Intersectoral Action Fund: Government of Canada helps to address health and social inequities

ISAF funded projects aim to address the root causes of long-standing community health challenges or those heightened by COVID-19, or implement activities that build on or advance intersectoral initiatives to expand their reach or impact. Below is a summary of the thirteen additional projects receiving funding from ISAF.

December 2023

In May 2021, the Public Health Agency of Canada opened its call for applications for the Intersectoral Action Fund (ISAF), which supports capacity strengthening in communities to advance intersectoral action on social determinants of health. This initiative supports the Government of Canada's commitment to addressing systemic health challenges and barriers through funding for communities to advance intersectoral action in ways that improve population health and reduce health inequities.

After the assessment process, fourteen projects received a total of $2.7M in 2021-22. These projects, based in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Prince Edward Island.

ISAF funded 13 additional projects from the original 2021 solicitation totalling $1.8 million. These projects are based in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia.

ISAF funded projects aim to address the root causes of long-standing community health challenges or those heightened by COVID-19, or implement activities that build on or advance intersectoral initiatives to expand their reach or impact.

Below is a summary of the thirteen additional projects receiving funding from ISAF:

Project name: Network alliance for community adaptation
Recipient: African Canadian Development and Prevention Network
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Funding: $136,959 over 12 months
Project Details: The Network Alliance for Community Adaptation (NACA) will bring together actors across various sectors such as social services, education, and social justice to report on how anti-Black racism contributes to the overrepresentation of Black children in the youth protection system. This project will explore how anti-Black racism is embedded in this pathway starting from why and how police and schools make referrals to youth protection, to how decisions are made, to how discrimination can create inequities in the system. This project aims to develop a social marketing campaign to promote cultural adaptation and community-institutional partnerships as a tool to leverage cultural expertise, combat anti-Black racism, share the findings of the Network and expand our adaptation and support services to new partners across various sectors. The NACA project will raise awareness about the problem through a social marketing campaign and through various knowledge sharing activities to influence policy.

Project name: Scarborough food network
Recipient: Agincourt Community Services Association
Location: Scarborough, Ontario
Funding: $102,527 over 12 months
Project Details: Agincourt Community Services Association (ACSA) will engage a diverse group of partners, including non-profits, local businesses, resident leaders, government, and educational institutions to form an intersectoral team to make up the Scarborough Food Network. The network aims to establish an integrated and sustainable food network in Scarborough that addresses food security, food literacy, reduces inequities in food access, and acts to promote healthy lifestyles. Scarborough Food Network will increase collaboration among various sectors, agencies and communities by fostering transformative partnerships, forming work groups that plan and facilitate community capacity and actions related to food insecurity, and enhancing the capacity of partners by improving knowledge and skills to address food insecurity effectively.

Project name: Partnerships for better housing
Recipient: Altered Minds Inc.
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba
Funding: $106,976 over 12 months
Project Details: The project's main goal is to identify priority areas for collective action in order to improve newcomer housing. This improvement is crucial as newcomer housing is a significant factor influencing both health and overall well-being. The project will work together with partners from various sectors, such as housing, health, employment, government, social services, legal, settlement, and social justice. The project will involve community members in creating a newcomer housing action plan. To do this, it will assess the needs of the community and work with partners to prioritize steps to address those needs. Different partner organizations will form groups to come up with solutions that involve multiple sectors working together. These groups will contribute to drafting sections of the community action plan. Additionally, the project aims to form new partnerships and strengthen existing ones in different sectors to advocate for and improve newcomer housing in Winnipeg. The main focus will be on making housing more affordable, improving its quality, promoting residential stability, and creating better opportunities within neighbourhoods.

Project name: Fostering intersectoral action for healthy communication around weight-related issues
Recipient: Association pour la santé publique du Québec
Location: Montreal, Quebec
Funding: $183,118 over 12 months
Project Details: This project's purpose is to continue the work begun by the Association pour la santé publique du Quebec (ASPQ) in spring 2021, with 50 stakeholders from diverse backgrounds. This mobilization has led to the development of guidelines and communication tools to address weight-related issues in Quebec in a healthy and inclusive way. The ASPQ will continue its intersectoral mobilization efforts by creating new discussion forums, such as a working group that includes partners in the health and education sectors. To better understand and consider the realities of people of different sizes who experience vulnerability regarding their weight and related health messages, a citizens' committee will be established and mobilized at each stage of the project. These two committees will make it possible to develop a shared, global vision of the experiences and interests of stakeholders, based on scientific and experiential knowledge. Once the project is completed, ASPQ will share the information gathered from its intersectoral public health communication approach. In collaboration with working groups and persons directly affected by weight-related issues, ASPQ will oversee, develop and carry out a social marketing plan targeting the clinical setting. The goal of the plan is to define a strategy and fatphobia-free messaging that will have a positive impact on public health and well-being.

Project Name: Delta Collaborates: Building an inclusive, healthy and just community
Recipient: City of Delta
Location: Delta, British Columbia
Amount: $79,297 over 12 months
Project Details: The Collaborate Delta project aims to build and enhance community capacity to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on immigrant and racialized residents in Delta. It aims to reduce systemic social and health inequities faced by these population groups, such as high poverty, food insecurity, discrimination, low job security and income rates, among others. Although Delta has a robust, collaborative infrastructure of community planning tables focusing on various community issues and populations, immigrant and racialized communities have not received enough attention. This project will use an intersectoral approach to collaborate with four community planning tables that specifically address the needs of racialized and immigrant populations. These tables will focus on children, youth and families, new immigrants, and seniors, covering topics like economic recovery, mental health and isolation, and combating racism. The project activities will build on the existing collaborative infrastructure in Delta to ensure that community recovery and strategic plans reflect the needs and perspectives of immigrant and racialized residents. Overall, the project aims to enhance community capacity to respond to these needs, generate new actions and partnerships, and explore a new model for community planning that improves population health and reduces health inequities.

Project Name: Greater Sudbury middle childhood partnership: Building intersectoral partnerships and community strategies to support the health and well-being of children aged 6 to 12 and their families
Recipient: City of Greater Sudbury
Location: Sudbury, Ontario
Funding: $145,399 over 12 months
Project Details: The project aims to establish a network of intersectoral partners whose organization is supporting families with children aged 6 to 12 years. The aim is to address the barriers that families are currently facing with a lack of coordinated services as their children transition from the well-supported "Early Years" phase to "Middle Childhood." Through this project, centralized community resources will be established that will include: ongoing evaluation and reporting on the developing needs of children aged 6 to 12 and their families; create an Advisory Committee to support ongoing community efforts; and develop training modules for those professionals working with children aged 6 to 12 years that addresses the target vulnerabilities identified from the community.

Project Name: Lloydminster social needs assessment and social policy framework
Recipient: City of Lloydminster
Location: Lloydminster, Saskatchewan/Alberta
Funding: $46,330 over 12 months
Project Details: This project aims to create an understanding of the needs and of residents in Lloydminster and create a pathway forward to address those needs through collective impact. First a social needs assessment of the City of Lloydminster will be completed to identify the needs of its residents. The social needs assessment will use various tools such as online/print surveys, facilitated interviews, and focus groups to widespread participation and inclusivity. The project will also develop an extensive marketing plan that promotes diverse representation. The expected outcomes of the project include the collection of data on community social needs and priorities, which will be published in a report accessible to all community serving groups for planning and grant applications. Using what is learned from the needs assessment, a social policy framework will be created, providing guidance to the City of Lloydminster on its role in addressing social issues and how to effectively partner with the community groups. The social policy framework will bring partners together for collective action and create leadership and working groups to leverage social capital. Training will be provided to community partners and a system for evaluation will be built into the framework to determine progress over time and provide opportunity for flexibility as new community issues arise.

Project Name: Culture as a social determinant of health: An assessment of the needs of newcomer African parents with children aged 0 to 12 in Toronto
Recipient: Early Childhood Development Initiative
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Funding: $213,583 over 12 months
Project Details: This community needs assessment aims to understand the needs of newcomer African immigrants as they navigate childcare, education, and healthcare services for their children. The project explores culture as a social determinant of health among newcomers from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Ghana. Individuals will share their lived experiences, identify their needs, pinpoint any cultural barriers that hinder their access to obtaining services for their children, and explore the links to parental health and wellness. A total of 580 individuals will be involved in completing surveys and/or engaged in 12 community consultation meetings, in English, French, Amharic and Somali. Collaboration will be built between the project team, Toronto Public Health, Toronto Children's Services, and the African Canadian Social Development Council. Community elders will be engaged for community trust-building, to support the design of the consultation activities and selection of appropriate consultation meeting locations. They will also participate in interpreting the data, publicizing the project findings, and conducting advocacy activities to support cultural safety in the delivery of the identified services and promote equitable health outcomes.

Project Name: The intersectoral collaboration for sustainable housing, income, and health intersectoral collaborations for sustainable housing, income and health supports on release from provincial incarceration: Challenges and opportunities following Nova Scotia's COVID-19 rapid decarceration
Recipient: Elizabeth Fry Society of Halifax
Location: Dartmouth, Nova Scotia
Funding: $143,414 over 12 months
Project Details: This project aims to establish a foundation for coordinating systems to improve access to housing and income/healthcare support for individuals released from Nova Scotia's provincial correctional facilities. The project will evaluate and consolidate strategic action plans by involving representatives of justice, community services, health, government, civil society sectors, and individuals with lived experience of incarceration. Through conversations and recommendations, captured in a Community Action Plan, the project seeks to learn from successful decarceration efforts and address common challenges in post-COVID-19 community recovery. This project will deepen and sustain intersectoral initiatives by promoting discussion to identify barriers, facilitators, and priority actions for promoting equitable access to person-centred housing, income, and healthcare support during the bail and release process. The project will not only enhance readiness for future emergencies but also promote sustainable decarceration through equitable access to the social determinants of health.

Project name: From evidence to action: Building capacity to take action on social determinants of health and well-being of diverse young people in British Columbia
Recipient: Foundry, St Paul's Foundation of Vancouver
Location: Vancouver, British Columbia
Funding: $216,540 over 12 months
Project Details: Foundry is an integrated youth services (IYS) initiative for youth ages 12 to 24 and their families/caregivers throughout British Columbia. Foundry's mandate is to provide early intervention, remove barriers, and improve care pathways for youth through five core service streams: physical and sexual health, mental health, substance use, peer support and social services. The project objectives are to create and implement a linked data initiative to gain a deeper understanding of how social determinants of health, mental health, and substance use are interconnected throughout a person's life. The data created will enhance the Foundry's capacity to conduct sophisticated data analyses, including predictive modelling and life-course trajectories; and to establish the capacity to swiftly and effectively apply research findings to influence policies and practices through collaborative partnerships across various sectors.

Project Name: Health equity and ecosystem development (HEED)
Recipient: London Intercommunity Health Centre
Location: London, Ontario
Funding: $182,620 over 12 months
Project Details: Health Equity and Ecosystem Development (HEED) will act as a bridge between healthcare services, community-based support, and community members. By engaging people with lived/living experience and stakeholders from various sectors, HEED will improve equitable access to health services for marginalized populations in London. The focus will be on engaging people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity, individuals using drugs and experiencing stigma, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples, and those living with complex mental health needs. These individuals and groups will be supported through a safe and accessible engagement strategy, ensuring representation across target populations and relevant sectors who are often excluded from mainstream health service planning, delivery, and evaluation. Specifically, this project will work collaboratively with individuals with lived/living experience to identify gaps in hospital services and barriers to access. HEED's focus will be on improving access to health services, social support, coping skills, and addressing culture as determinants of health that impacts the health outcomes of the target populations. The project will lead this work through the lenses of harm reduction, trauma & violence-informed care, and cultural safety to improve institutional: policy, education/capacity-building and clinical pathways.

Project name: A newcomer journey in local healthcare
Recipient: REP Here In Canada
Location: Victoria, British Columbia
Funding: $75,700 over 12 months
Project Details: REP Here in Canada will engage newcomers to Canada who have used or tried to access healthcare in the Capital Regional District (CDR). Data. Lived experiences will be gathered from participants through surveys, community-based dialogues, and one-on-one interviews. The project aims to include various intersectionalities, such as race, racial identity, gender identity, expression, and sexual orientation. It will operate ethically, respecting the stories and experiences of all participants. These narratives will then be used to create composite stories as an approach which acknowledges individual complexities while also extracting broader insights and understanding. The project amplifies underrepresented voices in our communities in order to better inform the delivery and accessibility of healthcare services in the CRD.

Project Name: Elkstwéwc ne tmicw: Collectively implementing indigenous food sovereignty
Recipient: Tk'emlups te Secwepemc
Location: Kamloops, British Columbia
Funding: $166,316 over 12 months
Project Details: This project aims to foster collaboration among departments and partners to create an Indigenous collective impact process. The process will identify priority initiatives related to food sovereignty for Tk'emlups te Secwepemc members. The project will result in a stronger and larger network of partners, an evaluation plan and a theory of change to advance Indigenous Food Security. Additionally, a Food Sovereignty Implementation Plan specific to the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc community will be developed. The primary goal of this project is to take action towards implementing food sovereignty for Tk'emlups te Secwepemc members. The plan, Elkstwéwc ne tmicw (Working Together for the Land), outlines key areas of focus, including community food security, social and economic development, food sovereignty education, and decolonizing food policy and governance.