Sharing the Flame: Health and Learning

Recognizes programs that enhance the ability of participants to access and use health information to improve their own health or the health of others within the community

Bookmates Alphabet Soup

Bookmates Alphabet Soup is a six-week literacy-based preschool nutrition program. Alphabet soup engages parents and their preschool children in experiences that promote healthy lifestyle choices, the love of books and lifelong learning. The program was developed in 2002–2003 by Bookmates Inc.in conjunction with Manitoba family-learning programs, parents/caregivers and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.

Objectives
  • expand the healthy eating experiences of preschool children
  • provide parents/caregivers with new food ideas and information
  • encourage the love of language and of reading
  • promote learning by sharing people’s talents, knowledge and other strengths
Innovation
  • comprehensive facilitator training in which information-sharing is addressed within a social context
  • specific attention given to cultural sensitivity and adult-literacy levels
  • involvement and empowerment of parents as partners at the advisory level
Benefits
  • enhanced relationships between health professionals and literacy groups
  • increased parent/caregiver confidence by becoming more literate and knowledgeable about healthy lifestyle choices
Contact

Candyce Jones
Program Coordinator
Bookmates Inc.
623 Erin Street
Winnipeg, MB  R3G 2W1

Tel: 204.582.1804
Fax: 204.586.4577
E-mail: edbookmate@mts.net
Website: www.bookmates.ca
Gatekeeper Training Program

Suicide represents a significant personal and family tragedy but it is also recognized as a public-health problem, affecting individuals as well as whole communities.

Worldwide, city-transit systems (e.g., subway tunnels) are a popular site of choice for individuals who commit or attempt to commit suicide. In 2005, Trillium Health Centre and the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) launched the Gatekeeper Training Program: a suicide awareness, prevention and intervention skills-training initiative for TTC staff—primarily subway operators, their supervisors and instructors and special constables.

Gatekeeper Training consists of three workshop modules:

  • SafeTALK (a one-day suicide alertness training program)
  • SuicideAWARE (Always Watch and Report Effectively—a three-hour program designed for subway-train operators to observe and identify suicide risk behaviours)
  • ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training—a two-day assessment and intervention-training program to train TTC employees as consultants to other civic employees)
Objectives
  • increase TTC staff’s factual knowledge about suicide and risk factors
  • enhance TTC staff’s skills in risk assessment
  • increase TTC staff’s positive attitudes and comfort levels in managing suicidal behaviour
Innovation
  • first program offered worldwide (as known to Trillium) to provide suicide awareness and prevention training to subway-transit employees
  • program is being empirically researched and will serve to inform and benefit other communities in Canada on effective suicide-prevention strategies
Benefits
  • TTC staff’s factual knowledge about suicide and risk factors has increased and their suicide assessment and intervention skills have improved
  • potential to save lives and reduce incidence of mental-health problems among TTC personnel who witness suicide attempts
  • provides evidence-based best practice for suicide awareness and prevention 
Contact

Mary Lynn Porto, MSW, MHSc
Manager, Community Mental Health
Trillium Health Centre
100 Queensway West
Mississauga, ON  L5B 1B8

Tel: 905.848.7580 ext. 3570
Fax: 905.848.7583
E-mail: mporto@thc.on.ca
Website: www.trilliumhealthcentre.org
Intergenerational Landed Learning at UBC Farm: Learning to Garden for Human and Ecological Health

An initiative of the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia (UBC), this program began in 2002 as a community-school-university collaboration that engages urban children and community adults in growing, preparing and eating nutritious food at UBC Farm. The experience provides an integrative context for promoting nutrition and lifestyle education for children and modeling principles of ecological and holistic health for all participants.

Each school year, three classes of grades four through six children from diverse and multicultural Vancouver schools visit the farm on 12 occasions to work in small groups with volunteer community adults (retired farmers, avid gardeners or university students). In the summer, an additional 120 children participate in week-long day camps that focus on weekly themes. 

Objectives
  • help young children acquire knowledge and skills in sustainable food-growing practices that will aid them in becoming environmental stewards
  • improve food literacy, encourage healthy dietary and lifestyle choices
  • build intergenerational exchange, caring relationships and learning in the community
Innovation
  • teachers meet with the project-education team to plan activities for the farm days, and collaboratively develop activities to integrate field-based learning with classroom lessons
  • multi-generational Farm Friend groups construct a caring community that makes learning meaningful for all, contributing to children’s social development
  • health and environmental education activities are inextricably linked and effectively grounded in a context of hands-on experiential learning, meaningful social relationships and multi-disciplinary learning
Benefits
  • fosters holistic health (mental, social, physical, emotional, spiritual)
  • breaks down barriers between generations and between schools and the community for mutual learning and community-building
  • children and adults develop confidence, knowledge and skills, resulting in more positive attitudes toward constructive actions in their environment
Contact

Dr. Jolie Mayer-Smith and Dr. Linda Peterat
Professors and Co/Directors
Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia
2125 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC  V6T 1Z4

Tel: 604.822.5293
Fax: 604.822.4714
E-mail: jolie.mayer-smith@ubc.ca and peterat1@telus.net
Website: cust.educ.ubc.ca/landedlearningproject/

Youth Voices (TeenNet Research)

Youth Voices seeks to promote youth engagement, expression, empowerment and exchange through youth-driven media and participatory research. Formerly known as TeenNet Research, Youth Voices was founded by Dr. Harvey Skinner in 1995 with the aim of generating new knowledge and developing practical tools for engaging youth in health promotion using interactive technology. 

Objectives

Youth Voices’ work is centred on its Youth Voices Process (EIPARS) for authentic and meaningful youth engagement. The six interactive phases include:

  • engage youth in expressions of their lives and communities
  • identify issues and themes of importance to young people
  • plan projects to address youth concerns and priorities
  • act for youth-driven community development and social change
  • reflect, research and reward achievements and learning
  • sustain growth and development of youth-driven initiatives
Innovation
  • one of the first programs to combine high-tech website development, community mobilization and action research 
  • has played a key role in the evolution of youth engagement in Canada and served at the forefront of community-academic research partnerships
  • since rebranding to Youth Voices, work has focused on engaging youth expression and learning through Photovoice, a documentary photography process
Benefits
  • youth who have opportunities to learn skills, connect with others and have their voices heard will be better equipped to make sustainable personal and community change
  • communities that actively engage with and respond to youth will be better equipped to meet the complex and emerging health needs of young people
Contact

Dr. Harvey Skinner
Youth Voices
Centre for Health Promotion
155 College Street
Room 766
Toronto, ON  M5T 3M7

Tel: 416.978.2201
Fax: 416.978.2087
E-mail: hskinner@yorku.ca
Website: www.youthvoices.ca

 

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