North West Equity Forum

by

connie

In honour of International Women’s Day on March 8th 2016 #IWD2016, Bridge for Health would like to express our gratitude for women leaders in the field of public health who have contributed their hearts and minds to advancing health in their communities. The following two events were organized by a group of women leaders from the North West. Thank you to Theresa Healy, our public health champion in Prince George!

North West Health Equity Forum

Bridge for Health was honoured to have participated in the North West Health Equity Forum, a deliberative dialogue event held in Prince George on Feb 11 & 12th  2016, with participation on the first day from Whitehorse (Yukon), Grand Prairie (Northern Alberta), and Prince Albert (Northern Saskatchewan.) This event was organized by the National Collaborating Center for Determinants of Health in collaboration with Northern Health, the National Collaborating Center for Aboriginal Health, Bridge for Health, the Public Health Association of BC, and was facilitated by our founder Paola Ardiles. The forum shed light on how we can use a Collective Impact approach to address the important issue of health equity.

Health inequities occur when some groups of people carry an unequal burden of illness and disease in comparison to others, in a way that is unfair and unjust. Collective Impact is an approach used when a group of organizations come together to address a major challenge by developing and working toward a common agenda that fundamentally changes population level outcomes in a community.

Follow #hef16 on Twitter and Facebook to see photos and live updates from the forum!

paintingSeeking Health Equity: Stories from the Front line
During the Equity Forum, we also had a chance to participate in an evening public event at the Prince George Native Friendship Center. The event featured personal stories and photos to illustrate the factors that influenced their health and the impact those factors had on their lives. Highlights from the event was a performance from the local Street Spirits Company – a theatre performance group made up of youth with experiential backgrounds – who created a theatre event that brought their experiences and understandings of health inequity to light.  Their performance also invited the audience to participate in finding solutions to the vignettes they created from their own experiences.  Another innovation at the event was local Artist Carla Joseph painting throughout the evening.  As the closing she presented her interpretation of the stories and ideas she was seeing and hearing. For those attending it was a poignant and powerful introduction to the concepts of health equity, portrayed in story and image, and in ways that moved and informed those lucky enough to have been there.