October 2010 - Program Updates

Heart Health Resource Centre Transitions to Healthy Communities Consortium

For more than 16 years, the Heart Health Resource Centre (HHRC) has provided capacity-building supports and resources to community partners and public health professionals working in the Ontario Heart Health Program (OHHP). This year has been marked with significant and exciting changes for the HHRC.

In May 2009, the Ministry for Health Promotion and Sport (MHPS) announced the creation of the Healthy Communities Fund, and around that same time, the former Ontario Health Promotion Resource System (OHPRS), of which the HHRC was a member, was discontinued. At the direction of the Ministry of Health Promotion and Sport, the HHRC, the Healthy Communities Support Services, the Ontario Drug Awareness Partnership, and the Health Promotion Hub formed the Healthy Communities Consortium in the summer of 2009.

This past Spring, the MHPS requested that the Consortium undertake a re-structuring process to determine an operational structure for the Consortium. We are pleased to announce that this re-organizational structure and the workplan for 2010-11 has recently been approved by the MHPS and as such, we can update you on these changes as they relate to the HHRC and OPHA.

The Consortium has chosen a highly collaborative structure, where Health Nexus serves as the “lead agency” by negotiating and holding the contract with the MHPS, and all four partner organizations contribute to the decision-making, planning, service coordination, and service delivery functions of the Consortium. To enable clients to easily access our services, the Consortium features a “one window” approach, where by calling one phone number, emailing one address, or visiting one website clients can easily access any or all of the project partners as well as the many other organizations we refer to and work with.

Under the Consortium umbrella, the resource centres formerly known as the Health Promotion Hub, Healthy Communities Support Services, the Heart Health Resource Centre, and the Ontario Drug Awareness Partnership and their staff will continue its work, but will now be known by their host organizations: Health Nexus, Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition, the Ontario Public Health Association and Parent Action on Drugs, respectively.

Andrea Bodkin, Pam Kinzie, and Rebecca Byers will continue as staff at the Ontario Public Health Association and will work with the Consortium. We are excited to be a part of the Consortium and its dynamic team of 29 dedicated staff and consultants, located within the four partner organizations, each offering valuable skills and contributions.

For more information about the Consortium, including information about our upcoming webinars series and consultation service, please visit the Consortium website (en français). If you have questions regarding the former HHRC or OPHA’s role within the Consortium, please contact Andrea Bodkin directly.