May 2011 - Association Update

OPHA is part of the Ontario After-School Collaborative

The Ontario After School Collaborative (“the Collaborative”) successfully secured funds from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)’s Healthy Living Fund to advance the abilities of community-based providers to develop and deliver quality after-school programs that enhance the health and well-being of children and youth.

Seven provincial organizations make up the Collaborative. They include: Parks and Recreation Ontario (PRO), Ophea, YMCA Ontario, CMHA Ontario, Boys and Girls Clubs, Evidence (First Work), and OPHA.

Work has begun on this two-year initiative, which is called Enhancing the Quality of Ontario’s After School Programs: A Provincial Collaborative Approach. This initiative is supported by both PHAC and the Province of Ontario.

The Collaborative will work to create:

  • An overarching strategy for sustainable high quality after-school programs in Ontario (comprehensive and supported across government);
  • Interconnected strategies related to children and youth and opportunities to support after-school programs; and
  • A common approach and framework supporting the delivery of consistent high quality after-school programming and coordination/seamlessness at the community level.

The objectives of the project are to:

  • Increase the understanding of the environment of after-school services for priority target groups;
  • Increase the number of resources that promote quality, consistency, and sustainability of after-school programs in a diversity of settings across Ontario; and
  • Increase the awareness and use of evidence-based resources that promote physical activity and healthy eating by the priority target groups and the after-school community in Ontario.

The steps to meet these objectives are:

  • a grey literature search;
  • conducting a series of consultations with priority groups across Ontario;
  • identifying and validating best practices through pilot tests; and
  • developing/adapting key tools, trainings and resources, then creating awareness about them and enabling their use.

For more information on this project contact OPHA Executive Director Siu Mee Cheng, or Cindy Scythes, Manager, Nutrition Resource Centre.

 

Public Health and Land Use Planning

The Clean Air Partnership (CAP) and OPHA have just completed a background report and a summary report on public health and land use planning with funding provided by the Ministry of Health Promotion and Sport’s Healthy Communities Fund.

The background report, Public Health and Land Use Planning: How Ten Public Health Units are Working to Create Healthy and Sustainable Communities, was prepared as a capacity-building tool for public health professionals across the province.

The summary report, Public Health and Land Use Planning: Highlights, was prepared to increase awareness among professionals in the fields of land use planning, transportation planning, infrastructure, environmental management, school and student transportation planning, and sustainability. This summary highlights both the many ways in which the built environment can affect human health and well-being, as well as the different ways in which public health professionals can support and/or inform work in these fields.

We hope these documents will encourage greater collaboration between professionals from different fields across the province for the betterment of human health and the environment. Our goal is to help create communities that foster healthy living, reduced health care costs, and environmental sustainability.

 

Staff Updates

OPHA is pleased to welcome two new Masters Placement Students who are volunteering at OPHA from May through August.

Sarah List is completing a Master of Public Health degree at the University of Guelph. Sarah enjoys international travel. Previously she volunteered in northern India and worked as an English teacher in South Korea.

Jacquelyn Quirk is completing a Master of Public Health / Health Promotion at the University of Toronto. Previously Jacquelyn volunteered with several non-profit organizations in Cuernavaca, Mexico, has lived in Switzerland and holds a French Immersion Certificate.

Both students came to OPHA with outstanding references and we are very lucky to have them. They will be working on numerous projects for both OPHA and Towards Evidence-Informed Practice (TEIP).