|
Date: Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Time: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Cost: $125.00 CDN + 5% GST
| A. |
Promoting Healthy Urban Environments
Through Environmental Justice
Presenters
- Jeff Masuda, Canadian Network on Environment, Health, and Social Equity
- Trevor Hancock, BC Ministry of Health
- Margot Parkes, Canadian Community of Practice in Ecosystem Approaches to Health
- Ray Copes, National Collaborating Centre on Environmental Health
- Lesley Poirier, National Collaborating Centre on Determinants of Health
- Theresa McClenaghan, Canadian Environmental Law Association
- Tim Lambert, BC Ministry of Health
Goals
The goal of this workshop is to explore the uses and utility of environmental justice as a research, planning, and community action framework for promoting healthy urban environments.
This workshop will bring together scholars, policymakers, and practitioners working in the fields of urban planning and policy, population health, and environmental health to contribute to the coordinated development of a public health environmental justice strategy in Canada. The workshop objectives include:
| 1) |
To discuss the application of environmental justice frameworks at local, national, and international levels to promote urban environmental health; |
| 2) |
To share current best practices and challenges faced by researchers, policymakers, and practitioners who are engaged with environmental justice issues in Canadian and international contexts; |
| 3) |
To identify key components and action strategies needed for the development of a Canadian environmental justice framework, to feed into efforts to convene a National Conference on Promoting Environmental Justice in Canada (as proposed by the workshop organizers) |
Specific Topics/Agenda and Participatory Process
| 09:00 – 09:10 |
Focus Setting |
Jeff Masuda and Trevor Hancock |
Outline key issues/questions/themes in environmental justice, including:
- Working definitions
- justice, equity, disparities
- Priority populations
- aboriginal health, poverty, gender, child and youth health
- Priority local-to-global issues
- global climate change, urban air pollution, gentrification
- Key strategies and research methods
- community-based participatory research, spatial analysis and population health, health promotion, community mobilization, policy development, regulation and mitigation
- Opportunities/Barriers for implementation
- political will, interdisciplinary collaboration, multi-method research approaches
| 09:10 – 10:10 |
Case Studies |
Invited Panelists |
Using case studies, panelists working on environmental justice will respond to one or more of the issues/questions/themes in the context of topic areas that may include:
- Toxic legacies
- Urban air pollution
- Aboriginal health
- Gentrification and inner city health
- Urban agriculture initiatives
| 10:10 – 10:40 |
Question and Answer |
All Participants |
| 10:40 – 10:50 |
Break |
|
| 10:50 – 11:30 |
Breakout Sessions |
All Participants |
Participants will self-select into four break-out tables facilitated by the panelists to deliberate on key components and action strategies required to prioritize issues, develop strategies, and promote intersectoral action for urban health research and policy development for each topic area.
| 11:30 – 12:00 |
Reporting Back |
Break-Out Groups |
Each break-out table will report back summaries of discussion. Workshop organizers will collect email addresses to send workshop proceedings to all participants and through partner networks.
Duration: 3 hours
Relevance to the Conference
The ICUH conference, focused this year on knowledge integration, provides a great opportunity to demonstrate how research is being used to advance environmental justice agendas in urban planning, community development, and public health at all levels from local to global. We envision the workshop will foster lively debate and raise important considerations for participants to inform interdisciplinary work in the area of urban environmental health. The workshop outputs will be sent to all participants along with a list of key Canadian published scholarly and grey literature assembled by the organizers. |
Back to top
| B. |
Urban Health and Sustainable Cities –
The Nexus
Presenters
Professor Anthony Capon, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, The Australian National University, and a panel of experts on sustainable cities.
Goals
- Recognition of the scope and scale of the international challenge of developing healthy and sustainable cities.
- Awareness of the value of integrative/systems approaches in understanding, and addressing, complex problems – including an eco-social perspective on health.
- Appreciation of the importance of effective governance of cities for improved health and environmental outcomes – including the role of industry.
Duration: 3 hours
Specific Topics to be Addressed
- An overview presentation on cities, environmental change and health.
- A briefing about the Copenhagen Agenda for Sustainable Cities – 10 Principles for Sustainable City Governance for discussion and feedback. http://mm.dk/filer/10principles.pdf
- An interactive session to explore systems approaches.
- Opportunities to share practical and effective interventions in a diverse range of urban settings.
Relevance and Significance to the Conference
The way we live in cities is affecting the health of the environment as well as the health of people. This workshop will explore integrative approaches to urban health and sustainable cities – identifying shared concerns, new directions and opportunities for collaboration. The workshop will be of interest to public health workers, planners and other urbanists concerned about sustainable urban futures. |
Back to top
| C. |
EURO-URHIS: The Use and Abuse of Urban Health Indicators
Presenters
- Professor Dr Arnoud P Verhoeff, University of Amsterdam & Public Health Service Amsterdam
- Dr Arpana Verma, University of Manchester
Goals
To describe and debate the use and abuse of health indicator systems as applied to urban settings.
Topics
What is urban health and what are urban health indicators? What are the current urban health indicators systems in Europe and North America? Why do we need to collect data on urban health indicators and why are they important?
Urban health indicator systems are important for health gain in urban areas. Several systems are being developed and in use. We will discuss the use and abuse of urban health indicators through four presentations and small group discussions including how urban health indicators can inform evidence based urban health policy making.
Duration: 3 hours
Relevance to the Conference
All professionals interested in the development, use and implementation of health indicators will find this workshop useful. Urban health indicators are being developed in Europe and are well established in North America. We will debate how, why and what are the utility of collecting these data. |
Back to top
| D. |
City-to-City Learning: Strategies for Intersectoral Partnership Building that Encourage Crossing Boundaries
Presenters
- Gordon Feller: consultant - WHO; CEO - Urban Age Institute; editor - Urban Age Magazine; advisor - Cityscape (Dubai); advisor - UN Habitat’s World Urban Forum in China; board member - Cascadia Institute, Vancouver, BC.
- Charles Kelly: chairman - Canadian Public Affairs Consulting Group Inc.; chairman - The Cascadia Institute, Vancouver, BC; Special Advisor - Corporate Affairs, to the United Nations for EXPO2010 in Shanghai and for the World Urban Forum 4 in Nanjing 2008
Goals
To showcase the Urban Age Institute’s path-breaking research and partnership-building (which links academia, the private and public sector and independent non-profits), all focused on advancing an innovative urban health agenda
Specific Topics
The Urban Age Institute will use case studies that highlight their work with WHO, Metropolis, American Planning Association and other partners - and how they encourage the use of the "healthy cities" lens, with positive outcomes.
Duration: 3 hours
Relevance to the Conference
Conferees will be seeking out concrete examples and practical projects, already underway in various places around the world, which can be replicated by other cities. Each case presented will have: lessons ready-for-import; cautionary elements which may not transfer well. |
Back to top
| E. |
Media Literacy and Media Advocacy for Healthier Public Policy
Presenters
- Jim Frankish, Professor & Director, Centre for Population Health Promotion Research, University of British Columbia
- Michael Hayes, Associate Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
- Charles-Antoine Rouyer, BA, MES, Course director, York University, Freelance journalist, Health & Environment/Urban Health
Goals
Understanding the role of mass media in informing (or not?) the general public and decision-makers within a Healthy Public Policy making process, in a systems thinking framework.
Specific Topics
- Identify the different steps and issues involved in successful media advocacy.
- Identify key concepts and actions necessary for greater media literacy skills.
- Review Healthy Public Policy principles.
- Integrate the role of news media in the public policy process;
- Focus on specific case-studies, including issues of housing and homelessness.
Duration: 3 hours
Relevance to the Conference
Healthy Public Policy lies at the heart of the Healthy Cities/Healthy Communities approach, in the context of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, where the role of news media in multi-sectoral health promotion action is actually highlighted.
News media role is further underlined in the WHO Adelaide Recommendations on Healthy Public Policy: “Healthy public policy requires strong advocates who put health high on the agenda of policy-makers. This means fostering the work of advocacy groups and helping the media to interpret complex policy issues.”
This workshop will provide:
- Some background on healthy public policy process and the role of news media;
- Specifics on news media content analysis on health determinants coverage in the news media in Canada;
- An overview of the tools to access the news media “gate-keepers” and to better decode the news media messages.
|
Back to top
|
