A new website launched this month – PlanningforHealth.ca – provides resources for Ontario public health professionals who are working with their communities to achieve community design that improves population health.
In 2019, in collaboration with Public Health Ontario (PHO), a survey was conducted of all Ontario public health units to identify high impact, adaptable and evidence-based promising practices currently in use to achieve healthy built environment goals. Based on the survey findings, focus groups were then conducted with seven health units to provide deeper exploration of promising practices. The Centre for Active Transportation (TCAT) at Clean Air Partnership carried out this work with leadership provided by the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit.
The PlanningforHealth.ca website has three focus areas:
Promising Practices for Healthy Built Environments in Ontario’s Public Health Units.
This 21-page report provides information about four types of promising practices that have proven to be most effective and in what contexts. It is available both as a downloadable file and an interactive series of pages that hosts the content.
Mapping the Municipal Planning Process in Ontario. Opportunities for Public Health Input
This 17-page primer provides public health practitioners with an orientation to Ontario planning processes and identifies opportunities for input and involvement. It is available as a downloadable file on the website and an interactive series of pages that hosts the content.
Resource Bank
This contains a compilation of resources that emerged as being the most useful through the focus groups and the literature review. This list of resources, hyperlinked, is housed on a page on the website called “Resources for Practitioners”.