Tools & Resources
Browse the PlanH resource library of publications by category below.
For more PlanH resources visit the following sections:
- Visit our Rural Portal for resources tailored to small, rural or remote communities.
- Find PlanH Action Guides here.
- Find links to Partner sites here.
- Find access to the latest health data here.
- Watch interviews with local leaders and short videos here.
This is a short primer on social enterprise with illustrated examples from across BC. Social enterprise is introduced as a tool to address community challenges in employment, culture, environment, healthcare and poverty.
- Enterprising Non-Profits BC
First in a series of BC Food Security Gateway stories addressing the widespread food insecurity and poverty plaguing BC
Outlines links between health and housing in the US.
– Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Provides information on anti-racism policies, outreach, hiring and supporting multicultural staff, and successful multicultural community development.
– Pacific Immigrant Resources Society (PIRS) and Community Partnerships and Development Services (CPDS)
This toolkit is a user-friendly resource that was designed to support staff and community partners in building youth engagement practices and finding ways to make young people genuine partners in their work.
– BC Ministry of Children and Family Development and University of Victoria
Engaging youth in conversations and decision-making has many documented benefits to both organizations and youth themselves. This guide, developed by the Nova Scotia Health Authority, offers tips and guidance for engaging youth ages 15–30 to ensure their voices are at the table.
New Westminster, a community of 70,000 in Metro Vancouver, is a leader in social justice and equity. In 2011, they became the first city in Canada to adopt a living wage policy. In 2016, they formally adopted a Community Poverty Reduction Strategy, and over the next few years, as part of their Envision 2032 process, they will work towards creating a social equity policy.
Wildfires across British Columbia bring a heightened sense of fear in communities. For Esk’etemc, a looming fear of wildfires in the Cariboo Regional District has been replaced with a renewed confidence in community ability to manage wildfire risk and a certainty that its decision-making is transparent and reflective of the community. Efforts towards—and inter-generational investments in—individual and community health have led to a reclaiming of their role as caretakers of Esk'etemculucw—“the land of the Esk'etemc—allowing the people to retake authority, manage natural resources and steward the land.
Revitalizing a healthy natural environment takes a long-term approach that focuses not on a single patch of earth but on surveying the land broadly, looking upstream and reviving knowledge and practices that have been buried. The Neskonlith are applying this holistic, long-term strategy to improve environmental and community health by developing wide-ranging partnerships and focusing on knowledge sharing. Neskonlith leaders encourage a diverse, multi-sector assembly of allies and invite partnership and collaboration with all types of community groups.
Born in Singapore and having spent many years living in a “vertical village,” Francis Heng has seen firsthand how communities can flourish in high-rises. But when they first arrived in Vancouver 17 years ago, Heng experienced culture shock. In contrast to their hometown where high-rise living is the norm, they sensed building residents in Vancouver didn’t talk to each other.
“That was really strange for me,” Heng describes. “I saw a lot people were very shy and afraid to talk to their neighbours.”
