Health Promotion Ontario

December 23, 2008

2008 has been an exciting year for of growth and transition for public health, community health and health promoters. From an HPO perspective, we continue to see growth in terms of our membership as well as our activities.

At last count, our membership had increased to over 160 members, with representation from public health units, community health centers, and provincial health promotion resource centres. Diversity in our membership is a strength and an opportunity, and we welcome the perspectives and ideas of all members.

Health Promotion Competencies

HPO continues to work with the Public Health Agency of Canada on developmental work regarding discipline-specific competencies for Health Promoters. At our conference in May, we welcomed fellow health promoters Don Gamache from Manitoba, and Michelle LeDrew of Nova Scotia. In June, HPO rep. Marco Ghassemi attended the CPHA conference in Halifax and presented on our work to date, and along with Alycia Fridkin of PHAC, began to further develop a network of contacts in other provinces. We are hoping to secure long-term funding to engage in a Pan-Canadian consultation regarding our discussion draft set of competencies, which may be found in the Resources section of this site.

On a related note, HPO was pleased to support the health promoters of Manitoba as they hosted a full-day provincial consultation on the "discussion draft" HP competencies on December 1. HPO member Gayle
Bursey (Peel) attended as a representative from HPO, and was able to share her perspective as one of the Ontario leaders of the developmental HP competency work. It is anticipated that a report from this
consultation session will be used to help guide further work in other provinces.

Currently we have secured short-term funds from PHAC to help us to develop a strategic plan and database of national and provincial contacts to continue the health promotion competency work at the
national level. Marco Ghassemi has been seconded to lead this work, which will begin early in the new year.

2008 - 2009 Executive

There have been some changes and transition in the executive membership recently:

Kevin Churchill (Lambton) Chair
Katherine Pigott (Waterloo Region) Vice-Chair (replacing Aarti Soni,
currently on leave)
Jill Faulkner (North Bay Parry Sound) Past-Chair
Marco Ghassemi (Peel) Treasurer
Ida Hersi (Toronto) Secretary
Ellen Wodchis (Niagara Region) ALPHA Rep.
Inge Roosendaal (Peel) OPHA Rep.
Ellen Wodchis (Niagara Rep) OCCHA Rep. (Ellen will complete her term in
June 2009)
Heather Barrington (Windsor Essex) Member at Large
Liliana Roberts (Peel) Member at Large
Heather Doncaster (Peel) Member at Large (on leave)

Our executive have been actively representing HPO at various provincial tables, working groups, and subcommittees and planning is currently underway for our 2009 Conference, and I thank each of them for their contributions to HPO throughout the year.

Thanks very much to Theresa Schumilas (Waterloo), who recently resigned as our representative to ALPHA. Her leadership and experience will be missed. Also thanks to Marty Mako, of Niagara who served as our OPHA rep during Inge's leave.

Strategic Plan Working Group

This working group was formed following a motion at our May 2008 Annual General meeting. Members include Tanya Rumble (Halton Region), Gayle Bursey, and Eugene Williams (Ottawa CHC). As well, Mark Pajot of Peel was an active member of the group until his recent resignation. The HPO executive committee recently approved a budget of up to $2,000 for this group to engage the services of a writer to continue to develop a brief "position" or discussion paper. This initiative is still in its formative stages, but we hope to be able to publish a paper similar in format and substance to our "Fulfilling the Promise" paper of 2005. Potential audiences for this submission include the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, The Ministry of Health Promotion, the Ontario Agency for Health Promotion and Protection and other provincial organizations. Stay tuned for future updates and an opportunity to participate in this
effort.

Lori Chow Award:

2008 marked the first year of the creation of the HPO Lori Chow Memorial Award for Excellence in Health Promotion. This award was presented in May to recipient Gayle Bursey. Lori's husband David and her daughters Stephanie and Sarah participated in the inaugural presentation of the award, which was very touching. The Lori Chow Award will presented annually, and a call for nominations will be posted on our web site and distributed to members early in 2009.

This update represents just some highlights of our activities through 2008. In closing, on behalf of the executive committee, I'd like to wish all of you and your loved ones a safe, happy and healthy holiday
season, and all the best in 2009. We look forward to serving HPO and its membership in 2009.

Kevin

Kevin Churchill,
Chair, Health Promotion Ontario