Spring 2023

Welcome to the second edition of the Healthy Communities Bulletin for 2023.

This and future versions of the bulletin will be archived at hpePublicHealth.ca/municipal-updates. Please encourage your internal and external contacts to subscribe for quarterly healthy communities updates!

In This Issue
  1. Feature article: Meet our Healthy Communities' registered dietitian
  2. Current projects and services from Healthy Communities
  3. Learning opportunities for healthier communities
  4. Connections for healthier communities
  5. Healthy community success story

Meet our Healthy Communities' Registered Dietitian

In our first edition, we featured one of our health promoters, Lauren, who is working on our team as the liaison for Quinte West. In this edition, we will be featuring our registered dietitian, Raghad, who is our liaison for the City of Belleville. As a Healthy Communities dietitian, Raghad hopes to develop relationships with the community and build capacity for food literacy and healthy public policy. In our region, she will be working with municipalities and community organizations, such as the Community Development Council (CDC), to address the root causes of food insecurity, strengthen program planning and partnerships, and understand how we can work to improve the nutrition outcomes of our population.

Next month, she will begin working on the 2023 Real Cost of Eating Well report which allows us to better understand the cost of eating in our region. The report is based on the Nutritious Food Basket survey tool which includes approximately 61 food items. The tool allows us to measure the accessibility and affordability of healthy eating, according to existing nutrition recommendations and average purchasing patterns. Both urban and rural grocery stores will be included in the collection process to determine the average cost of eating well in our region. The report will be used to advocate for evidence-based solutions to food insecurity. Stay tuned for the report later this year!

Raghad is available if you require support or information about food-related community issues such as food insecurity, food literacy, food systems, or oral health related to nutrition and dietetics. To reach Raghad, please email healthycommunities@hpeph.ca or use the Contact Us form.

How can you find out more about the Healthy Communities program?

The Healthy Communities Team will be reaching out directly to all municipalities in Hastings and Prince Edward in the coming months to determine what their priorities are and how HPEPH might be able to assist with them to improve the health and well-being of residents.

If you would like to find out more about building healthy communities, please feel free to visit the Healthy Communities web page. The team can be emailed directly at healthycommunities@hpeph.ca, or you contact us through the form on our website. Please note, if you have tobacco-specific questions, email our inspectors and nurse directly at ttl@hpeph.ca.

Current projects and services from Healthy Communities

Active School Travel campaign

The Quinte Region Traffic Coalition (QRTC) has received a grant to increase awareness of safe driving behaviours in school zones and to educate the school community about the benefits of active school travel. This campaign supports the Active and Safe School Travel Charter by the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board (ALCDSB). The charter advocates for safety enhancements and infrastructure to encourage modes of active travel around schools, and to educate school communities about the benefits of active transportation. Five local schools were chosen to have special road-side signage installed in the spring in their school zones to promote safe driving, and HPEPH will promote active school travel information through fact sheets and social media to school communities and the general public. Follow HPEPH on social media for updates about the campaign.

One of the goals of this campaign is to make school zones safer so that families will feel more confident to choose active transportation during their travel to and from school. Active transportation is any activity that uses human power to travel to or from a destination. This can include walking, cycling, rollerblading, using non-motorized mobility devices, and more. By using active transportation, students will get to know their community and their neighbours, improve their mental and physical health and boost brain development which will help them be ready to learn. If families choose to drive, schools can encourage families to ‘Drive to 5’ which means parking within a 5-minute walk from the school or bus stop, and walking with your child the rest of the way. Every step counts! Promoting active school travel will help decrease traffic congestion and increase road safety.

Additional resources

 

Smoking cessation and Smoke-Free Ontario Act supports

Attention all business owners, event organizers, and concerned citizens! Did you know that you can request free No Smoking/No Vaping educational material and signs from Public Health? It's easier than ever with our online request form.

Not sure if your workplace, public place, or event is compliant with the Smoke-Free Ontario Act? No problem! Our inspectors can answer all your questions and ensure compliance. Have a general question about the Smoke-Free Ontario Act or local No Smoking/Vaping bylaw? Let us know by emailing us at ttl@hpeph.ca.

Do you or someone you know need some support to quit smoking? Nicotine replacement therapy (nicotine patches, gum, and lozenges) can more than double your chances of successfully quitting but is often an unaffordable option for many people. HPEPH provides access to free nicotine replacement therapy and the support of a Public Health Nurse through the STOP program. Simply call (1-800-267-2803 ext. 600 or 613-966-5500 ext. 600) or email our Tobacco Talk Line (ttl@hpeph.ca) to set up a phone appointment.

Visit our website and fill out the form to make your request today. Your health and the health of those around you are important to us. Let's work together to keep our community smoke and vape-free.

 

Learning opportunities for healthier communities

Foundations for Building a Neighbourhood Strategy – Tamarack Institute

This online course offered by the Tamarack Institute intends to support on-the-ground staff or municipal staff who have been tasked with developing a vision and organizing activities that will deepen a sense of community in your neighbourhood, town, or city. The course will teach participants how to start, draft, finalize, and implement a plan.

The course is divided into six modules:

  1. What is a strategy?
  2. What problem are you solving with a strategy?
  3. Communicating to your why
  4. Engaging champions
  5. How neighbourhood strategies get done
  6. Putting it all together

The fee for this course is $249 for individuals or $199 for a group rate. Register here.

Neighbourhood Small Grants – The County Foundation

Prince Edward County residents can now apply for a micro-grant of $50 to $500 to support projects that improve their neighbourhood by bringing people together, sharing skills and knowledge, building a sense of belonging and responsibility, and/or celebrating and respecting diversity. This year, at least 30% of the grants will be allocated to youth who submit eligible project proposals.

Applications are open until June 17, 2023. Registered organizations and businesses are not eligible to apply; however, please forward this opportunity to your family, friends, and the clients you serve. For more information, and to apply, visit The County Foundation’s website.

Ontario Community Changemakers

The Ontario Community Changemakers program is now open for applications. Individuals can apply to participate in the program to support innovative community projects that activate public space, enhance civic engagement, and foster social inclusion. Twenty selected participants will receive:

  • Training to become city-building leaders in their community.
  • Project management training, including financial budgeting, communications, and partnership.
  • $5000 in funding to implement their community project.
  • Ongoing support and mentorship from city building experts.
  • Access to a provincial network of peers and community leaders.

Applications are open until May 14, 2023 at 11:59pm. Applicants may apply independently, or in affiliation with a non-profit, for-profit, and/or government entity. All applicants must be between the ages of 19 and 35 years old at the time of the application. For more information and to apply, please visit ontariocommunitychangemakers.org/apply-now/.

Connections for healthier communities

New Nurse-Family Partnership program

The Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) is an evidence-based home-visiting program that improves the health, well-being, and economic self-sufficiency of first-time parents and their children. The program began recruiting clients in February. Families are eligible for the program if they meet all of the following criteria:

  • It is their first pregnancy or first-time parenting.
  • They are 24 years of age or younger.
  • They have limited support and resources.
  • They enroll by the end of the 28th week of pregnancy.

Families that are not eligible for the NFP will be offered the Healthy Babies Healthy Children program.

Find out more about all our pregnancy support programs on our website.

New Opioid Monitoring Dashboard

A new, interactive online Opioid Monitoring Dashboard has been developed by HPEPH in collaboration with community partners. The Dashboard provides a monthly summary of opioid-related harms and other early warning indicators in Hastings and Prince Edward Counties. The data is sourced from local partners throughout the region including Hastings Quinte Paramedic Services, Belleville Police Services, and the four local Ontario Provincial Police detachments (Bancroft, Centre Hastings, Prince Edward County, and Quinte West).

The Dashboard was created in order to identify situations involving opioids that require a public health response. It includes information about emergency medical service calls, police incidents, emergency department visits, deaths related to opioid poisonings, opioid poisonings reported via the HPEPH website, and naloxone distribution.

HPEPH will be updating the Dashboard on the last Thursday of every month and will continue to issue alerts and media releases related to opioids when required.

Healthy communities success story

Homelessness Summit Belleville:

On April 13 at the Quinte Sports and Wellness Centre, the City of Belleville, Hastings County, and the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness hosted a Homelessness Summit with local stakeholders and community partners. The event included presentations from Hastings County and the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, interviews with people with lived experience, and a group discussion on long-term solutions to end homelessness in our region. Over 100 local stakeholders and community partners were in attendance and discussed recommendations, such as improving information sharing and reporting of homelessness data, completing a housing/homelessness resource needs-gap analysis, expanding transitional housing units and housing allowances to support housing affordability, and reducing chronic homelessness by 25 per cent by March 2027.

Members of the general public were invited to watch the event in person or online and a recording of the event can be streamed on YouTube. Members of the public are also encouraged to provide comments through the online Homelessness Summit Aims Feedback Survey.
 

Stay tuned for our next bulletin coming in the Summer of 2023! If you have any colleagues or partners who may be interested in receiving information and updates from Healthy Communities, please share this bulletin and encourage them to subscribe through our online subscription form.

Hastings Prince Edward Public Health is situated and provides services on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Huron-Wendat and Haudenosaunee people.