Partner-Initiated Projects

Project years: 2021-2022

Partner: Alberta Real Estate Foundation

The COVID-19 pandemic and related public health measures have drawn our attention to how critically important our homes, neighbourhoods, and communities are to our health, wellbeing, and overall quality of life. Our environments shape where we live, work, play, and how we interact with one another - and our environments. Opportunities in these different settings can create and strengthen community vitality, resiliency, and wellbeing - critical considerations for Albertans as we continue to navigate through the pandemic and social recovery. With so many factors influencing our wellbeing, it’s difficult to know what information to attend to most when it comes to our homes and communities.

The Centre for Healthy Communities (CHC), in partnership with the Alberta Real Estate Foundation (AREF), has launched a user-friendly website: www.healthycommunitiesathome.ca to help support healthy homes and healthy communities for Albertans. The website combines scientific and practice-based evidence.  It was developed with input by diverse stakeholders across Alberta, all of whom can also use the website. These stakeholders included real estate professionals, urban and rural planners, land developers, consumers, researchers, municipal representatives, community and social organizations, and public health and health services representatives. 

To find out more about this work, visit the website, read the article Healthy Homes and Communities - What Matters When it Comes to Wellbeing?, or read the report on a literature review completed to understand what evidence-informed resources and recommendations were currently available to support decision-making for healthy homes and healthy communities.

This project was made possible through a grant from the Alberta Real Estate Foundation. The Alberta Real Estate Foundation invests in real estate policy, research, practices, and education that strengthen Alberta’s communities. The Foundation’s revenues come from the interest earned on public money deposited in real estate brokers’ pooled trust accounts. Learn more at www.aref.ab.ca

Publication: Kim, M.O., Montemurro, G., Nieuwendyk, L., Nykiforuk, C.I.J. (2023). Supporting healthy community decision-making in municipalities: A synthesis of evidence-informed resources from across Canada. Wellbeing, Space and Society, 100180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wss.2023.100180

Project years: 2018-2019 and 2021

Partners: City of Calgary, Alberta Recreation & Parks Association (ARPA), and Government of Alberta

This project was undertaken in collaboration with the City of Calgary, the Alberta Recreation & Parks Association (ARPA), and Alberta provincial government partners. The goal was to create 'how to' guides and accompanying resources for communities/organizations to create their own Mobile Adventure Playgrounds and Local Play Charters. The how to guides were developed based on the City of Calgary-led initiatives. These guides are now being shared across Canada to inspire and provide guidance for other communities/organizations wishing to undertake similar projects in support of children's outdoor, unstructured, and risky play.

The full 'How to Create a Local Play Charter', 'How to Create a Mobile Adventure Playground' and supplementary resources (videos, executive summaries, and presentations) are available on the ARPA website.

A summary of this work is also profiled in the article Creating Tools to Increase Play Opportunities for Children and Families.

Project years: 2019

Partner: Population, Public & Indigenous Health Strategic Clinical Network, Alberta Health Services

Reducing the Impact of Financial Strain Toolkit was a collaboration with the Population, Public & Indigenous Health Strategic Clinical Network, Alberta Health Services. Together, we created a toolkit that outlined strategies for communities to undertake to address financial strain locally. It focused on the Alberta context, but could be relevant to communities across Canada. To build the toolkit, we used information collected through a rapid review of evidence, environmental scan, and interviews with representatives working in organizations across Alberta to reduce financial strain. 

The full ‘Building Financial Well-Being: A Community Planning Toolkit’ is available on the Alberta Health Services website and the Alberta Healthy Communities Hub. 

Project years: 2019-2022

Philanthropic Partner: Alberta Blue Cross

Through philanthropic funding from Alberta Blue Cross, we were able to work in partnership with them to build a greater understanding of how investing in communities through community grants can have a positive impact on the health and wellness of communities.  This work specifically included:

• literature review to understand the various methods and measures used to understand impact of enhanced infrastructure for active living in communities;
• the co-creation of an evaluation framework to guide Alberta Blue Cross’ Communities Grant Program;
• planning, developing, and piloting data collections strategies for Alberta Blue Cross’ Communities Grant Program;
• harnessing community voice to capture impact through focus groups; and,
• sharing stories of impact through the development of a white paper for Alberta Blue Cross based on their COVID Community Roots Grant Program.

Project years: 2018-2020

Partner: Alberta Health Services

This project occurred in partnership with Alberta Health Services, Cancer Prevention and Screening Innovation. Using rapid review methods, we created evidence-based toolkits that outlined tips for tailoring and intervention strategies related to ten community and workplace health promotion topics.

Community topics included how to promote social inclusion among seniors, social participation in adolescents, and smoking cessation or prevention among teens. The community toolkits are available on the Alberta Healthy Communities Hub.

The workplace topics focused on how to support sun protection among outdoor workers, mental health among shift workers, work-life balance among employees, and community connections (corporate-social responsibility). They also included a suite of topics targeting health promotion among blue-collar employees: mental health, healthy eating, and tobacco control. The workplace toolkits are available on the Healthier Together Workplaces website. 

Project years*: 2018-2020

Partner: Government of Alberta

This is a joint initiative between the Centre for Healthy Communities, School of Public Health, University of Alberta and the Government of Alberta. The Alberta Healthy School Community Wellness Fund (AHSCWF), which was administered by the School of Public Health since 2011*, promotes sustainable, healthy school communities across the province by providing facilitated support and grants to Alberta's public, private and francophone school jurisdictions. This approach enhances health and wellness among school-aged children and youth using a Comprehensive School Health (CSH) framework.