Recent News
Complex challenges need collaborative solutions. More governments are seeing the power of a regional approach to social planning to tackle issues like poverty reduction and social cohesion. Join BC Healthy Communities on for Creating Healthy Public Policy: Regional Social Planning Services to hear about experience of the City of Powell River, qathet Regional District and Tla’amin Nation as they collaborate to move their communities forward together.
The latest addition to the PlanH resource library is here! The PlanH Health Impact Assessment Resource explains the benefits of using Health Impact Assessments (HIA) as a collaborative decision-making tool. It also provides ideas, guidance and resources to support the inclusion of health and equity in policy and decision-making processes.
Housing affordability is a key issue for many local governments across the province. Its effects can be felt across a community through secondary impacts such as homelessness, labour shortages, strained transportation networks, hampered local economic development and diminished participation in civic life.
Many communities in B.C. are exploring the use of land acquisition strategies to proactively respond to these challenges, guide decision-making and help create property portfolios that lend themselves to the community’s strategic priorities and goals.
Twenty-eight Indigenous and local governments in B.C. will now be able to embark on projects to improve community connection and create more equitable policies, thanks to $250,000 in new grants plus additional customized supports recently awarded by PlanH, a partnership of BC Healthy Communities Society (BCHC) and the Ministry of Health.
The Creating Healthy Public Policy - Local Government Leaders Speaker Series kicks off with Living Wage Policies, a session exploring the City of Victoria’s experience in adopting a Living Wage policy in 2020. Living Wage policies have been enacted by 10 governments across the province, ranging from major metropolitan cities to smaller rural and Indigenous governments. These policies align minimum wages in an organization with the actual costs of living in a specific community, resulting in benefits including increased local spending, reduced social costs and improved health and well-being.
Join BC Healthy Communities and the Canadian Evaluation Society – BC Chapter for our webinar, Diverse Voices: Community-based approaches to making evaluation attainable & equitable. We explore the application of feasible, equitable evaluation principles in B.C. community settings, and the significance of reciprocity when engaging in community partnerships to collaboratively learn together.
For communities across Canada, 2020 was an especially trying year. Though inequities existed in our communities prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, current challenges have amplified these differences.
Join BC Healthy Communities and Simon Fraser University’s Community Economic Development team and explore the intersections of health, well-being and community economic development.
We are excited to announce the release of the Reducing Youth Access & Exposure to Vapour Products resource!
This resource is to support local governments across British Columbia as they work to reduce youth access and exposure to vapour products.
In early 2020, BC Healthy Communities identified food security and insecurity as a key concern for communities in light of COVID-19. In response, PlanH has launched a series of Rapid Action Resources that explore food security and insecurity issues from a Healthy Communities lens, offering ideas for local government action in this area. The fourth resource in this series, Local Food Systems, is now available.
In early 2020, BC Healthy Communities identified food security and insecurity as a key concern for communities in light of COVID-19. In response, PlanH has launched a series of Rapid Action Resources that explore food security and insecurity issues from a Healthy Communities lens, offering ideas for local government action in this area. The third resource in this series, Community Food Production: Part II, is now available.
