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Spring 2008 | Vol 11 No 3

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Sheila Lacroix

Tools for inclusive health promotion

Here are some web-based tools and guides to assist you in tailoring health messages and programs for ethnically diverse communities.

Culture Counts (CAMH)
Visit the CAMH website for a look at the Culture Counts resources. See the Project Background and Description page for links to the various resources, including the full text of the best practices manual Culture Counts: A Roadmap to Health Promotion. The strategies in the manual, such as “work with community partners” and “translate and adapt” emerged from earlier work, studying readiness and needs of seven ethnocultural communities. As a part of the Culture Counts initiative, culturally sensitive public information materials relating to alcohol, identified as a need within the communities, have been developed or adapted from existing resources (see links). This process will undoubtedly continue to encompass other drug and mental health–related issues.

Count Me In! (OPC)
The Ontario Prevention Clearinghouse (OPC) offers Count Me In! Tools for an Inclusive Ontario, published in 2005 and funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Laidlaw Foundation. It supports a project called Developing a Social and Economic Inclusion Toolkit for Ontario Communities. A practical workbook enables you to work through a framework based on four basic questions: Who? (your group and specific factors that influence your group); What? (determinants of health); Where? (ways to measure belonging) and How? (strategies and targets to promote inclusion). Examples are provided that clarify the process. There is a web site specifically for this program, www.count-me-in.ca, which has links to additional resources and information about forums on inclusion and engagement.