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The compassionate community movement as both a public health approach and a social model of care for various life stages is gaining traction in Canada and elsewhere. One example is the Windsor-Essex Compassion Care Community (WECCC), an evidence-based model and set of tools to improve the quality of life, health and wellness of vulnerable and aging populations by identifying and addressing upstream and downstream social and other risks to physical and mental health. This paper presents findings from the WECCC pilot evaluation. The WECCC initiative provided one-on-one volunteer-supported quality of life assessment, resource navigation and goals support program (Catalyzing Community Connections). This was augmented with public education sessions on social connection and loneliness (Importance of Being Connected) for the broader population. The RE-AIM framework was used to frame evaluation of WECCC through the first 4 years. Questionnaires were used to evaluate participant outcomes related to implementation and effectiveness. Interviews and focus groups were completed to understand impacts. From 2017 to 2020, WECCC has engaged over 2,500 individuals, 65 organizations and 400 volunteers combined in both programs. Nearly all (82% to 95%) participants reported positive changes to health, quality of life and/or social connections. This developmental phase of a compassionate community initiative has allowed piloting of an evaluation framework focusing on reach, adoption, implementation and early signals of effectiveness and maintenance. This demonstration provides information on feasibility, acceptability and potential impacts of this type of over-arching community initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Increasingly, school districts are looking for insights on how to embed a well-being focus across school communities. Well-being in K-12 education is proven to support positive mental health, improve academic performance and contribute to positive outcomes for students and staff. How districts transition to deeply integrate well-being into existing priorities and practices is not well understood. Insights on such shifts can help inform widespread change in education. In 2020, six Canadian school districts participated in case study research to examine how and why districts were able to shift their culture to one that prioritizes well-being. Fifty-five school community members participated in individual semi-structured interviews to explore their perception of well-being in their school communities. Analysis identified six themes: well-being is wholistic and requires balance, student and staff well-being are interconnected, organizational leadership sustains implementation, connection and voice as a catalyst to well-being, building capacity to support well-being action, and charting and re-charting a course. Findings increase our understanding of system-level change, and provide insights to support well-being in education. Lay Summary: Well-being in K-12 education is proven to support positive mental health, improve academic performance and contribute to positive outcomes for students and staff. How school districts can deeply integrate well-being into existing priorities and practices is not well understood. Many districts are looking for insights on how to embed a well-being focus across school communities. These insights can help inform change in K-12 education. In 2020, six Canadian school districts participated in case study research to examine how and why districts were able to shift their culture to one that prioritizes well-being. Fifty-five participants from six districts took part in interviews on the topic of district well-being prioritization. Supporting documents were also reviewed. Qualitative analysis identified six common themes: well-being is wholistic and requires balance, student and staff well-being are interconnected, organizational leadership sustains implementation, connection and voice as a catalyst to well-being, building capacity to support well-being action, and charting and re-charting a course. Study findings increase our understanding of system-level change in K-12 education. Findings provide valuable 'entry points' for school and district leaders to consider when making well-being a priority in their own contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical activity (PA) levels among adolescent girls continue to steadily decline, especially for those classified as 'at-risk'. To mitigate these trends, Girls United and on the Move (GUM) was created as a dual-component PA and psychosocial program. The primary purpose of this study was to explore participant experiences within GUM, with a secondary purpose of qualitatively informing future PA programs for 'at-risk' adolescent girls. Semi-structured interviews (N = 30) were conducted with a purposeful sample of girls from the GUM program. An inductive thematic analysis was utilized to analyze verbatim transcripts. Two themes were generated from the data: 1) Girls uplifting girls, outlining the importance of a girls-only environment and introducing opportunities for alternative PAs, and 2) finding balance between the physical and psychological, detailing the importance of the dual-component program. These findings provide support for the acceptability of an integrated psychosocial and PA program for at-risk adolescent girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of health promotion advocates a socioecological approach to health that addresses a variety of physical, social, environmental, political and cultural factors. Encouraging a holistic approach, health promotion examines many aspects of health and wellbeing, including physical, mental, sexual, community, social and ecological health. Despite this holism, there is a noticeable absence of discussion surrounding spirituality and spiritual health. This research study explored how leading scholars in Canadian health promotion understand the place of spirituality in health promotion. Using the fourth edition of Health Promotion in Canada (Rootman et al. , 2017) as the sampling frame of recognized leaders in the field, 13 semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with authors from the book. This study is situated within a critical health promotion approach that utilizes methodologies aiming for social justice, equity and ecological sustainability. I argue that by avoiding spirituality within health promotion frameworks and education, the secularism of health promotion and its underlying values of Eurocentric knowledge production and science remain invisible and rarely critiqued. This study intends to open up possibilities for centering spiritual and non-Western epistemologies and ways of knowing that have been marginalized, such as Indigenous understandings of health and wellbeing. Restoring right relations with Indigenous peoples in Canada has taken on new urgency with the calls to action of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission report (NCTR, 2015). This is one important way that health promotion can fulfill its promise of being inclusive, relevant and effective for human and planetary wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As providers of community-based physical activity programs, recreation and sports facilities serve as an important resource for health promotion. Unfortunately, the food environments within these settings often do not reflect healthy eating guidelines. This study sought to describe facilitators and barriers to implementing provincial nutrition guidelines in recreation and sports facilities in three Canadian provinces with nutrition guidelines. Semi-structured interviews were analysed thematically to identify facilitators and barriers to implementing provincial nutrition guidelines. Facilitators and barriers were then categorised using a modified "inside out" socio-ecological model that places health-related and other social environments at the centre. A total of 32 semi-structured interviews were conducted at two time-points across the three guideline provinces. Interview participants included recreation staff managers, facility committee or board members and recreation volunteers. Eight facilitators and barriers were identified across five levels of the inside out socio-ecological model. Facilitators included provincial or municipal expectations of guideline implementation, clear communication to staff around guideline directives and the presence of a champion within the community or facility who supported guideline implementation. Barriers included unhealthy food culture within community, competition from other food providers and issues within food service contracts that undermined healthy food provision. Findings reinforce the importance of top down (clear expectations regarding guideline implementation at the time of approval) and bottom up (need for buy-in from multiple stakeholders) approaches to ensure successful implementation of nutrition guidelines. The application of a modified socio-ecological model allowed for a more nuanced understanding of leverage points to support successful guideline implementation. Lay summary Healthy eating is an important behaviour for preventing chronic diseases. Supporting people to access healthy foods in places where they live, learn, work or play is a public health priority. Recreation and sports facilities are a setting where people can be physically active. Unfortunately, the food environment in these settings may not reflect nutrition guidelines. In this study, we interviewed key stakeholders from recreation and sports facilities in three Canadian provinces who had put guidelines for healthy eating in place. We used a specific framework to do this called the inside out socio-ecological model. Eight facilitators and barriers were identified using this model. Facilitators included provincial or municipal expectations of guideline implementation, clear communication to staff around guideline directives and the presence of a champion within the community or facility who supported guideline implementation. Barriers included unhealthy food culture within community, competition from other food providers and issues within food service contracts that undermined healthy food provision. Our findings can help people working in recreation and sports facilities to identify issues that may help or hinder healthy food provision in these settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]