Health Promotion Canada
Health Promotion Canada
A National Movement … we envision a national movement of practitioners, researchers, educators, and organizations working collaboratively to implement and champion a health promotion approach for the purpose of addressing the determinants of health and achieving equitable health outcomes for all.
Health Promotion Practice … Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health. Health promotion practice includes the full scope of action to promote health and wellbeing, including behavioural and structural interventions, policy and research. It builds on the international Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (1986) and advances the Geneva Charter for Wellbeing (2022).
Health Promotion Canada … seeks to build and support a national interdisciplinary and intersectoral network of individuals and organizations to implement a health promotion approach, with a focus on knowledge exchange and systems change, for the purpose of promoting equitable health and wellbeing in Canada.
Pan-Canadian Health Promoter Competencies and Toolkit
Skills to improve health, health equity and determinants of health.
The Pan-Canadian Health Promoter Competencies builds upon the Core Competencies for Public Health in Canada providing greater detail regarding the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for the practice of health promotion.
They are specific enough to distinguish the work of health promoters among other public health disciplines and reflect the wide variety of settings and structures of health promotion practice in Canada.
The Pan-Canadian Health Promoter Competencies (including the competencies statements, glossary, preamble and acknowledgements) can be downloaded here (20 pages).
The Health Promoter Competencies’ Toolkit provides a series of tools to support the use of the Health Promoter Competencies. The Toolkit is designed to be of interest to health promoters, and their managers and academic instructors and can be downloaded here.
Our History
In 2008 a small group of health promoters from across Canada formed a committee and network to support the development of the Pan-Canadian Health Promoter Competencies, building on work already underway in both Manitoba and Ontario.
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) supported the work, including a 3-year project to validate the draft competencies and continue building a robust network for health promoters across Canada. The committee became the National Executive for the newly formed Health Promotion Canada (HPC) in 2016. The organization was launched at the 6th Global Forum on Health Promotion held on Prince Edward Island as part of the 30th anniversary celebration of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion.
The newly created membership-based organization expanded the model provided by Health Promotion Ontario, forming chapters across Canada. Work was undertaken to promote the health promoter competencies, celebrate achievements across the country, and advocate on key health and wellbeing priorities. Although volunteers from across the country stepped up to support the organization, the paid membership structure did not take root to the same extent as it did in Ontario. By the time the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020 the capacity of the organization was severely diminished.
In the spring of 2023, HPC supporters provided feedback through surveys and focus groups providing direction for the newly emerging HPC volunteer leadership team. This direction identified key reasons for the continued existence of HPC, including raising the profile and enhancing the credibility of health promotion; growing knowledge and expertise in the field and improving the overall systems in which we live and work, among others. Participants recognized the value of networking with colleagues and identified the need for partnering with other health promotion organizations to achieve a more robust HPC. This has provided the foundation for the current renewal process.
HPC You Talked, We Listened Report and webinar.
Health Promotion Ontario (HPO)
HPO has been the ‘voice’ of those in the profession of Health Promotion across Ontario since 1987. HPO seeks to advance the critical importance of health promotion and its practice through professional development, membership, member communication, and advocacy. Email: healthpromotionontario@gmail.com.
THE EVOLUTION OF HEALTH PROMOTION CANADA CONTINUES
Health Promotion Canada (HPC) is excited to announce a new partnership with the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA). The emerging collaboration will support the ongoing evolution of Health Promotion Canada from a loose collection of provincial chapters into a national network of networks. The HPC network will focus on the establishment of the infrastructure and capacity to support intersectoral action on the grand challenges facing society today.
HPC Executive Committee
An Executive Committee has been formed to guide the organization through our renewal process. Please contact us with your ideas and suggestions … we are looking forward to hearing from you!
- Lesley Dyck, Independent Health Promotion Consultant (Co-chair)
Lesley is a health promotion and community development consultant based in British Columbia and has over 25 years of experience in Canada and internationally.
Lead – Infrastructure and National Network Development Working Group - Ian Culbert, Executive Director, CPHA (Co-chair)
Ian is CPHA's Executive Director and is the co-chair on behalf of the host agency. - Kevin Churchill, Public Health Manager
Kevin has been working in public health since 1997, and currently as the Manager of Family Health at Lambton Public Health in Ontario
Lead - Advocacy and Collaborative Action Working Group - Simon Carroll, Academic
Simon is an Adjunct Professor Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. His research over the past 15 years has been focused on sociological approaches to understanding health systems, specifically focused on reorienting health systems from a health promotion perspective.
Lead – Academic Network Development Working Group - Teree Hokanson, Health Promotion Facilitator
Teree is a health promotion facilitator with Alberta Health Services and the Health Promotion Lead with Highland Primary Care Network, supporting participatory, community-led approaches.
Lead – Professional Practice Working Group
Contact Us
Please be in touch with your comments and suggestions!
Email: healthpromotioncanada@gmail.com
GET INVOLVED!
We are ‘under development’, but here are a few ways you can get involved right now!
Network News
Read our monthly e-newsletter and stay on top of what is happening at HPC. This includes opportunities for you to share what you are working on, and learn about opportunities to contribute to health promotion projects you care about. Sign up for our monthly update and check out previous issues of Network News!
Working Groups
As the core Working Groups are formed, we will add terms of reference and contact information so that you can sign up as a volunteer. Check back regularly so that you don’t miss any opportunities!
- Infrastructure and National Network Development
- Academic Network Development
- Professional Practice
- Advocacy and Collaborative Action
Become a Supporter
Part of the renewal process for HPC includes rethinking what a sustainable, intersectoral, network-of-networks could look like in Canada. In addition to volunteering, we want to encourage you to:
• Become a ‘patron’ and make a donation through CPHA (select "Health Promotion Canada")
• Pledge your organizational support – contact us at healthpromotioncanada@gmail.com