protecting us.

    Toxic Trespass reveals the links between industrial chemicals, environmental degradation and childhood illness - and asks why our governments are doing so shockingly little about the problem. It’s a call for citizens to engage in preventing the pollution that affects us all and introduces us to communities, scientists and physicians who are doing so. The DVD and a companion resource guide, Taking Action on Children's Health and the Environment, will be available from WHEN (www.whenvironments.ca) in the near future.
  • Continued emphasis on concerns about the health implications of the planned refurbishment and expansion of nuclear power in Ontario with regard to tritium and other radionuclides, which are known carcinogens, mutagens and teratogens (cross the placental barrier to cause harm) routinely discharged into the drinking water of milllions of Ontarians. As a result of the intervention of the Toronto Cancer Prevention Coalition (environment and occupational working group) and the resulting letter from the Medical Officer of Health to the Ontario Minister of the Environment (noted in the last report),the provincial government set up The Ontario Drinking Water Council (ODWAC.) This report was not be issued until well after the election and its hard to know if the standards will be greatly changed.


-- Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg


Ontario Healthy Schools Coalition

The committee has been actively meeting and working. Unfortunately no one was able to submit a report for this newsletter. You can look forward to an update in the Annual Report which will be available at the Annual General Meeting.


Healthy U of T Awards

The Healthy U of T Awards continues to be a key fall activity of the Centre. The Individual Award and the Group Award were both established as a way of recognizing individuals, groups, departments or organizations within the University of Toronto (student, staff or faculty) that have made a healthy difference through a substantial and lasting contribution to the health and well-being of campus life and/or the broader community.

Recognize your peers! Send your nominations in now!

The deadline for nominations is Friday October 26th, 2007. Awards will be presented at the Centre’s Annual General Meeting on Tuesday November 27th, 2007.

Please go to http://www.utoronto.ca/chp/healthyawards.htm for more information and application forms.

-- Kate Thorpe

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UPDATE ON THE CENTRE'S SPECIAL PROJECTS


Student Practicums

Wiebke Stoeppelmann visited the Centre from Germany, under the CEIHPAL exchange program between Canada and Europe. She worked in the Youth Engagement Unit providing activity and organizational support to “Royal Winter Fair – Journey to your good Health”. This is a project designed to enable youth to identify priorities on agriculture, food security, healthy living and the environment through Photovoice, and to set forth an agenda with research-based projects for youth to lead and take action in their own communities.

Kristin Haefner, also visiting from Germany under the CEIHPAL exchange program, revised a Guide for Mental Health Promotion in Adults 55+, helped to develop and pilot test a tool to assess the health promotion concepts incorporated into planning documents for local area health care, provided general assistance to the Ontario Health Promotion Summer School, and worked together with the Youth Engagement Unit.

Nicole Siegmund, our final German exchange student, provided assistance to the coordination of the 14th Ontario Health Promotion Summer School 2007. She assisted with the promotion of the event and developed, delivered and analyzed the evaluation.

Debbie Christacou, visiting from Greece with the CEIHPAL exchange program, worked with the Youth Engagement Unit, gathering information, liaising with youth organizations, and conducting literature reviews on their publications.

Dina Zota, another of our Greek exchange students, explored ideas and ways of working in the Canadian health system regarding school health and mental health.

Filippos Filippidis, our third student from Greece, worked with the Toronto Public Health for 3 months.

Katherine Minich, a UofT MHSc in health promotion student, worked with Suzanne over the summer helping to rewrite the THCU Health Promotion Planning Manual for a First Nations audience and assisting at the Yukon Health Promotion Planning Spring School in May 2007. The rest of the time she did small jobs for Suzanne and developed her research project which will be conducted from January to April with the Inuit population in Labrador and Nunavut.

At the end of the summer, Danielle Schirmer handed over her position as the UofT Coordinator for the CEIHPAL exchange program between Canada and Europe to Uitsile Ndlovu. Both students helped other students with the logistics of the exchange on both sides.

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CHP PARTNERSHIPS

CAMH

One of the key funding partners of the Centre is the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Our work in the last six months has included:

  • planning and hosting the International Mental Health Promotion Symposium in Vancouver in June,
  • putting the mental health promotion guidelines for those working with children and youth on-line: http://www.camh.net/About_CAMH/Health_Promotion/Community_Health_Promotion/Best_Practice_MHYouth/index.html
  • planning and co-chairing the Ontario Health Promotion Summer School in June which focused on mental health promotion this year,
  • working on mental health promotion guidelines for adults 55+, and
    preparing a message for the LHINs on health promotion with OPC and OHPRS.


OPC

The other key partner of the CHP is the Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse. We are working together to co-lead the Health Promotion Affiliate of the Canadian Health Network. Our website is being reworked to meet the quality standards set by CHN as one example of our activities over the summer.

-- Suzanne F. Jackson

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NEWS FROM THE CENTRE

Visitors to the CHP over the Summer included:

  • Dr. Saoirse Nic Gabhainn, Deputy Director, Health Promotion Research Centre, National University of Ireland in Galway (August)
  • Scott Davis, National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, Australia (June)
  • Linked to the IUHPE Conference in Vancouver, several groups of researchers and health promoters visited Toronto - we had groups from Ireland, Pakistan and Korea stop by the Centre.

-- Suzanne F. Jackson

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E-Info Update
Centre for Health Promotion
University of Toronto
155 College St., Suite 400
Toronto, ON M5T 3M7
http://www.utoronto.ca/chp

If you would like to be added to our email list for the E-Info Update, please contact Kate Thorpe at centre.healthpromotion@utoronto.ca


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